Well Fellers...

over the last four days, i've exercised my emergency power system pretty thoroughly.  This last storm's aggressive winds and ice took down five utility poles in one string two miles south, broke off a sixth one a mile down.  Drifting snow swallowed up the road in the area of the five down, totally covering them in several places.  Utility men couldn't get to them 'cause the road was drifted in good, and the county wouldn't take a machine in there 'cause there were lines down... it was an interesting pickle.

In the meantime, off in the distance was the steadfast, gentle grumble of a 331 cubic inch inline-six sipping propane gas, and filling my home with happiness of light and warmth.

truth be told, it wasn't eventless... amidst the winds and galloping wires, there were plenty of blips and snaps... which is not good for some kinds of machines.  I lost a network switch, a sump pump motor, and very possibly a refrigerator (jury is still out).

The big red machine was 'contracted' by Consolidated Diesel Electric, it's really a re-badged KATO that was fitted with a stupid overburdon of protective pinball-machine technology for a brainless government contract.  I stripped off the crap, whittled it down to something that'll actually WORK.  It has a Hercules JXLD driving a Kato dynamo.  Engine is magneto ignition, an Impco-clone mixer, a Garrettson KN demand regulator, a 3/4" pipe and hand valve, fed by a 10psi to 11"w.c. regulator outside the shed wall, with a 10psi copper feeder coming from a pair of 1000-gallon tanks.  Governance is done by TWO gadgets... a mechanical Hoof-Pierce driven by a dedicated belt off one groove of the front sheave... then there's a Woodward APECS electronic (PID type) unit that measures engine speed by 'listening' to the pitch of ring-gear teeth through a reluctance coil in the bellhousing.  the Hoof-Pierce is set to run it in the general vicinity, and the APECs puts it within a half hz of 60... I did this so it'll start with crank, run with no battery power, and build itself back up... and once it had enough power, it'd improve it's stability.

It burns about 2 gallons of propane an hour when I'm running a 'typical' house load plus kitchen stove, or dishwasher, or laundry.  When I need it, it'll pull up to 50kw, but mostly, it sees no more than 15kw, with motor start surges blipping it every so often.

Once that's all done, I switch over to a much smaller Kohler liquid cooled four cylinder 7.5kw unit of early 60's vintage, it's fed by it's OEM dual-fuel arrangement, using identical pipe, feeder, and hand valve arrangement, from same pipe as feeding the Big Red machine.  It pulls about a half-gallon of propane an hour under the lightest load I can get.  With furnace and refrigerators, it goes to about two-thirds a gallon per hour, and at max load, a gallon and a quarter.

I have a third unit... currently a 15kw three-phase machine, that I can bring on line, I usually use it for testing machine tools on 3-ph before converting them to run on single, but I can start this one and feed the house with two of the three legs for 10kw, but I rarely do.  It runs on propane as well.

All three machines have two mufflers in series, separated by about eight feet of pipe, then exhaust out through the wall of my generator shed.  The shed has ample ventilation, has emergency lighting so that it's easy to get to, and work on, when conditions are really, really bad.

There's a half-dozen 4D truck batteries in there, on float chargers, that I can use to start either generator, and another that powers the emergency lighting. 

Suffice to say, when I want electricity, I can make it, and I have plenty of options.  I've had lots of people make incredibly uneducated comments about my setup, but with this ice storm, I certainly got my money and time's worth out of it. 

I'm gonna have to save up for a whole house power unit with auto transfer.  I have nat gas so it shouldn't be too expensive to run. 

Do you have a load tester or access to one?  At work they would bring one in every few years to make the generators put out max for a few hours.  We had two, the biggest was only 45kw.  The smaller one had a John Deere engine on it and I was always worried about it failing!  It ran the Doppler Radar and I was really surprised that it held up.  We had to put a new turbo on it once, but other than that is was just routine service.  There were two 500 gallon tanks sitting beside it so the building was the secondary containment.  The threshold was about 18" high going into the building.  The main one had a 1000 gallon diesel Convault tank.  Oddest thing I had ever seen when we got that.  I had never seen a concrete tank before. 

They both ran to UPS units so we never lost power, even at switch over.  The batteries were changed out every 3 to 4 years, so I always had plenty of batteries around the house and so did all my friends!

An interesting part of my job.  They ran automatically once a week and once a month we would switch the load onto them for a couple hours.

Anyone got any recommendations for a whole house unit?

 Hey Dave Kamp,,,sounds like you gots every tangent covered with all your systems,,,,you must be like me as we cannot seem to get the gas company to invest in a Nat gas line to service our side of the county road. I have been down the road talkin to all the neighbors on my side of the road to agree to tie into the proposed Nat gas line IF the gasco will install it,,,,but most I've gotten to agree is 2 of us from the 10 on this side of the road,,,,,dang,,,dang,,,,!!! Propane here is so dang much more expensive than Nat gas even tho it is produced it right here in town,,!! Them dang distributors is getttin rich off us,,,,,!!!!

John-  a 'whole house' unit...

There's lots of options, and lots of features... and there's a whole host of 'gotchas that come along with selecting something appropriate and sensible.

Joe's note about NG, and your note about Diesel, are an important point:  choice of fuel is something one needs to be very, very concious of.

Unless one has a stack of high-pressure flasks and an LNG delivery truck, Natural gas comes in via pipeline.  In most cases, NG coming in is a fairly reliable source of fuel for an emergency generator... unless you live in a siesmic zone... or areas where prairie fires blast through.  There's emergency shutdowns in NG distribution lines that close off flow when there's disasters... to protect against explosions and fires where piping may be slightly damaged.  (in serious damage, excess-flow valves in mains and distribution branches detect when there's way too much flow, and shut the flow off).    Aside from that, NG IS subject to variation in fuel quality, and when there's work done on lines, air bubbles can appear which will stall out a generator, furnace, etc., and make it very difficult to start until the line has been 'purged'.  Finally, the BTU output of NG is the lowest of common fuels, so one must lower their power expectations, and spend a little time making tuning adjustments to get the best results. Aside from those factors, it's a great fuel source that, as long as the line isn't shut down, is endless.

Propane is what suits my situation best- my furnace and water heater burn propane, and there's an extra 1000-gallon tank tied to the house tank (originally fueled two grain drying bins)... so I've got 1600 gallons of fuel capacity... when full, that's a WHOLE LOTTA run time for ANY of my generators.  Propane is a byproduct of petroleum production, which means that when refineries are creating lots of gasoline, diesel, etc., there will be a large volume of propane that needs a marketplace.  As a result, the price is very inexpensive when there's lots of refining, but not much propane demand.  Next... it's basically 'pure'... there's no 'formulation'... it's C3H8, with a little bit of odorant added so you can smell a leak.  It produces a fair share more BTU per volume than NG...  but not quite as much as say... gasoline.  There is no storage degradation with Propane- leave it in that bottle for 500 years, and it'll be just as good as the day it went in.  

Next is gasoline, and it's readily available just about anywhere, any time, as long as, of course, the power at your local filling station is not out.  Many folks carry it in 5 gallon cans, but in rural environments, an elevated or ground-mounted tank works.  i've also used a 100-gallon boat fuel tank placed inside a trailer, filled it at the station, and then used a transfer pump to fill a 'nurse tank' for a generator.  Gasoline comes in grades, and has a rather limited shelf-life.  If there's ethanol in it, it will absorb moisture out of the air, and make the fuel pretty funky.  It is easier to handle (in terms of transportation) than Propane.

then there's Diesel fuel.  It has MORE thermal energy (BTU) per volume than Gasoline, and diesel engines have a capacity of higher thermodynamic efficiency than a spark-ignition liquid or gaseous engine... and Diesel is generally very safe to store, will not explode if leaks.  Unfortunately, in the winter, Diesel requires substantial attention in order to get it warm enough to flow into a generator.

The other disadvantage, is that spark-ignited NG, Propane, and Gasoline engines can be fitted up to use multiple fuels.  it takes a little adjustment usually to make a switch, but there's more flexibility.  You WON'T be running a diesel on gasoline, propane or NG very easily... and Diesel (particularly if it's biodiesel) will produce some pretty awesome gack in the fuel filters.

Now, picking a 'whole house'...

that's a very 'relative' term.  MY house is all LED-illumination, and I have it set up so that my most-critical-circuits (well, sump pumps, refrigerators, basic lighting, furnace, etc) are on dedicated feeders that transfer independantly of the NON-critical loads (like air compressor, Air Conditioning condenser/compressor, machine tools, big shop and yard lighting, etc.).

A generator needs to be sized appropriate for the 'continuous' load you expect to pull, and enough additional size to pull the 'start surge' for any heavy (motorized) loads you expect will need to run.

A generator must not be sized 'too big'.  EVERY generator has what's called a 'base fuel consumption'... that's what it burns just to run at NO LOAD.  The engine is moving cooling air, operating it's valves, gears, pistons and rods... spinning the generator armature and it's cooling fan... that all takes fuel, even when NO electricity is being generated.  Next... the generator needs to generate a LITTLE bit of power just to create the magnetic field (excitation) that makes it capable of generating output power.

The rule is very simple-  BIG generators have a HIGH base fuel consumption.  Small generators have a small base consumption.  Once you have either one running, you NEED to put a load on it to get any sort of efficiency... it's like owning a business, and being open...  If you owned say... a bicycle shop, you'd have a staff hired, lights and air conditioning, and those bills appear even if your doors are NEVER open... so the more you can keep those doors open, and carry product out the door, the more effiicient your business is.  Generators are the same way... so:

Don't buy a 1200w generator and expect it to be able to run your 'whole house', unless your 'whole house' has been stripped down to just 10 6w LED lamps and a common refrigerator/freezer with 600w compressor.  Don't buy a 90kw generator to run those 10 6w lamps and a 600w refrigerator.

IF your house living loads are high during certain (laundry, cooking, air conditioning, etc) times, and extremely low on others, switch between two generators.  ;-)

Build a shed, elevate it enough so flooding, ground moisture, etc, won't rot the floor.  install good ventilation that keeps weather and varmints out, and bring in a sensible fuel supply.  Trench at least two conduits from the shed to the vicinity of your main panel.  Add 12vdc lighting on a switch, and put a float charger on a timer, on the battery.  Use lots of battery capacity... if the 'oem' battery was a lawn-and-garden, go to a Group 27... or two of 'em, in parallel... so you  know that you'll ALWAYS have plenty of battery power.  Add an easily-startable heating system that will run without power (or on batteries) enough to warm up the shed to assist getting started in extreme cold, and/or perform repairs when there's real problems and bad weather/darkness going on.

Air cooled generators are usually NOT heavy duty... and they're noisy, even when well-shrouded.    When not being used, mice love to build nests inside the cowlings.  Usually, these are equipped with 2-pole generators, which means that the generator armature must spin at 3600rpm in order to create 60hz output.

Liquid cooled engines are quieter.  Frequently their generators are wound with 4-pole sequence (making it a 1800rpm generator) or 6 pole (1200rpm).  Running slower makes it particularly nicely quiet.

Whole house generators from big box stores are not only air-cooled screamers, they're out in the weather, and difficult to maintain in comparison to say... sitting down at a stool in my generator shed.

Fancy generators have fancy engine controls.  This means several things-  first, it means you don't really have to be involved in the maintenance of your generator (bad), it also means that when the processor board controlling the generator's operation gets cooked by a downed wire or lightning strike, the generator is unable to pick up any load.

It is for this reason that I prefer the old relay-based (antique) controller concept of 'operator start, operator watch' philosophy.  it means you're not there, looking at the sight glass to determine oil levels and watch for governor problems.

As I noted above- ALL my generators will start generating with a totally dead battery... just step on the crank a couple times, and they'll start.  Probably not gonna find that on a Diesel, as they take a bit more donkey to spin it past TDC by hand.

IF you want a whole-house unit...

IF you live in an area that tends to get cold in winter...

IF your house has hydronic heat...

Go with a liquid cooled unit, run it off of the best fuel choice for your locality and prevailing circumstances, and get it installed in a shed you can stand up in, and work in.  Tap into the cooling system, and use that 'waste heat' to heat the house, the garage floor, etc.,, so you get double-duty from the fuel you're burning.

Test loads... load testing... load bank...

It's not a mandatory thing to do regular load testing, but it's a good idea to understand how it can be done, and why you'd wanna do it every so often. 

When I do load testing, I don't use a fancy, expensive, made-for-purpose device.  I use 'indigenous ancillary resources'.  simple old portable electric heaters and a clamp-on ammeter work nicely.  It doesn't take too many electric space heaters to put a heckuva hurt on a generating plant, and they're generally predictable with respect to their nameplate ratings, and usually, they've got switchable ranges, so you can 'step through' different loads.

 

 

PTO generators on tractors are handy solutions when you need to put a whole lotta power somewhere remote, for a short period of time... like... a grain bin that lost it's utility connection, and you need to get it up and running for an unload fast.

Using it to power a farm is possible, but has some detractions... first, because you're running the tractor engine through PTO gearboxes, shafts, and then a step-up gearbox, there's lots of mechanical efficiency loss, so they chew up substantially more fuel than a normal generator.  Next is that the governor on a tractor is a whole lot less precise than the governor on a generating plant...  you could see anywhere from 48 to 70hz under load variations where an 'average' generator will be from 57-63hz... and a 'tight' one would be 59-61...

...and of course, you'd have to have it in a good position and ready-to-hook-up when an outage occurs.  Frequently, guys park 'em in the weeds and throw a plastic tote over top for protection, so they're often not-well-maintained... but I've used 'em in the field (frequently, powering a welder, grinder, and lights)... so they have more-than-one use.

IMO, the best 'bang for buck' is a Kohler or Onan liquid cooled stationary unit from the 40's through the 60's... not hard to find, easy to work on, and will start with hand-crank... and then fit it up for your choice of spark-ignited fuel(s).

Wide-

When I was on a dynomometer, I could pedal out 580w for 12 seconds... and hold down 260w for 4 minutes before passing out.

Here's olympic track cyclist Robert Forstemann pulling the 700w resistive load of an ordinary toaster for one minute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4O5voOCqAQ" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4O5voOCqAQ

It's important when considering emergency power, to realize not just how much power one uses, but also, HOW that load appears on the line.  I have TWO 1/3hp sump pumps, and one 1/10hp pump.  The 1/3hp Zoller M85 pulls about 9A to run, but peaks at 17 or so when STARTING... and it runs for about 7 seconds.  the 1/10hp pump pulls about 3.5A, and runs for about a minute and a half.

if you do the math, you'll see that the smaller pump is asking more power overall (less, but for incredibly longer time), but in actuality, the smaller pump puts a substantially lighter load on the generator.

What's most important, is going through the house and determining what is REALLY critical, and what is comfort, and what is totally unnecessary in an emergency... and shedding AS MUCH unnecessary load as you possibly can.

It's big enough to run everything normally except the A/C and dryer, or the air and dryer with everything else off. Worthwhile trade as far as I could see for lower purchase price/base operating cost.

Yep, those systems are 'clean looking' installs.  The electronics are a weak spot... the other one (which I had to 'look out for' for my neighbor)  was that drifting snow piles up over them... and if they start when covered, will overheat downright immediately.  One way to contend with this, is to put it in a 3-sided  covered shelter, with air gap underneath...  wind will blow through, but it'll be moving fast enough so that it won't be as likely to drift over.  (I still like mine enclosed in a room that I can work on them when it's ugly...)

Backfeeding IS dangerous... generally illegal, etc., but I won't throw stones at anyone for doing what they HAVE to do to keep their home and family safe, AS LONG AS they recognize the danger, and very INTIMATELY lock-tag out the main feeders, so linemen don't get killed.

Proper transfer switches are expensive to buy and install... but an economical, safe, and LEGAL way of doing rapid transfer, is to install a BREAKER INTERLOCK KIT, and a dedicated backfeed breaker.  Here's how it works:

You install a circuit breaker who's purpose is to provide feed INTO your breaker panel from your generator.  Wiring to this breaker can be as simple as a range cord to your generator.

A sliding plate, installed on the breaker panel, blocks your generator breaker anytime the MAIN breaker is ON.  When the GENERATOR is engaged, that same plate prevents the MAN from being thrown.  The plate, therefore, provides exclusive interlock.  One of the issues with this concept,  however, is that it doesn't limit what load your generator could wind up pulling... you could easily overload a small generator, so one must turn off breakers to all devices that are unnecessary.

Another way, is to install a totally separate system of outlets for your generator... it consists of installing receptacles alongside your furnace, refrigerator, sump pump... and wiring them all to a small breaker panel, with a stout extension cord that plugs into your generator.  When your power goes out, start the generator, then go to each item, and unplug them from the 'regular' outlet, and move it to the 'emergency' outlet.  This means your emergency power system is totally isolated from the house.  There's several advantages here... cost (fairly inexpensive) simplicity (easy for anyone to understand) and finally... the ONLY loads it services, are those which you've installed receptacles for, so you won't accidentally overload anything.

"Big box" home-type systems frequently come with an 'emergency subpanel'... it's a gadget you mount alongside your existing breaker panel.  You pick the circuits that NEED to be powered in an emergency, and you move those to the E-panel.  Then you feed from the main panel to the E-panel.  When power goes out, the generator ONLY connects those circuits that are on the E-panel- everything else is isolated, as is the main power service.

The biggest, is just a straight transfer switch.  It goes downstream of the meter, but upstream of the utility panel.  Most are automatic (when power is out, it switches to generator, and when power is back, it switches to utility).  Code generally requires that ALL CONTACTS of the transfer switch must be rated to carry full current of the utility feeder, regardless of what the panel or your house demand will be...  so, as an abitrary (and somewhat extreme example) if you've got a 50A breaker on your house panel, and a 20A generator, and the power service and meter are 450A, you MUST use a 450A transfer switch.  USUALLY, though, there's an EXCEPTION...   IF you have a fuseable disconnect switch after the meter, but before the transfer switch, the switch need only be rated for the fuse limit.  So you have the 450A feeder going to a 50A switch, now your transfer switch only needs to be 50A.

I'll tell you the future here: Someday, what will happen, is that house circuit panels will have the bottom third-or-so of the busbars SEPARATED from the top, and there'll be a double-pole, double throw contactor with auxiliary feed.  When you wire your home, you'll connect everything normally, EXCEPT that your 'critical circuits' will be connected to breakers in the BOTTOM of the panel.  You'll wire your emergency power source (generator, inverter, whatever) to the auxiliary feed.  Also included will be a pair of current/voltage sensor modules (one on each leg of your supply) and a simple circuit that is used to signal a generator to start.  When power goes out, a pair of contacts will close to signal a power fail condition.  the generator will be given a 'go' signal...

(Let's see if Square-D, Siemens, GE, etc are listening...

Favorite tractor on it is D15 gas.  Sounds so nice running it. Gen & D15 are hitched in shed waiting to go. Also comes in handy at old building sights to run bins for unloading instead of paying monthly minimum to have power for a few days each year.

Proper transfer switches are expensive to buy and install... but an economical, safe, and LEGAL way of doing rapid transfer, is to install a BREAKER INTERLOCK KIT, and a dedicated backfeed breaker.  Here's how it works:

You install a circuit breaker who's purpose is to provide feed INTO your breaker panel from your generator.  Wiring to this breaker can be as simple as a range cord to your generator.

A sliding plate, installed on the breaker panel, blocks your generator breaker anytime the MAIN breaker is ON.  When the GENERATOR is engaged, that same plate prevents the MAN from being thrown.  The plate, therefore, provides exclusive interlock.  One of the issues with this concept,  however, is that it doesn't limit what load your generator could wind up pulling... you could easily overload a small generator, so one must turn off breakers to all devices that are unnecessary.

This is a very economical way to go.  My service is square D.  Square D markets a lock out expressly for this.

This is Phase Change physics.  Propane wants to evaporate at any temperature above -44F.  The RATE at which it evaporates, is a function of surface area and constrainted pressure.

Remember High School physics... at sea level, water BOILS at 212F, but at 5800ft, it boils at 200F, and at 10,000ft, it's only 193 degrees.  The reason, is that AMBIENT PRESSURE at 10,000ft is LOWER.

Also remember that while it's not hot enough to boil, if you pour water on a sidewalk on a sunny, 90F day... it won't be there but a few minutes.  This is because the ambient air is dry enough to accept that moisture readily... but if you put it on that same sidewalk in a small glass, it'll take all day, and only half the glass will be gone... this is because there's only LIMITED SURFACE AREA for the water to evaporate.

Finally, when you pour water on your skin, and it evaporates, your body looses heat.  This is because the water is conducting that heat away, and as it evaporates, takes the heat with it.

Propane is no different in respect of evaporation... a small evaporation surface, high ambient pressure both restrict fuel volume.

One important thing to note:  Gasoline does exactly the same way, and not only that... LIQUID gasoline WILL NOT BURN... the liquid cannot mix with oxygen and burn- it must be evaporated to mix with oxygen.  This occurs either in the carbeurator venturi, or in the intake manifold, or both... but frequently... NEITHER... frequently, gasoline droplets fail to evaporate, they go into the combustion chamber, and come out the tailpipe.  The CHOKE exists to force much more liquid in, in hopes of getting enough vapor to make the engine run.  This is also ONE of the reasons CARB HEAT is necessary to make an engine start and warm properly (the other is manifold ice, which is in another classroom).

Propane is delivered to devices in either gaseous, or liquid form... and it is delivered basically always... by virtue of it's vapor pressure... it WANTS to escape, so the plumbing is made to do it on it's own... but regardless of HOW it's delivered, it's only USED one way:  As a gas.

In a gaseous withdrawl system, evaporated propane is pushed (by vapor pressure) out a port in the TOP of the tank. In a liquid withdrawl system, propane is pushed out (again, by vapor pressure) through a pickup tube in the BOTTOM of the tank.

The only difference after that, is that the liquid withdrawl system MUST be fitted with a way for the propane to evaporate... and the rate at which it does, is a function of surface area, pressure change, and ambient heat.  SINCE evaporation CHILLS the vicinity (the medium is accepting heat in order to change phase and expand), there's either gotta be a large surface area, or concentrated heat, in order to make that expansion.

Suffice to say that if you're trying to power a big engine off a small tank, using gaseous withdrawl, you could be at 70F, with a 20lb can, and a 300hp engine... you'll get the engine started, and after a minute or two, the engine will starve for fuel and stall... and your 20lb can will be covered in frost.  Fuel demand has exceeded evaporation rate of that surface area.  Repeat the test with a 1000-gallon tank, and it'll be fine, even at -30F.

I have two tanks... they're 1000-gallons each... and they're plumbed in series... I fill the #2 tank, which flows into #1 tank... and then I pull vapor off the #1 to run the engines.  At -33F, it pulled gaseous fuel and ran my 339ci beastie with NO problems.  Why?  Because even if the fuel is at 2psi, the first-stage regulator limits tank pressure from whatever it is (204psi at 110F) on to the second stage (11" w.c. regulator) unaffected.

The first and second stage regulators are simply PRESSURE LIMITING valves... When you get below -26, that first stage reguator does nothing- it just passes whatever's coming in.

The engine only needs 11" w.c. to run.  To reach that vapor pressure, propane needs to be below -44F... and since it's a 1000gallon tank, it'd need to be that way for a LONG, LONG, LONG time.  Paint the tank black, and put it in the sunshine, it'll NEVER get there. Dig a divot in the snow under the tank, drop a can of STERNO down there, and it'll flow just fine.

Regulators don't freeze... EVAPORATORS freeze... and they freeze because they aren't getting enough extra heat to prevent the concentrated evaporation point from dropping way-too-low-to-work.  Since the engine is the most common source for evap heat, it's best to let it warm a bit before putting a load on.  The other solution, is simply to have a large enough tank to get sufficient gaseous evaporation, and large enough fuel line volume, so that a liquid-withdrawl evaporation system is not required.

  Hey Dave Kamp,,,,Very informative and interesting reading,,,how come you didn't go get hired as a college professor and make loads of them dollars they handing out,,,,

   Sterno under a propane tank tho,,?????

 I only remember one time going thru a really cold spell down here to consider wrapping our small 200 gallon tank with electric heat tape,,,what are your thoughts on that,,,??? 

Electric heat tape works... if you can get it electricity, and enough heat. 

A magnetic engine block heater will do, too... if it's a 500w electric, you can put two in series to cut voltage in half, and spread out the surface, but really, Joe... it doesn't get cold 'nuff for long'nuff.  A 500 gallon propane tank will evap enough at -33F to run a 20hp air-cooled generator.

Sterno underneath... yeah, plenty of guys will say 'that's dangerous'... fact is... that at -30F,  tank will absorb heat so fast, that a CUTTING TORCH won't be able to burn through it. A Sterno can won't do it.

Want the OTHER (home-economist) answer?  Tear off a 1" x 6" strip out'a your old cotton underwear, and hang it in a soup can after you've poured in your morning bacon grease.

once it sets up, light it.  it's a wick.  Bacon grease is the fuel.   

For a great-smelling candle, cut a string from a cotton mop... smaller wick = smaller flame.

desertjoe wrote: how come you didn't go get hired as a college professor and make loads of them dollars they handing out,

Well... I've taught college classes... but I taught a whole lot more at railroads and technical facilities.  My experience has been that most colleges are not interested in professors who teach practical science, applied physics, or concordant technological history.  I'm not the kind of guy who will stand in front of a class for purpose of sociopolitical indoctrination.  I'm a pragmatic polymath, not a tool.

So yesterday I swung into town to pick up a drafting table from a building that USED to be a junior high school, now it's used for administration. 

The short story, is that about ten years ago, the district wanted to close the school, and move the 7-9th grade students to the local high schools (10-12).  The reasoning was unsound, because this school was fully attended, and the high schools were overloaded, but the District said the building was old and needed REALLY expensive repairs... Exorbitant repairs.  Wound up calling a referendum for it.

Short answer was that the taxpayers disagreed on the move plan, and instead, accepted the renovation costs to clear out asbestos, replace all the windows, add networking, security cameras, air conditioning, and an elevator to a building that was extremely well built in 1935, and added onto in 54 and 77.  Amidst that renovation, they also did LOTS of pointless landscaping (big stone pillars with signs all around) and huge fences, fancy patterned and dyed concrete, cut down the 30 year old oak tree, and the 150 year old oak tree, and planted two locust trees and some arborvitae.

On the south side of the building is a big backup generating plant.

So where's this story leading?

Simple.

The generator is a 750KVA machine.  It has essentially a locomotive engine... 1300hp or so... driving a big generator.  It's 38ft long, 11ft wide, and 12ft tall, sitting on a concrete base a foot off the ground.  There's a huge transfer switch, and two power transformers sitting on the base about 30' to one side, and under the machine is a fuel-oil tank that's every bit of 3000 gallons.

What they did here, was not only foolish, it was a blatant insult to the taxpayer.

When setting up a backup generator, it's good to have lots of capacity, but it's most-important to do a true 'emergency energy budget'.

---Take an inventory of the 'bare minimum' of what you'll need to run when the power goes out.  Sump pumps, furnaces are critical.  Well pumps, sewage lift pumps, and emergency lighting.  Basically, whatever it takes to keep alive people and livestock alive, and minimize the loss of buildings, property, and active processes (like a greenhouse).  Consider some for keeping refrigerated/frozen foods secure... but keep in mind that a refrigerator or freezer, with the door closed, will go a LONG TIME without needed power, as long as you leave the door shut.

Build your backup system around THAT budget.

This building has two sump pumps, one boiler system, emergency lights, and half a dozen computers that, if the power were to go out, it would be fine.  For this building, that comes to about 50kw.

Putting the 750Kw out there, assured that if they ever NEEDED emergency power, that the fuel cost JUST TO RUN, exceeded the value of all losses if there were no power.  Empty the refrigerators, lose all the data files newer than most recent backup... guide the kids out, and lock the doors for a day... pump out the basement, clean up the mess, and replace the electronci controls.

Why did they put 750?  For the same reason they did all the fancy landscaping, patterned concrete, extra pork... they needed the price to be so exorbitant, that the taxpayers would WANT to accept the move.

They went to a contractor, told them to bid on a complete automatic backup system, that would carry the entire full operating load of the building, under WORST possible circumstances.

Nevermind the fact that... just sitting there, and exercising it, costs more money than the damage recover costs relegate.

As 'public entities', the people that did this, did it using Other People's Money, as a form of punishment and oppression onto the taxpayer.

As individuals, we cannot arbitrarily do the stupid things that elected, appointed, and hired public administrators do... we have to exercise economic sensibility.  We have to have a viable plan which yields a sensible balance of resources against genuine need.  This means determining what I refer to as 'Minimum Peak Load'... the peak load of the absolute minimum of what you need to limit damage and loss noted above.

Limit the lighting.  Adding up all the high-bay and outdoor illumination, My house and farmstead has somewhere in the vicinity of 6500w of lighting.  It USED to be much higher, but I've converted ALL the house to LED, and one big driveway floodlight... now it's 3800w or so... but MOST of that, is the merc-vapor bay lights in the barns and driveways.  The total house lighting... everything on... is 1000w... but when I'm on emergency power, I only use small lights in strategic places around the house.  My total emergency lighting load in emergency state, is only 140w.  With that, I can walk to any place in the house or garage, with sufficient illumination to carry out maintenance tasks, and wait out a storm... and more often than not, I have all but a few of those lights on.  That means I can run those lights on a car battery and a cheap inverter.

Sequester unnecessary loads.  Don't run laundry, dishwasher, air compressor, hair dryer, electric heaters, vacuum cleaners, arc welders, rock crushers, centrifuges, or other things that are really hungry.  This can be done by just exercising restraint and turning things off... but another way, is to step up to your breaker panel with red, yellow and green stickers, and mark each breaker with a color... green being always on... yellow meaning 'only if absolutely necessary', and red being NEVER... when on emergency power.  Still another way, is to have emergency loads on a dedicated panel that your generator feeds... everything else is powered only when utility is available.

Plan ahead... simple choices can have a profound impact on how an outage affects your life. 

For example:  A single refrigerator-freezer, will outlast a separate fridge and chest-freezer when power is out.  The frozen foods serve as an excellent chiller for refrigerated foods, whereas the separated unit refrigerator will rise in temperature faster, and cause earlier spoil.  The alternative, is having an extremely large refrigerator, is to have your refrigerator stocked-to-the-ledges with non-perishable chilled (think beer, soda, bottled water).  After the power has been off for three days, all that cold liquid will help keep the dairy, meat, and vegatables cool.  

Another example:  You have a 1/2hp sump pump that, under bad conditions, cycles on once every two minutes for 10 seconds.  It pulls a start surge of 25A for a half second, and pulls a constant 9 for the remaining  9.5 seconds.  Under the same circumstances, a 1/5hp sump pump cycles on once every 2 minutes, and runs for 20 seconds, pulling 7A, and running at 3.  Effectively, the smaller pump runs longer, but draws less overall power, and subjects the generator to a much lower start surge event.  As a 'belt-and-suspenders' alternative, mount the bigger pump in the sump so that it's switching point is 'above' the smaller (i.e. triggered by a really high secondary switch) so that if the small one fails, the big one will jump into action.

Another example:  Find all your heaviest-starting loads... pumps, fans... things with motors... install time-delay relays on them all... and set them to DIFFERENT delay times.  By doing this, when you intially apply power to the house after an outage, you don't have a situation where every load comes on at the same time... instead, they come on at intervals, so the start surge applied to your generator is substantially lower.  It's also a good idea to put about a 5 minute delay relay on anything refrigeration and air-conditioning... EVEN if that  unit is NOT on generator... refrigeration compressors do NOT bode well to having power shut off, and reapplied in a short timeframe-  the compressor is taking gaseous refrigerant, and mashing it down, cooling it off, for purpose of changing it into a liquid.   Once the compressor is stopped, that refrigerant has 'head pressure' against the pump, and refrigerant condensation at the pump can cause the compressor to be stalled against it's load... restarting it puts a serious hurt on the compressor... instead, once it's shut down, it must STAY shut down for a while (at least a couple minutes) before restarting.

Brian Jasper co. Ia wrote: Dave, speaking of lighting, I've been thinking about changing out the two yard lights here with LED units. One is the common 175 watt mercury vapor and the other an 80 watt high pressure sodium. Do you have any experience as to what LED fixtures put out a comparable amount of light?

Overhead outdoor lighting comes in one of two flavors anymore... the first, is the 'cobra' fixture.  They call it a 'cobra', because it's an oval-shaped head slip-fitted onto a tube that extends out over the street.  it looks like a cobra.  The other type is a 'shoebox'... and it looks kinda like... a shoebox.  It has a tube socket that fits over same size tube as the typical 'cobra', or it can be made with a square-hoop bracket to mount on the wall of a building, or other types of brackets too.

   From a lumens-per-watt perspective, the LED's performance is about a 10:1 advantage over incandescent, and about a 3:1 advantage over merc-vapor... meaning... a 175W merc vapor would require about a 60W LED fixture or so.

My prior power pole ran a 70W HPS lamp (ED-17, I think), which was about 15,000 lumen.  The fixtures I put up in my driveway are 175w LED 'shoebox' lamps, they're pointed in three directions from atop a 23' pole, and they cover about 10x the area that the prior 250w merc vapor would, at a higher concentration (footcandles), and the color wash is better (not blue or yellow).  They were ordered online from an outfit that specializes in parking lot lighting, and I think they were about $370 for the trio (christmas gift from family), shipped to my door.  They chunk out about 21,000 lumens... which is a staggering amount of light in itself, but the way the shoebox patterns the light out, is downright impressive.

In the 'big picture', I'm putting more power into that light than the single HPS that was there before... but the big difference is, that now I'm actually ILLUMINATING the driveway, rather than just a little light under the pole, and the faces of the building.  I can drop a pair of pliers on the ground, and SEE them well enough to pick them up...  and the wash extends out into the yard, and the back driveway really well.  I'll add more in the future.

Dusty MI wrote: ""...install a BREAKER INTERLOCK KIT, and a dedicated backfeed breaker.''"  If you size the breaker that the generator feeds the panel, to the size of the generator, then that breaker protects the generator from overload.

This is true, and it's a very good idea to do so, however, it will be at risk of nuisance trips when the generator picks up a heavy surge load... an HACR breaker type is a wise choice for interlock use as a result.