We went from the 20's to the 50's yesterday and it rained last night, over an inch in the rain gage and now it's almost 60 outside but extremely windy and the power went south (somewhere) about an hour ago and we are on standby. I have a 30KW turbo diesel powered gen set out by the shop that feeds off my 500 gallon diesel bulk tank. It's purring along right now, no big load on it as all that is running is the well pump, the HWH, the stove and a few lights. Amy isn't using the electric stove or the clothes dryer (electric) and I'm not out in the shop with compressors running or welders or big power users. 30 KW runs everything we have no issue, except if I'm running the TIG welder or the screw compressor, then, I have to manually take some of the stuff out of circuit. I like the diesel standby because, unlike gas powered standby generators that turn at 3600 rpm to make 60hz power, the diesel turns at 1800 rpm with a 4 pole armature. We have an automatic vacuum transfer switch that switches from utility to standby in 15 seconds but allows the unit to warm up for 30 seconds before assuming the load, so 45 seconds after the utility power drops out we are on standby. I recommend a standby gen set for any homeowner, it will save your bacon and your food in the frig too. Don't have to be as big as what we have as we have some serious power demands. I know a lot of people use portable generators but you have to be aware that using a small generator, if it's plugged into the main box and the mains aren't pulled, you are back feeeding the utility and if there are any utility workers working on the lines, there is a good chance of electrocution. If you have say 220 / 1 coming in and you back feed the the utility, that step down transformer on the pole becomes a step up transformer and it could be lethal. Don't happen here. The utility is completely isolated from out electric power and when the utility comes back online, the transfer switch senses it and shunts the power back and shuts down the gen set in 15 seconds. Don't loose power often but when we do, I'm thankful we have the standby. Wasn't cheap but worth every penny. Very windy here which is probably why we lost power and who knows how long it will be out. Have about 300 gallons of diesel in the tank presently. Enough for a week at maximum load.
No power yet... Wife just told me a roof blew off an Amazon distribution center in Kentucky somewhere with lots of casualties. NWS says 50-60 mph winds until 8PM. If it blows much harder, I'll be able to smell the stink from Chicago 350 miles to the east. So much for getting a skid of corn today. Have to be next week sometime. Least my renters aren't freezing the buns off.
Very sad what happened in Kentucky. We had some strong winds overnight in New England. Nothing like they had however. We picked up a 7500 watt portable generator a bit over a year ago. It has electric start which is a darn nice feature. Had a lockout switch installed and it’ll run the entire house with the exception of the oven and central air. We had a brief outage Thanksgiving morning and I can’t tell you how nice it was to be able to take a warm shower since we are on a well. Oh, and the pellet stove chugged along just fine.
We have been without power or Internet sine 10AM yesterday morning. Blew hard here, 50-60 mile an hour winds and 'blew the power away', Internet too. Nothing like happened south of us, Prayers sent for all those folks and families down there. Wind broke off a utility pole at the east end of our property which the electric company replaced but really didn't matter as no juice was flowing anyway. Wife was looking at the local facebook and someone said the substation at the east end of town suffered an explosion of some sort. All fixed now, glad of that. We have been on standby genny since around 10AM yesterday. I shut it down once last night to check the oil. I'd say it used about 50 gallons of diesel, give or take. Second time this year we have lost power for an extended period. Shut down the bio mass stove early this morning for it's Sunday cleaning. That stove is a God send for us. That, and the diesel standby. I don't have to fiddle with cords and chance getting electrocuted or frying something, it handles everything automatically. My hat is off to the utility workers who worked yesterday in that wind restoring our power. Calm today and sunny. Generators running all over today and last night. Not something I want to deal with, especially putting gas in them (if you can get gas). All the local filling stations had no power either. Back to pretty much normal now. Won't be 'normal' for a long time down south. Looked at some pictures, they look like a bomb went off down there. very sad but, you cannot fool Mother Nature, she always wins.
It was not a cheap date by a long shot even 12 years ago. It cost me just over 12 grand with everything (wiring) included, but when the power goes out, it's priceless.
That's a nice setup! I power my house with the genset in my motorhome. Auto transfer switch in the MH and a manual one in the house. It runs everything I need. Heat, lights, sump pumps. My dream is to pick up a surplus MEP803 10kw diesel generator and run it off one of my 2 275 gallon fuel oil tanks. I'm thinking of using a Generlink transfer switch that goes between my meter and the box. If I ever sell the motorhome, that's my plan. We had an ice storm here about 10 years ago and lost power for a week. The motorhome powered the house the whole time. I did have to go out and find a gas station after a few days but it was a life saver.
