Resting a generator

[Jerry1]

Having a snowy and windy week on the west coast. Power is currently out and standby generator plugged in and purring next to the panel to keep us comfy and entertained.

Manual says it can go 48 hrs without shutting down to check oil level, so that’s what I do.

Kind of nice during long outages to have lights, internet, and a cold fridge and freezer full of cold food.

Yeah, I’m surprised my manual made no mention of checking the oil periodically. It is nice having power, but internet is out. I’ve seen the cable company set a generator next to the pole and power the substation with that, but I doubt they’ll do that this time. Way too many people out. I wish I knew how to do it. I’d take my small generator out there and plug it in.

 

[Jerry1]

Power’s back on! And, very nice, the internet! Generator ran about 38 hours. I learned a bit and all is good. Thanks for listening to me whine.

 

[MarieIG]

Glad to hear that your power is back on Jerry!

 

[RobbieB]

Yes, we are getting a good soaking this year and we need it too -

Gonna be a week more of this!

 

[Koolau]

Perhaps the 30 hours is the first "break-in" oil change? I can't see a 4 cylinder, water cooled, natural gas powered engine needing more than the usual once a year or 200 hours plan. Especially natural gas the cleanest (after hydrogen) fuel available.

I hear in California that you won't be able to buy anything but a battery powered generator after 2030.

 

[OnTheBeach]

My electrician does the semi annual maintenance on our 30 Kw natural gas generator. During extended outages, he comes by every 4 days to shut it down and change the oil.

 

[RobbieB]

I hear in California that you won't be able to buy anything but a battery powered generator after 2030.

What do you think those Tesla "wall batteries" are for?

Yup, no solid fuel appliances (fireplaces, wood stoves, inserts)

No lawnmowers, no weed whackers.

What's next? Probably no more charcoal for the barbee. And no more gas grills either, just electric. Because California wants clean air and not good food. Nobody ever should eat good food, it causes obesity, so bland tasteless food will be the order of the day. Because the Government is only looking out for YOUR best interests.

Drek

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

What do you think those Tesla "wall batteries" are for?

Yup, no solid fuel appliances (fireplaces, wood stoves, inserts)

No lawnmowers, no weed whackers.

What's next? Probably no more charcoal for the barbee. And no more gas grills either, just electric. Because California wants clean air and not good food. Nobody ever should eat good food, it causes obesity, so bland tasteless food will be the order of the day. Because the Government is only looking out for YOUR best interests.

Drek

Then when the power goes out due to excessive use we can all run to nearest fast food restaurants. [emoji38]

 

[ERD50]

What do you think those Tesla "wall batteries" are for?

Yup, no solid fuel appliances (fireplaces, wood stoves, inserts)

No lawnmowers, no weed whackers.

What's next? Probably no more charcoal for the barbee. And no more gas grills either, just electric. Because California wants clean air and not good food. Nobody ever should eat good food, it causes obesity, so bland tasteless food will be the order of the day. Because the Government is only looking out for YOUR best interests.

Drek

I can see the case for replacing gas lawn mowers, weed whackers, and leaf blowers, etc with electric, or compressed air, or whatever.

Those little 2-stroke engines create more air pollution than a full sized car/truck. It's just not practical to load them up with fuel injection, catalytic converters, etc. And the alternatives really aren't much of a compromise, and are better in some ways.

The rest of it - well, I'll keep my mouth/keyboard shut.

-ERD50

 

[Koolau]

What do you think those Tesla "wall batteries" are for?

Yup, no solid fuel appliances (fireplaces, wood stoves, inserts)

No lawnmowers, no weed whackers.

What's next? Probably no more charcoal for the barbee. And no more gas grills either, just electric. Because California wants clean air and not good food. Nobody ever should eat good food, it causes obesity, so bland tasteless food will be the order of the day. Because the Government is only looking out for YOUR best interests.

Drek

Next to be outlawed?

Wait for it!

Breathing!

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, breathing emits CO2, bad for the planet.

Next, beans and cabbage, causes flatulence which contains methane, another green house gas.

 

[Music Lover]

Next to be outlawed?

Wait for it!

Breathing!

When I was a young whippersnapper and thought I knew everything I used to joke and say that the government would tax the air if they could find a way to do so.

I was right. They found a way to tax the air.

 

[street]

When I was a young whippersnapper and thought I knew everything I used to joke and say that the government would tax the air if they could find a way to do so.

I was right. They found a way to tax the air.

Yep, you were right! Lol

 

[CaptTom]

I can see the case for replacing gas lawn mowers, weed whackers, and leaf blowers, etc with electric, or compressed air, or whatever...

I can't. Sure, in the city where you have just a few square feet of lawn, that'll work fine for a homeowner. But there are places where you need a decent amount of horsepower, for a sustained amount of time, just to mow the lawn. And what about professional lawn care companies? Is a battery powered riding mower going to last the whole 8-hour shift?

I think we may get there some day. Battery technology is improving all the time. When there's a viable alternative, I think people will adopt it without the need for any new laws. Just like LED light bulbs.

 

[ncbill]

We got rid of the old 1960s Sears "power scythe" at the cabin (you wore the thing, weighed ~40 lb!) with the gasoline engine positioned right next to your ear (no wonder granddaddy had severe hearing loss) & replaced it with a battery-powered trimmer instead.

 

[folivier]

About led light bulbs, we were kinda forced into them when the govt. basically outlawed incandescent bulbs. Try to buy one today, only either halogen or leds available.
That said I do like leds especially the different K's available. Some areas I like 4000k for better contrast.
But I do miss incandescent bulbs because of the heat output. They were/are nice when you need to protect a pipe or plants during a freeze.

 

[Car-Guy]

But I do miss incandescent bulbs because of the heat output. They were/are nice when you need to protect a pipe or plants during a freeze.

Yes incandescent bulbs are a good heat generator for small areas. I've got enough to last me the rest of my life, and then some. Sometimes if you need a little more heat, you might want to try one of these. I bought 5 of them on sale for $10 each a few years ago. Probably $20+ each now.

 

[folivier]

Nice find Car-Guy, haven't seen those before. Most are around $30 but this 2-pack are cheap!
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Adj...sprefix=outle+electric+heater,aps,166&sr=8-53

 

[Texas Proud]

we have an air-cooled, natural gas whole-house stand-by generator. a few years back we had a 80+ hour power outage (ice storm). our genny ran flawlessly the entire time. i did stop it once or twice to check the oil level. the PM schedule calls for an oil change every 100-hrs or 12-months. this is the best upgrade to the house we've ever done.

+1 on this... if you have some money to burn and have a big enough yard or house I would spend the money for one...


You do not have to go whole house as you can have a smaller one that runs your essential circuits... but IMO who cheap out...

 

[Texas Proud]

I read on-line that a Generac generator is rated for ~ 3000 hour life. That's fine for the occasional black-out, but I knew someone who was considering one for an area where they could expect a couple week-long outages a year (and running a business, they need 24/7 power). But even at that, you might get 10 years out of it.

For use beyond that, it's time to consider an industrial grade unit. He looked into them, but they were like 5x the price. Better to replace it a couple times.

While I would want to limit the use as much as I can, that's what you got it for, and 3000 hours seems to give you a lot of buffer. Go for it I guess.

-ERD50

The OP has a water cooled genny so his is already better than the air cooled.. they are supposed to run without having to shut them down like air cooled...


You can go diesel but then you have to have fuel delivered along with a big tank... not practical for a home unless you have acres to spare...

 

[H2ODude]

Timely thread. Sitting here with new 22kw whole house generator waiting for guy to come pipe the natural gas to it, and got an email from Duke Power warning of impending bad weather and outages. Oh well.

Have had a small generator for years for the occasional outage to protect my aquarium and run the fridge. In 25 years we’ve lived here the once rare outages have become worse. Last month when bitter cold (well, for NC) Duke warned of rolling 15-20 minute rolling outages. It rolled in for 6 hours here. Decided it was getting worse and didn’t want to deal with it any more.

Always did my own house wiring and was going to get a transfer switch for furnace and a 240V generator to have heat. Which meant roll a genset to other side of house from garage. In an ice storm or other foul weather. OK right now but I’m 72 and cutting back on ladders and wet electricity. Could have saved a couple thousand by foregoing AC but it became a “screw it, the kids will inherit enough” decision. Interesting how they wired to one heat pump and two AC units from the transfer switch to prevent any two from starting at same time; kept the genset size down. Two electricians for two days; beyond my capability and code knowledge.

I’ve told my neighbors to thank me as I’m sure utility power will never go out again.

 

[ERD50]

....
But I do miss incandescent bulbs because of the heat output. They were/are nice when you need to protect a pipe or plants during a freeze.

You can still get them. Look for appliance bulbs, common for ovens because the heat would kill an LED. Also decorative chandelier style bulbs. Rough-Service rated are still for sale.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Feit-El...ppliance-Light-Bulb-BP40A15-CL-HDRP/309564024

-ERD50

 

[Walt34]

I’ve told my neighbors to thank me as I’m sure utility power will never go out again.

Yep, that's the way it usually works.

 

[meleana]

We had an ice storm last night which took out a lot of power in the area. They’re hoping to get everyone back online by Sunday. So a best case scenario is that the generator will need to run for four days, maybe more. I was reading about how long the generator should run continuously and there were some articles that said you should shut down the generator, let it cool off and check the oil every day.

I’m a bit nervous about shutting it down because of the potential that it might not restart. To me, it seems like letting it run would be better, but I don’t have a good sense of the oil usage. I change the oil and check it regularly but I’ve never ran it this length of time. I’m sure it has a low pressure sensor that should shut it down if it gets low, but that seems like it would damage the engine. FWIW, my generator is a natural gas powered 4 cylinder liquid cooled engine.

There’s also the option of just running it a few hours each day just to keep the house warm and the refrigerator cold, etc.

What would you do?

If our power goes out during the day, we generally will shut it off during the day after about an hour or two. Then we will put it on again later and after a few hours shut it down for overnight. Ours runs on propane (as does our heating system off the same tanks) so we conserve the propane.

This has worked well for us and we had outages in the past for up to 4 days. In the meantime we put in an order for a propane refill. Later on my husband handles the oil change.

 

[rk911]

+1 on this... if you have some money to burn and have a big enough yard or house I would spend the money for one...


You do not have to go whole house as you can have a smaller one that runs your essential circuits... but IMO who cheap out...

we have a 63-yr old, 1600sf, 3br split level. when we were shopping for a genny the price difference between whole-house and one for just essential circuits was not significant. we went whole-house with auto-start. no regrets.