Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

Check the numbers on what Hydro One has to pay for power from solar, wind and natural gas . No matter if the power is required or not. Are you aware of how many billion we paid NY and Michigan to take off peak surplus power?
Potasium Iodide tablets are stardard proceedure , not a big deal. You forgot the automatic alarm radio's too.

Cost trajectory is not good...... tends to make a strong case for either 1) Going off-grid, or 2) Leaving Ontario.

Rgds, D.

 

[check]

Cost trajectory is not good...... tends to make a strong case for either 1) Going off-grid, or 2) Leaving Ontario. Rgds, D.

Yes, and these costs and the new cap and trade policy are a big deal in the media. Everyone is getting really pissed off at the Ontario government.

 

[Rocky J]

Thanks Nick. I was wondering how we could use our 20 pound tanks after reading customer reviews on our new dual fuel 18 HP generator. I got word today that it will be shipped by FedEX Freight so we should see it in about a week. They said under a heavy load it would burn a 100 pound tank a day or more because a 20 pound tank was good for 2-3 hours.

The ambient temperature around the tank plays a big part in a single 20# keeping up in the vaporizing needs. My Toro Groundsmaster 4 cylinder engine runs on one 20# cylinder , some summer mornings I have to avoid the shaded areas while mowing so the sun can make the tank work, in the shaded areas the tank will frost up and the engine slows down until I get back in the sun and the frost turns to water and rpm's return to normal.

 

[check]

Check the numbers on what Hydro One has to pay for power from solar, wind and natural gas . No matter if the power is required or not. Are you aware of how many billion we paid NY and Michigan to take off peak surplus power? Potasium Iodide tablets are stardard proceedure , not a big deal. You forgot the automatic alarm radio's too.

No, I haven't heard that we actually pay them to take our peak surplus power. Would like to read more about it. Can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

James

 

[daugen]

No, I haven't heard that we actually pay them to take our peak surplus power. Would like to read more about it. Can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

James

I thought this was odd too, why wouldn't the recipient of the power be paying regular or perhaps discounted rates for the power? Unless there simply is more power than needed, which doesn't make much sense either, although Spring and Fall likely lower demand. Is winter your heaviest usage due to temps? Would think the summer a/c usage would not be as great as far North as you are. There are several members off the grid, very interesting to hear how they do.

 

[TractorGuy]

and now here I am test running my own tiny generators...wish there was a less expensive load bank out there, though rounding up two space heaters isn't usually a problem. With my background in electronic monitoring, it frankly bothers me having engines without adequate gauges.
Even my expensive Kubota only has stupid idiot lights. And we sure don't usually get amperage use, output voltage, oil pressure and oil temp gauges on our generators...much less a pyrometer stuck in the air cooled heads.

A good load bank isn't hard to build and cost isn't that crazy. I built my 13,500 watt load bank for under $200. I actually spent less than a $100 but I already had all the metal and some other supplies. The basis for my load elements were 5400 watt dryer elements bought off that auction site for <$18 each. I put two of them in series to make one leg 2700 watts and ran the other two straight so a total of four elements made up my unit. I ran them through a 100A outdoor panel with 6 spaces for three 240V circuits. With a larger panel and more elements you can make about any size load bank you require. Just make sure you include a fan with enough flow to keep the elements from melting down. I used straight elements without the typical temperature safety switches and just relied on the breakers for switching and safety.



The analog gauges on my military surplus genset were woefully inadequate. I again sourced meters off that auction site to upgrade it to something I could rely on. You have to verify everything with known quality instruments but once you know what you have it makes testing a lot easier to have good instruments hardwired in. None of the gauges on my set were working and the ones I got to work were not accurate. I installed a generator meter that reads voltage, hertz, and hours. On top of that I installed a meter on each leg that reads volts and amps. The generator meter turned out to read a little low on voltage but the hertz was accurate according to my Fluke meter. The voltage/amp meters were accurate on both scales. I add the two voltage value readings on those to arrive at total voltage and use the highest amp reading to determine load. I plug the fan for my load bank into a 120v convenience outlet on the generator so when testing I read one tenth higher amps on one leg. Of course running the house you always have some degree of unevenness on the loads.

 

[buickanddeere]

No, I haven't heard that we actually pay them to take our peak surplus power. Would like to read more about it. Can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

James

Google search the auditor general's report. Can't understand how anyone can not know about this scandal? Rates up there with the gas plant cancelation and the Korean manufacturing contract . Then there is the recent deal to purchase power we don't need from Quebec. How about the suspect Ontario EV deal via a paid employee of Tesla ?

 

[buickanddeere]

I thought this was odd too, why wouldn't the recipient of the power be paying regular or perhaps discounted rates for the power? Unless there simply is more power than needed, which doesn't make much sense either, although Spring and Fall likely lower demand. Is winter your heaviest usage due to temps? Would think the summer a/c usage would not be as great as far North as you are. There are several members off the grid, very interesting to hear how they do.

Don't blame me for the corruption that most of the public has no clue about. Why do we spill water past the Niagara Falls Beck I and Beck II plants for 5 cents and purchase 17 cent natural gas turbine power ?

 

[Gale Hawkins]

The ambient temperature around the tank plays a big part in a single 20# keeping up in the vaporizing needs. My Toro Groundsmaster 4 cylinder engine runs on one 20# cylinder , some summer mornings I have to avoid the shaded areas while mowing so the sun can make the tank work, in the shaded areas the tank will frost up and the engine slows down until I get back in the sun and the frost turns to water and rpm's return to normal.

That is interesting. In one of the reviews of this new 18 HP generator the owner did say he had to get the 20# cylinder into part of the exhaust stream to prevent/reverse the tank from frosting. About 25 years ago I was talking to an old propane distributor. He said in the days before the 80% fill regulation they would sometimes actually build a small fire under the propane tank to get gas flowing. I guess that would check for leaks at the same time.

 

[3930dave]

I thought this was odd too, why wouldn't the recipient of the power be paying regular or perhaps discounted rates for the power? Unless there simply is more power than needed, which doesn't make much sense either, although Spring and Fall likely lower demand. Is winter your heaviest usage due to temps? Would think the summer a/c usage would not be as great as far North as you are. There are several members off the grid, very interesting to hear how they do.

Good article in the Sun today, recaps some of the back-story:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/301721-what-earth-does-electricity-cost-45.html#post4695685

Create a(n alleged) Crisis, to Drive an Agenda...... age-old scam.....

Take the economic engine of Canada (Ontario), and wipe out the manufacturing base - guaranteed that you now have a massive surplus of electrical capacity. On that basis alone, no tax dollars should have been spent on Green - considering the massive general deficits we run here (California is more fiscally responsible, I kid you not....).

If you then want to drive monstrous new Green Energy capacity into the market w/o totally mothballing existing major generating capacity (even the normally inattentive and docile Canadian taxpayer might notice that going on......), then you have to give away, or worse yet, pay adjoining jurisdictions to take your power to drive baseline minimum loads for the older plants.

Unfortunately, many of the unwashed masses here have no clue as to what is going on..... but more are starting to clue in that part of their 80% increase in electricity costs is being used to pay somebody else to take free power.

There's more, but that's probably all my BP can take for one night....

Rgds, D.