Your last generator Maintenance Run

[nikdfish]

I am looking for one of you to give me a "wow, what a great idea" responses. :laughing:

Here's the scenario:
I have a portable Generac 110v generator which does everything I need
We only lose power a couple times a year and when we do it is usually for hours or a day. Luckily, so far it has happened in the summer months.
When I do use it, it is mainly to run the freezers/fridge and maybe a couple power strips for charging things.

I do not have any interest in a fixed generator wired into the house.

Here's the opportunity for your great idea!

I run extension cords to the things I need to power. Being it has always been in the summer (or at least nice) months, I can just run them in a door and mostly close it. What I am looking to hear about is do any of you have any crafty ways that you run multiple extension cords into your house where you don't have to keep a door or window open?

I'd like to get something worked out so I can have the gen going and the house closed up like normal. Especially important if it were winter.

Thanks in advance!

Back at the WV place, my practice was to use the sliding glass door into the kitchen & duct tape a piece of foam pipe insulation to the door. There was a cut-out towards the bottom as a relief for the extension cords to pass by. The pipe insulation kept out drafts & a stick cut to size fit in the door track for security.

At the NC place, I put a standard generator hookup on the walk out basement wall. On the inside wall was a couple of 4 outlet boxes (one for each leg). Extension cords ran from the outlets up the stairs to the rest of the house.

Now we have a whole house, auto-switch unit, fueled by propane & much fewer hassles during outages.

 

[3930dave]

My thoughts are on all of the 3 phase motors in the E circuit and what a jolt... I could smell burnt electrical in the Surgery Hallway... so to say the equipment was stressed would be an understatement...

Well, let's see - govt oversight + large corporation means we now have bureaucrats and indifferent contractors calling the shots instead of a competent and experienced in-house technical person.

Pluses and minuses to any job, but that ^ is part of why some skilled technical people (esp. young ones) won't work for large corporations..... the overhead BS just isn't worth the aggravation.....

But yeah..... MTBF numbers on a lot of that equipment just got revised.....

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

Ultrarunner, worrisome situation, hope it got fixed to your satisfaction.
Just avoid this horror:
Taipei hospice fire leaves 9 dead, 15 injured - CNN

As an old insurance guy I know that smoke not fire kills most victims, but geez who designed the sprinklers in that hospital?
Hospice wing, not like these folks could get out of the way quickly, very sad.
automated smoke evacuation systems?

The buildings may be noncombustible and sprinklered but clearly a lot of flammable contents and gasses in hospital.

Normally you think that when wiring/machinery overheats/shorts out, the amp draw will rise so much properly designed circuit breakers should take that circuit out.
Sure doesn't seem to work that way in practice. With all the red plugs and remarkably complicated wiring in a hospital, Ultrarunner you have your hands full.

 

[ultrarunner]

Ultrarunner, worrisome situation, hope it got fixed to your satisfaction.
Just avoid this horror:
Taipei hospice fire leaves 9 dead, 15 injured - CNN

As an old insurance guy I know that smoke not fire kills most victims, but geez who designed the sprinklers in that hospital?
Hospice wing, not like these folks could get out of the way quickly, very sad.
automated smoke evacuation systems?

The buildings may be noncombustible and sprinklered but clearly a lot of flammable contents and gasses in hospital.

Normally you think that when wiring/machinery overheats/shorts out, the amp draw will rise so much properly designed circuit breakers should take that circuit out.
Sure doesn't seem to work that way in practice. With all the red plugs and remarkably complicated wiring in a hospital, Ultrarunner you have your hands full.

Some equipment did shut down and several motor relays tripped.

The "Surge" did play havoc with many things on Emergency Power.

Turning on the Generator was not as bad as turning it off...

When power fails there is a 6 second lag before transfer to E power.

When power is restored... the switch is instantaneous.

I'm most concerned about the Medical Vacuum Plant... dozens of warnings in the start up and installation manual about the dangers of reverse rotation.. not so much the electric motor but the pump "Vanes"

Right now everything is up and running 48 hours later.

Incident is well documented...

Best way to describe is driving in your car down the highway at 60 mph and shifting into reverse.... largest motor is 20 hp...

 

[TheMan419]

I am looking for one of you to give me a "wow, what a great idea" responses. :laughing:

Here's the scenario:
I have a portable Generac 110v generator which does everything I need
We only lose power a couple times a year and when we do it is usually for hours or a day. Luckily, so far it has happened in the summer months.
When I do use it, it is mainly to run the freezers/fridge and maybe a couple power strips for charging things.

I do not have any interest in a fixed generator wired into the house.

Here's the opportunity for your great idea!

I run extension cords to the things I need to power. Being it has always been in the summer (or at least nice) months, I can just run them in a door and mostly close it. What I am looking to hear about is do any of you have any crafty ways that you run multiple extension cords into your house where you don't have to keep a door or window open?

I'd like to get something worked out so I can have the gen going and the house closed up like normal. Especially important if it were winter.

Thanks in advance!

What is the plan for heat when the power fails in winter? Here in Northern Indiana sub zero F temperatures are not out of the question, much less several weeks where it does not get above 32F. So we have a sub panel wired for the portable generator. That way the pumps on the boiler (gas fired for the heat portion) will still run.

In 3 years (knock on wood) we have had one power outage that made me fire up the generator. Ran everything like a charm. Was on a day where heat was nice to have but it was above freezing to not critical. If it were one of those days where it was below zero the generator would have gotten a huge work out.

 

[Einthewoods]

What is the plan for heat when the power fails in winter? Here in Northern Indiana sub zero F temperatures are not out of the question, much less several weeks where it does not get above 32F. So we have a sub panel wired for the portable generator. That way the pumps on the boiler (gas fired for the heat portion) will still run.

In 3 years (knock on wood) we have had one power outage that made me fire up the generator. Ran everything like a charm. Was on a day where heat was nice to have but it was above freezing to not critical. If it were one of those days where it was below zero the generator would have gotten a huge work out.

I heat with wood all winter. Maybe run my furnace ten days a year. So, heat and cooking is no worries in the winter.

On a different note, my $11 carb just paid off. We came home from some errands tonight to the power being out. It rarely goes out (this makes twice this year), but when it does it is usually for the night. So, hooked up the gen, got it fired up and powered everything I could want in the house. The gen just purred along as happy as could be. Power came back on after about two hours....feel kind of cheated. :laughing:

 

[3930dave]

I heat with wood all winter. Maybe run my furnace ten days a year. So, heat and cooking is no worries in the winter.

On a different note, my $11 carb just paid off. We came home from some errands tonight to the power being out. It rarely goes out (this makes twice this year), but when it does it is usually for the night. So, hooked up the gen, got it fired up and powered everything I could want in the house. The gen just purred along as happy as could be. Power came back on after about two hours....feel kind of cheated. :laughing:

The more you Train in Peacetime......

Partial corollary to Murphy.... if you hadn't spent all that money on that new carb, then power would have been out for 2+ days !

Always nice when a plan works out....

Rgds, D.

 

[nikdfish]

Generac service guy came out for the annual maint. on the 22KW whole house unit as part of the service agreement. Very thorough & no issues noted. New filters, oil & plugs, plus a flash update to the controller firmware.

Sounds like a WiFi based alternative to the cellular equipment used for the Mobile Link service will become available shortly w/ a lower monthly rate & more features.

 

[3930dave]

Interesting option Nik - remote data reporting at a minimum..... options allow remote control Start/Stop and Transfer ?

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

In four years I've changed the plugs on my 22kw once and the air filter once.
both looked like the day they came out of the box.
Hard to throw perfectly good plugs away...but I do. Actually I pile them in a bucket which is almost full over the years.
Thought I'd do some modern art spot welding them into something... THE PLUG MAN statue...
After one year oil is still so clean it's hard to check the oil at times.
This is reassuring if a long outage comes, the gen is always in good shape.
I do change the oil and filter once a year and put a dymo label on the unit to remind me.

Our power goes off at least once a month and the unit goes on full load pushing three hvac units, boggles once in a while, which
tells me it's under full load, and it runs flawlessly. This is my second 20-22kw generac and remain thoroughly pleased with it.