[johncanfield]

When my brother and I went down to help my sister's family after Michael, one of the things I noticed was they were so tired from just doing the things necessary to exist there wasn't much energy left over for anything else. Keeping generators running, cooking on a camp stove, getting things out of water soaked rooms, making a path through the debris field etc. just took so much energy that it was hard to do any larger projects. We were only there a few days but extra hands and a different perspective seemed to help some.

That's why I asked about the welder generator. I thought it was possible that one could be in a shop and JC was so necessarily focused on day to day or hour to hour tasks that stuff gets forgotten. When the power does come back on, there is going to be some tiredness that takes several days or longer to recover from. Then he can go strangle Wonder Boy who no doubt will be talking about how terrible his ordeal was.

Treefarmer

Your description about the tiredness of doing seemingly simple chores is very accurate, particularity when we had ice/snow/ice/snow to deal with. We were supposed to have a conference call with our financial manager today but I canceled that. My local VA called yesterday about rescheduling my physical but I begged off of that until we get settled down.

I checked all of the Tractor Supplies in a 100 mile diameter of us and there are no Hobart welder/generators available. I looked at the specs on a Miller Bobcat and its THD is pretty high (total harmonic distortion) which isn't great for some equipment so I took that out of the running.

Northern Tool has no larger generators in stores either. San Antonio has a bunch of Honda dealers, I might call around just to keep busy.

I don't remember if I mentioned my Rianni tankless water heater has a crack in one of the heat exchanger pipes. Heat exchangers are about $325 assuming you could even find one. I'm going to remove the exchanger and silver solder a patch over the split pipe. It's where it makes a bend so that will be a little tricky to patch but I have some copper scraps that I can form to shape.

 

[etcallhome]

Just wondering what is your temps for the day and has most of your snow disappeared .

 

[Deere1]

Your description about the tiredness of doing seemingly simple chores is very accurate, particularity when we had ice/snow/ice/snow to deal with. We were supposed to have a conference call with our financial manager today but I canceled that. My local VA called yesterday about rescheduling my physical but I begged off of that until we get settled down.

I checked all of the Tractor Supplies in a 100 mile diameter of us and there are no Hobart welder/generators available. I looked at the specs on a Miller Bobcat and its THD is pretty high (total harmonic distortion) which isn't great for some equipment so I took that out of the running.

Northern Tool has no larger generators in stores either. San Antonio has a bunch of Honda dealers, I might call around just to keep busy.

I don't remember if I mentioned my Rianni tankless water heater has a crack in one of the heat exchanger pipes. Heat exchangers are about $325 assuming you could even find one. I'm going to remove the exchanger and silver solder a patch over the split pipe. It's where it makes a bend so that will be a little tricky to patch but I have some copper scraps that I can form to shape.

Here in Dallas lots of tankless water heaters to a hit during the big freeze. My plumber said they had 27 calls in a row concerning tankless. Not sure what the issue is. Hope you get things worked out soon.

 

[etcallhome]

For backfeeding using a dryer plug, as long as main breaker is turned off and that makes it easier for you . Go for it,, might not be the way you should or should not do this , but I see nothing wrong doing this. Actually I have a twist plug in my garage , that I connect my generator to.
Very first thing go to the basement turn off the main breaker, then make sure I turn off the water heater and one or two baseboard heaters, then turn on the one breaker for line coming from generator.
Go start the generator, plug in the cord . and house is being feed .
When electric is back on . rev the steps.

Power company men have seen the setup , they have been to my breaker box in the basement . They had no problem, with the way we had our generator hooked up.

 

[dianedebuda]

Just wondering what is your temps for the day and has most of your snow disappeared .

I'm about 100 mi east of John & we're having highs in the 70s yesterday through tomorrow, then down to mid 50-60s for a couple days before going back to the 70s. John's usually about 5° cooler than my place. No freeze forecast for either of us for the next 10 days at this point. Snow's been gone for a couple of days.

-------------------

John, saw on the Austin news last night that your electric co-op should be getting some help next week from the others in the state. Wish it could be sooner, but they're still cleaning up the messes in their own territories.

 

[Jimmy Walker]

@johncanfield Have you considered the champion inverter generators. Tractor supply and rural king carry those in store. They advertise less that 3%THD and the reviews are good. This is on my wish list someday but I currently have a 5 year predator that hasn't let me down yet.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...erter-with-electric-start-100520?cm_vc=-10005

 

[etcallhome]

I'm about 100 mi east of John & we're having highs in the 70s yesterday through tomorrow, then down to mid 50-60s for a couple days before going back to the 70s. John's usually about 5° cooler than my place. No freeze forecast for either of us for the next 10 days at this point. Snow's been gone for a couple of days.

-------------------

John, saw on the Austin news last night that your electric co-op should be getting some help next week from the others in the state. Wish it could be sooner, but they're still cleaning up the messes in their own territories.

Thanks Diane, and sorry to hear of your problems. WOW get one thing fixed and seems like back to square one.

 

[johncanfield]

@johncanfield Have you considered the champion inverter generators. Tractor supply and rural king carry those in store. They advertise less that 3%THD and the reviews are good. This is on my wish list someday but I currently have a 5 year predator that hasn't let me down yet.

Our thaw started really well when we were about 55F. As a matter of fact I started to order a Champion off Amazon (even though I swore they would never see another dime from me) but expected arrival was two weeks out. No thanks.

The Mrs has been napping after lunch and I've been taking it easy for the most part. After breakfast I loaded up my big Honda and took it to our local Honda dealer, wouldn't you know they have a bunch of non-functional generators on the shop floor so I'll have to wait my turn.

While I was there I asked if they had any EU1000i's in stock - yup, got two of them. Me - I'll take them. Store - you want both? Yup, both.

While I was there draining our bank account I bought a tree climber's chainsaw, a Stihl MS 151 TC. Very light and with a 12" bar. That will be a big help for cleanup instead of using my Stihl pole saw or the big Stihl.

I was chatting with the owner about the Honda EU7000is availability and he said he hasn't been able to get one in six months. Honda seems to be preferring the big box stores instead of dealers. He said if you can find a 7000, buy it.

I looked more online and actually found an EU7000is in stock at Camping World so I bought one. The two EU2200i's expected arrival is this Thursday. The other FleaBay seller I bought one from doesn't have any shipping details other than expected delivery date. My guess is he doesn't have one in stock and is trying to find one - it's an old FleaBay seller's trick.

The little EU1000i's are doing a stellar job of powering essential stuff. One is powering the garage freezer and door operator and the other one (extension cord through the kitchen window is powering the Samsung fridge and my house network equipment. Pleasantly surprised. Need to do an initial oil change in an hour or so.

Here's finally a few pix, the ones with ice and snow were taken pretty early in the storm, later on it was too cold to take my phone out. The large droopy antenna on the tower shouldn't look like that LOL.

 

[martincom]

Well, your being "off the grid" maybe a blessing in disguise. I just read a news story, on Fox online, about a fellow who is a customer of Griddy. They took just short of $17K out of his checking account for his power bill. Apparently, electric utilities are unregulated in TX. I guess it peaked at somewhere near $900.00/kwh. NUTS!!!

John, you had me on the hunt for backup generator to the backup. My 13.5KW has ran like a champ, but Murphy, of Murphy's Law fame, rides shotgun on my shoulder so as not to miss an opportunity to complicate my life. The 13.5KW is a moose to transport. So I'm thinking a Honda 2200i. Lowe's advertises them at 1049.00, but out of stock. Home Depot has them and will price match, so I'm going to test the waters next time I head into town.

 

[coaltrain]

Thanks for the pics John - unreal the amount of damage. However the pics themselves are great being you took them when everything is coated with ice. Sorry - it's the photographer in me....

Glad to hear you found the generators. Even when this is all over you'll have a bunch of them to delegate to different tasks should something like this happen again.

Time for me to give my generator a test run........

 

[ttazzman]

John .......you probably know this but the honda 2200s should be able to connect together with a parallel kit for double load good if you have a large amp 110v load......and you can buy remote fuel tanks that work great on those (remote fuel tanks are great because you can refuel without shutting down the genny.....

 

[Treefarmer]

For backfeeding using a dryer plug, as long as main breaker is turned off and that makes it easier for you . Go for it,, might not be the way you should or should not do this , but I see nothing wrong doing this. Actually I have a twist plug in my garage , that I connect my generator to.
Very first thing go to the basement turn off the main breaker, then make sure I turn off the water heater and one or two baseboard heaters, then turn on the one breaker for line coming from generator.
Go start the generator, plug in the cord . and house is being feed .
When electric is back on . rev the steps.

Power company men have seen the setup , they have been to my breaker box in the basement . They had no problem, with the way we had our generator hooked up.

Please be extremely careful to shut off the main breaker. We had a lineman electrocuted in southside Va. from a generator back feeding. He's expected to live but will likely be missing some fingers and toes.

Most of the time, I see line workers putting jumpers on both sides of the area where they are working but either this time they only put one set on or for some reason, the jumpers didn't catch all the juice. Normally the jumpers will kill any generators as they are a direct short to ground and consumer size generators can't take that load. I saw that first hand when I worked a summer for the National Park Service. A storm had knocked out power and the maintenance staff hooked up a generator to run one building. They forgot to throw the building breaker and as soon as they threw the breaker on the generator, it went ohhhnnnnnn.... and died. That was a larger generator- not huge but probably 40kw and the remaining load upstream killed the engine. They threw the building breaker, restarted the generator and all was good but for a few seconds there was juice going back up the line. It not only affects line workers but people who might be in the vicinity of a downed line which has been "dead" for hours or days. Suddenly it can become live and since a back feed goes through

 

[Treefarmer]

Our thaw started really well when we were about 55F. As a matter of fact I started to order a Champion off Amazon (even though I swore they would never see another dime from me) but expected arrival was two weeks out. No thanks.

The Mrs has been napping after lunch and I've been taking it easy for the most part. After breakfast I loaded up my big Honda and took it to our local Honda dealer, wouldn't you know they have a bunch of non-functional generators on the shop floor so I'll have to wait my turn.

While I was there I asked if they had any EU1000i's in stock - yup, got two of them. Me - I'll take them. Store - you want both? Yup, both.

While I was there draining our bank account I bought a tree climber's chainsaw, a Stihl MS 151 TC. Very light and with a 12" bar. That will be a big help for cleanup instead of using my Stihl pole saw or the big Stihl.

I was chatting with the owner about the Honda EU7000is availability and he said he hasn't been able to get one in six months. Honda seems to be preferring the big box stores instead of dealers. He said if you can find a 7000, buy it.

I looked more online and actually found an EU7000is in stock at Camping World so I bought one. The two EU2200i's expected arrival is this Thursday. The other FleaBay seller I bought one from doesn't have any shipping details other than expected delivery date. My guess is he doesn't have one in stock and is trying to find one - it's an old FleaBay seller's trick.

The little EU1000i's are doing a stellar job of powering essential stuff. One is powering the garage freezer and door operator and the other one (extension cord through the kitchen window is powering the Samsung fridge and my house network equipment. Pleasantly surprised. Need to do an initial oil change in an hour or so.

Here's finally a few pix, the ones with ice and snow were taken pretty early in the storm, later on it was too cold to take my phone out. The large droopy antenna on the tower shouldn't look like that LOL.


View attachment 776355 View attachment 776356 View attachment 776357 View attachment 776358 View attachment 776359 View attachment 776360 View attachment 776361

Thank goodness things are looking up. The pix of the power company truck is something I'm sure you want to see more of. Good weather is also a blessing.

Glad you are getting a chance to rest- it will take a while to recover especially as no doubt you still have plenty to do. Backup generators and back up to the back up aren't a bad thing except it's more motors to take care of. Still, I'm sure you will shut them down properly and if you ever need them they will fire right up.

Treefarmer

 

[johncanfield]

Be sure and exercise those generators, preferably under load. When I exercise the coach generator the transfer switch gives priority to the generator so it always has a load (HVAC usually.)

From looking over the Honda inverter gen sets, it appears that every inverter model can be run in parallel with a similar model. I need 240v to run the water tank storage pump so running them in parallel only provides 120v but double the current capacity.

I started both EU1000i's at 1000 local time and both are still running on the original 0.8 gallons of gas - it's now 1713 hours local time (5:13 pm for those who haven't been in the military) and they are both still running. Honda claims 8 hours on a 25% load. The EU7000is has a digital display so i can see what the load is but not with these little guys.

If they don't run out before bedtime (about 1930 hours) I'll top them off. Maybe they can run all night.

Feeling more rested after a couple of days of downtime.

The Mrs didn't know what to make of my throwing money around with ordering a EU7000is but I told her once we get a permanent generator solution implemented I can sell the older 7000. Even with a permanent standby generator I will always have one or two backups standing by.

 

[rydplrs]

I like to say, I'm smart enough to know I don't know everything.

With new engineers that was the turning point, when they understood what they didn’t understand. The danger was over for boneheaded errors that were always explained by saying, well I thought.....here’s what you didn’t think about......

 

[rydplrs]

Here in Dallas lots of tankless water heaters to a hit during the big freeze. My plumber said they had 27 calls in a row concerning tankless. Not sure what the issue is. Hope you get things worked out soon.

That is interesting. The coldest located major ski resort in this state has all external tankless heaters. When I had looked into it, they said they had internal heaters to prevent freezing. I didn’t believe them and bought a power vent model. Then I noticed the ones on the condos up north.

 

[rydplrs]

Be sure and exercise those generators, preferably under load. When I exercise the coach generator the transfer switch gives priority to the generator so it always has a load (HVAC usually.)

From looking over the Honda inverter gen sets, it appears that every inverter model can be run in parallel with a similar model. I need 240v to run the water tank storage pump so running them in parallel only provides 120v but double the current capacity.

I started both EU1000i's at 1000 local time and both are still running on the original 0.8 gallons of gas - it's now 1713 hours local time (5:13 pm for those who haven't been in the military) and they are both still running. Honda claims 8 hours on a 25% load. The EU7000is has a digital display so i can see what the load is but not with these little guys.

If they don't run out before bedtime (about 1930 hours) I'll top them off. Maybe they can run all night.

Feeling more rested after a couple of days of downtime.

The Mrs didn't know what to make of my throwing money around with ordering a EU7000is but I told her once we get a permanent generator solution implemented I can sell the older 7000. Even with a permanent standby generator I will always have one or two backups standing by.

Any generator is better then no generator. When we had the ice storm in 98 I knew more then one person that kept swapping a 1500w generator from their furnace to their fridge. It would run one not both, but everyone was reasonably warm and fed for a couple weeks.

 

[johncanfield]

Wonder Woman never let the Mrs know if she needed to put the chickens up for the night so she's assuming she didn't put them up. I hope these people go away.

 

[johncanfield]

Forgot to post an EU1000i update. The one powering the house fridge and network stuff finally ran out of fuel after about 8 hours. It's fueled up (and the other one) and ready to start when we hit the rack for the night.

Even though I wore black mamba scorpion tiger one-use gloves, my hands still stink of gasoline.

 

[johncanfield]

The Mrs is back from the Wonder ranch. Wonder Boy and Wonder Woman were there but didn't think to alert the Mrs that they taking care of the chickens. He wants to chat with me about preparing for events like this - uh, dude, go away. They want to get some water from us for the animals which I have no means to do easily.