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Lights POWERR AC-
The power never went down here. Just a few drops and brown-outs when it happened. There's not many people or money around here so I figure there's not enough power used on out leg of the grid to be worth grabbing for somewhere.
Self-sufficiency to me is a small idea. It's being fed, warm and dry according to my wife and she considers our Honda 6500 generator a luxury. Well, it's only needed because we turfed the wood stove after the chimney became unsafe. Like most people around here we could heat wood and go to bed when it gets dark if there are no lights. Any level of self-sufficiency above that probably exceeds the value of what we can produce on our own as individuals and as such it's a trap.
Self-sufficiency then is just another dependency and goal to be chased and never attained. There'll always be another problem and another crisis and then more 'self-sufficiency' stuff is needed. Self-sufficiency to me is consuming no more than I can directly produce. Anything else is luxury that I don't need, and there always are neighbours to get ya over the hard spots (neighbours are a luxury that comes with the territory around here). Anyway, it's an idea that should greatly simplify generator buying. Most anything works and it's really no problem if it doesn't. Keeps me out of the box stores and that definitely makes me happier.
Well, this site makes me happy, or at least doesn't make me feel worse, most times if for no other reason then it keeps me from the morning news, which I can't get anyway. We never bothered with SAT TV so I sat here instead of there.
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Lights POWERR AC-
I think the reaction to box stores, TV etc. is entirely natural and the explanation isn't incompetence. I think it's just the carnival and big buz, big gov or big whatever finally found each other. Most everything seems to have turned into a carnival nowadays. Lots of noise, flashing lights, confusion, and it really doesn't work unless there's also bunch of people milling around.
While at a carnival once I asked myself, has anybody ever really wanted a cupie doll? Then why do people spend time and money trying to get one, or pay to play games that can't actually be won? It might be good to get yourself in a real fun frame of mind sometime in a manner of your choice and take a look at people on a mid-way before your fun wears off. To me they appeared like people in trances wondering around with cupie dolls. They sure didn't look like people having fun even if the sounds and sights of fun were all around. Well, hey, how else are you going to move junk that nobody really wants? The trick is how to get people there, how to keep them there long enough for the magic to work and best of all figuring out how to get people to blame something else for their failed good time. That's the second chapter of Pavlov and it works on people too.
People have the same look on casinos and to a lesser extent when watching TV etc. We've allowed ourselves to be turned into receivers of messages and the senders mostly have their own rather than our interests in mind. They really are very good at what they do and big organizations have huge resources to do it. I believe that a lot of confusion is far from accidental. I've learned to trust my sense of a good time. If I'm not having one I believe I'm about to carry off a cupie doll and then I would make somebody else happy instead. It's sort of like tractor safety, if it doesn't feel right then it probably isn't. It helps a lot to become your own censor (nobody else can be) and recognize that most stuff in messages received is to get you to pay for somebody else's good time. I'd rather have the good time myself.
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Lights POWERR AC-
Chief: The gear drive does seem an odd choice. Who knows, maybe they started with the gear box case and then couldn't find a gear set with the exact ratio needed that would find in the case. I noticed that the unit does have a freq. meter so you could tell if the rpm is off. The main issue is where the engine is on it's power curve at 515 pto rpm.
Some people who use pto generators that lack freq. meters set the tractor rpm by comparing times from AC and battery clocks that have sweep second hands. The freq. doesn't have to be right on but a little high is better than low. Low freq. increases start up surges for AC motors. They'll burn out from very low frequencies but the generator main breakers might pop first unless its a very small fractional motor. For that reason having a generator that's large enough for a load to lug the engine isn't a good idea.
All this backup generator discussion hasn't contained comments about the generator hookup to house wiring. There's a bunch of discussion in the archives and a convenient code approved hookup can be a considerable expense. Before I installed my transfer panel I used a 100A combination panel and a bunch of receptacles on a piece of plywood.
The panel has 100' of 100A flex line and I used it in my sound buz days. I replaced most of the 20A 220V twist lock receptacles used for lights with standard 110V receptacles, wired in a stove receptacle and a few common ones found on construction sites. The panel is still useful for sites where there is no AC. Dragging the panel into the house and running extension cords where needed worked fine. People who intend to do something like backfeed a stove receptacle should understand the issues very well.
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Lights POWERR AC-
That's an idea that may work reasonably well for fairly fixed loads such as lighting that aren't subject to appreciable surges after startup. Surges stress the pto drive and large surges would shorten the drive life and particularly the clutch.
I suppose it's obvious but the tractor and generator have to carry whatever load is placed on them. A large generator on a small tractor doesn't just produce less output unless there's load limiting circuitry, which isn't found in ordinary equipment. A situation where the generator is capable of sustaining loads in excess of the tractor's HP can create problems. Even for lessor loads, it isn't a good idea to run an engine against its governor for extended periods.
An example of a problem from high surge loads is that it can lug an engine. When rpm falls off, AC frequency decreases. Current through motors and transformers increase, which further increase the loads. The engine will kill, or motors just won't come up to speed and will overheat if branch circuit breakers don't pop. I suppose it'd be possible for a small fractional motor to burn up without popping any breaker. Anyway, an oversized generator a bad idea unless there's certainty that only surges within the tractor's capacity are possible, and even then it's still hard on pto drives.
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Lights POWERR AC-
Thanks for the note Murf. I did my little part for Earnie and turned off the water heater around 4pm. Without your comment I certainly would have forgot to turn it back on and my wife likely would have something to say about the bath.
Since we don't seem to have blackouts in the North I must be a hero for doing my little part. I wonder how Earnie's $100 million portable diesel generators are working out as a substitute for the out of commission nucs.
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Lights POWERR AC-
Murf: The first I heard about those generators was from a Hydro guy when I was filling gas cans for my generator. I asked him if I really needed the gas. He told me about the $1-million portables but said the gov should have been able to get them for 80-million. Guess that's the nature of untendered contracts.
Well, perhaps it's not a brother in law factor. The way things are done in big gov/business, maybe a tendering process really would cost $20-million. Or, maybe tendering would take the whole summer, or at least until after they got the cranky nucs that have been shut down for years back on-line.
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