Your last generator Maintenance Run

[ericm979]

Where are all these folks evacuating to?
When Florida evacuated for hurricanes, the folks in Miami went to Orlando which filled up pretty fast and they still had folks trying to find places. Some folks from Orlando evacuated farther north, so Orlando wasn't all that safe either.

They're going mostly to the south, because to the north there's not so much in the way of people and buildings and places to stay unless you want to camp. I've not lived in hurricane country but I'd think that for hurricanes you have to evacuate farther than for a fire because they're larger and generally move faster than fires. I have seen evacuation locations for fires that were less than 10 miles from the fire line.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I need to get back to our generators I realized when I was wiring in the 50 amp outlet so I could plug in the 40 amp Mustart Level 2 charger for the Nissan Leaf I purchased in St. Louis two weeks ago. The 30 year old generator ran well the last time I tested it but with the EV it would be nice to be able to charge it if we ever had another ice storm like in 2009.

A few years I bought a 18 HP single cylinder 8K generator that I ran for 4 hours that I need to get out and change the oil because it is just free standing and has the 50 RV plug in connection built in. I want to test it someday to see if the 240 smart charging cable and the car charger is happy as is or if I will have to do some grounding. I could roll it into the pick up and have a mobile EV charger perhaps without spending any new money. EV's bring on a new demand if the grid is down over a wide area like it was here in 2009.

 

[3930dave]

They're going mostly to the south, because to the north there's not so much in the way of people and buildings and places to stay unless you want to camp. I've not lived in hurricane country but I'd think that for hurricanes you have to evacuate farther than for a fire because they're larger and generally move faster than fires. I have seen evacuation locations for fires that were less than 10 miles from the fire line.

One of the last big ones here was the Fort Mac fire 2�16 Fort McMurray wildfire - Wikipedia

Big, and fast moving.

Tornadoes - only been close to the one that tore up West Ottawa and Gatineau last year - the ones we get tend to be fairly narrow (but still potentially deadly) in scope. Tornado Alley in the MidWest - big ones, and sometimes more than one in the same general area.

Best Wishes for everybody in these disaster areas.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I don't need to schedule maintenance runs on the generator, PG&E has outages all year now! The 22 year old Honda EM5000 is running right now. I do want to get a whole house propane generator though.

The FedEx guy told me he's delivering a lot of generators up here. I'm amazed that people don't all have one already. The power goes out often in the winter due to falling branches and trees. I bought one when we moved here.

PG&E is working on putting the main line for our road underground and replacing the trunk lines with insulated wires. Hopefully they'll finish it next year. And they did an extra round of vegetation clearing this summer. They should have been doing those 20 years ago.

By many accounts, it sounds like PG&E has been deferring maintenance. That said, even with meticulous ongoing maintenance, unless you are going to concrete something like a 100' wide line-corridor (obviously not practical) the entire way, I can't see that you can totally eliminate fire risk in the conditions many parts of Cali have. In that respect, I don't think the $ damage award was reasonable, but that's why lawyers get to drive Benzes, and I don't.....

Guess they need to stock up on those towed-under-helicopter tree mulching machines !

It does sound like PG&E is de-committing to grid-uptime. Can't say I totally blame them, given the court decision.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I need to get back to our generators I realized when I was wiring in the 50 amp outlet so I could plug in the 40 amp Mustart Level 2 charger for the Nissan Leaf I purchased in St. Louis two weeks ago. The 30 year old generator ran well the last time I tested it but with the EV it would be nice to be able to charge it if we ever had another ice storm like in 2009.

A few years I bought a 18 HP single cylinder 8K generator that I ran for 4 hours that I need to get out and change the oil because it is just free standing and has the 50 RV plug in connection built in. I want to test it someday to see if the 240 smart charging cable and the car charger is happy as is or if I will have to do some grounding. I could roll it into the pick up and have a mobile EV charger perhaps without spending any new money. EV's bring on a new demand if the grid is down over a wide area like it was here in 2009.

Sounds like good projects Gale.

I know you are enjoying your EV :thumbsup:, but fuel is still the only practical way for most folks to store emergency electricity at home.

Rgds, D.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Sounds like good projects Gale.

I know you are enjoying your EV :thumbsup:, but fuel is still the only practical way for most folks to store emergency electricity at home.

Rgds, D.

That is for sure. I had filled up the Subaru planning to drive it car shopping to St. Louis when my son talked me into take the F-150 so I could just rent a U-haul trailer which worked out well since I bought the first one I looked at. The Subaru is still setting on full.

Still when I go past a gas station I check the gauge on the Leaf out of habit since it has been two weeks since I bought gas so I know I much be low.

 

[ericm979]

By many accounts, it sounds like PG&E has been deferring maintenance. That said, even with meticulous ongoing maintenance, unless you are going to concrete something like a 100' wide line-corridor (obviously not practical) the entire way, I can't see that you can totally eliminate fire risk in the conditions many parts of Cali have. In that respect, I don't think the $ damage award was reasonable, but that's why lawyers get to drive Benzes, and I don't.....

Guess they need to stock up on those towed-under-helicopter tree mulching machines !

It does sound like PG&E is de-committing to grid-uptime. Can't say I totally blame them, given the court decision.

Rgds, D.

I'm not sure which court decision you're referring to. I don't think there has been one on any of the large PG&E caused fires in the last couple years. It usually takes more than a few years, and whatever was in process on them is now tied up in bankruptcy. The only final decision I know about was for the gas line explosion in San Bruno in 2010. That ended up being settled for $90M which given PG&E's self-documented negligence and how many people were killed and houses burnt, is not unreasonable. (Court OK's $9 million PG&E San Bruno explosion settlement) There were initially larger amounts but those usually get cut way down before they are final and get paid. Even the initial $565M would not be that much of a problem for the country's largest utility. $90M is pocket change.

PG&E declared bankruptcy last fall after there were two big fires they caused, the Camp fire in Paradise which killed 85 and the Tubbs fire in Sonoma the year before which killed 22 and was at the time the largest damage amount of any fire in California, at $1.2 Billion. PG&E saw the potential of similar costs from the Camp fire and are trying to get out of their responsibility. It's a real hardship for people burnt out in PG&E caused fires before 2017 who have been waiting to rebuild and whose payments are now frozen.

Cutting power, while it may be a temporary fix for the immediate problem, is not a real solution. PG&E is working on improving their clearing and their lines like I mentioned, they're just doing it decades later than they should have. Everyone up here wants PG&E to do more clearing. In the past their contract crews have been very lazy and did minimal work. A branch here, a branch there, "waiting for the supervisor" for the rest of the day. The ones they had out this summer did a lot more actual clearing.

 

[3930dave]

I'm not sure which court decision you're referring to. I don't think there has been one on any of the large PG&E caused fires in the last couple years. It usually takes more than a few years, and whatever was in process on them is now tied up in bankruptcy. The only final decision I know about was for the gas line explosion in San Bruno in 2010. That ended up being settled for $90M which given PG&E's self-documented negligence and how many people were killed and houses burnt, is not unreasonable. (Court OK's $9 million PG&E San Bruno explosion settlement) There were initially larger amounts but those usually get cut way down before they are final and get paid. Even the initial $565M would not be that much of a problem for the country's largest utility. $90M is pocket change.

PG&E declared bankruptcy last fall after there were two big fires they caused, the Camp fire in Paradise which killed 85 and the Tubbs fire in Sonoma the year before which killed 22 and was at the time the largest damage amount of any fire in California, at $1.2 Billion. PG&E saw the potential of similar costs from the Camp fire and are trying to get out of their responsibility. It's a real hardship for people burnt out in PG&E caused fires before 2017 who have been waiting to rebuild and whose payments are now frozen.

Cutting power, while it may be a temporary fix for the immediate problem, is not a real solution. PG&E is working on improving their clearing and their lines like I mentioned, they're just doing it decades later than they should have. Everyone up here wants PG&E to do more clearing. In the past their contract crews have been very lazy and did minimal work. A branch here, a branch there, "waiting for the supervisor" for the rest of the day. The ones they had out this summer did a lot more actual clearing.

30B$ was the figure reported earlier in the year, that was probably what was stuck in my head.....

US wildfires push energy firm PG&E to bankruptcy protection - BBC News

That does sound negligent. For much of southern Canada, the forestry crews have to be at it constantly.

Gen sales are going to be good your way, for a while.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Still when I go past a gas station I check the gauge on the Leaf out of habit since it has been two weeks since I bought gas so I know I much be low.

Reflexive Conditioning......... you've probably been driving for something like 50 years Gale...... give it time........ soon you'll be doing the same thing passing a power sub-station .

Rgds, D.

 

[ultrarunner]

Underground power and utilities is nice when it's new,
give it a few decades and the repairs start and they are more expensive and harder then overhead.

After having power outages every time a lightning storm came over the mountains in Austria they put everything underground for the region back in the 1980's and so far so good... even my cabin has underground power.