Lost power

[churchmouse]

We were in and out last night. The twins in my avatar live next door and they had my big genny so no worrys. We were on the battery bank when it went down. Plenty of reserve in the batts. They did well.
Just checked the charger and it is green across the board.

 

[churchmouse]

It's not so much the neighbors as much as the association. I didn't see anything in the rules that says we can't but we have to get 'approval' which they could obviously refuse to provide.

We were trying hard to find somewhere without some sort of association but the only houses without associations needed WAY too much work [I'm not that handy - not yet anyways].

Again...screw the association. You are not painting your house purple you are putting in a life saving appliance. If it is properly muffled no one will know. Do not put the unit out side permanently. Get a nice Honda with quite run and clean power. It will be portable and no one on the snob butt association panel will know nor need too. Screw-em.

If you get a nice genny make up a dedicated drop cord for it. Hell, I will make it for you.

 

[Gluemanz28]

CM is a good guy.

 

[2ADMNLOVER]

CM is a good guy.

Have to agree with ya there .

 

[Kirk Freeman]

I think I need to have an electrician install one of those transfer switches so I can run my furnace and well pump off the generator next time.

It is worth the money. A switch and an outlet, over engineer it.

BTW, lesson learned by me, keep an extension cord in the heated attached garage.

 

[hornadylnl]

Generators are weapons.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

Again...screw the association. You are not painting your house purple you are putting in a life saving appliance. If it is properly muffled no one will know. Do not put the unit out side permanently. Get a nice Honda with quite run and clean power. It will be portable and no one on the snob butt association panel will know nor need too. Screw-em.

If you get a nice genny make up a dedicated drop cord for it. Hell, I will make it for you.

How does one tell if the unit provides 'clean' power CM? Does this mean consistent voltage or something?

 

[firecadet613]

If you get a nice genny make up a dedicated drop cord for it. Hell, I will make it for you.

Can I get some additional details on this dedicated drop cord? We rarely loose power, but after the lights flickered a bit last night and my furnace wiring modification, a generator is the next thing on the list.

 

[kiddchaos]

How does one tell if the unit provides 'clean' power CM? Does this mean consistent voltage or something?

Yes.
You can see the since waves on an oscilloscope, for example. You want nice sine waves.
A cheap generator may produce dirty power and is not good for your electronics, computer, etc.
Some people run a UPS or inverter off of it to cleanup the power.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Generators are weapons.

They sure can be. Just what do you have in mind???

 

[hornadylnl]

They sure can be. Just what do you have in mind???

If you can regulate my grass, I can regulate your generator. Funny how that works isn't it?

 

[Kirk Freeman]

If you can regulate my grass, I can regulate your generator. Funny how that works isn't it?

If one uses a generator as a weapon against his neighbor then you should be prepared to face the consequences.

Don't want to be regulated, then don't attack your neighbor.

 

[Cameramonkey]

The power from a cheapy is not very clean. Your UPS systems might clean it up if you run all the power through them for your computers.
Get a good unit with clean power. It will not let you down.
Screw the neighbors. I bet you have a lot of friends if you have a genny in a blackout. We ran a cord over the fence to the family behind us. They have young kids. I have a soft heart.
Mine are very muffled and we have insulated covers for them of they have to run a long time. You can barely hear them from the fence.

ONLY if you buy a slightly more expensive Online or double conversion UPS. (two names, same technology) This is a mistake/misconception I see VERY often.

A standard walmart/best buy/etc UPS is a standby UPS. It passes power PAST the batteries, and charges them at the same time. Electrons from the utility service go straight to the outlets with absolutely no cleanup. When power fails a capacitor supports the load for a couple miliseconds while a relay switches over to pull power from the batteries. At that point you would have clean power, but only when running on battery; while the generator was running you'd still have the exact same dirty sine wave that the generator was putting out.

An Online/Double Conversion UPS actually passes each electron from utility, through an inverter (110VAC->12VDC), into the batteries, then back into another inverter (12VDC->110VAC) to be delivered to your devices. That double conversion will clean up the power the way you need it for computers and the like. At that point the only thing you have to worry about is the quality of the second inverter. Since most of these are designed for computers, you should have nothing to worry about.

And by more expensive, its not usually by much. Last time I looked the 15-22KVA units ran about an extra $200 for the online version. (Approx 20% premium for APC Online vs standard)

And on a related note, After seeing the racks of deep cycles at my data center, I thought it would be awesome to do what some buildings are starting to do... Install banks of batteries and use them to support your load. They use them to pull energy off-peak and distribute it during the day. I'd love to add some solar and maybe wind to load up those batteries so that when power dropped for an hour or so we would have some standby power without requiring a genny. And if the wind was blowing/sun shining we wouldnt drain the batteries as fast. Although I have noticed we typically lose power here at night. But alas, not worth the investment.

 

[hornadylnl]

If one uses a generator as a weapon against his neighbor then you should be prepared to face the consequences.

Don't want to be regulated, then don't attack your neighbor.

. If I can hear 1 db of it, it's an attack.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

If I can hear 1 db of it, it's an attack.

Is that your ordinance out there?

Geez, that stinks, I could never live like that. I would move, try some place more free.

 

[hornadylnl]

Is that your ordinance out there?

Geez, that stinks, I could never live like that. I would move, try some place more free.

When it comes to property rights, SUBJECTIVE is the law of the land everywhere.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Well, that why I don't live under such a harsh ordinance that you have, but I could never live with your 1 decibel ordinance that you live under.

I just love freedom too much.

 

[hornadylnl]

Well, that why I don't live under such a harsh ordinance that you have, but I could never live with your 1 decibel ordinance that you live under.

I just love freedom too much.

LOL. This coming from YOU?

 

[Redtbird]

Uhm... it's an INDIANAPOLIS power and light service map QUOTE]

Sorry. Didn't realize that was an IPL only map.

Power went out here in my apartment complex just before 8p. Temp inside my place was down to 54 degrees this morning when the power came back on. And, because I'm on a fiber-optic system, without electricity for about 8-9 hours, the battery for the phones goes down also. So earlier this morning I had no electricity and no phones.

I thought, "No problem. I have a cell phone!". Turns out it was showing only a 60% charge. After bundling up, i.e., 'over-dressing', I make my way to the car where, surprisingly the door opened. Right now the car is a 3500 pound block of ice! AND! She started right up. (SO glad I bought a new battery about a month and a half ago!) I keep a car charger for my phone in there and was able to charge the phone's battery, and get warm at the same time.

The thermometer on the car said it was (-11) degrees. Unfortunately, that didn't include the wind chill factor.

The good news: At 937a, my power came back on, and the first thing I did was make some coffee! It's almost warm enough in here now to take a shower.

I. Hate. Cold. Weather.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

LOL. This coming from YOU?

You are the one that wants to control his neighbor (who are running a generator to prevent freezing to death), to wit:

If I can hear 1 db of it, it's an attack

I cannot stand to tell my fellow man what to you as you do. I want freedom too much.