Texas, yer drunk

Discussions about our lives, families, jobs... things may get a little personal
Langenator
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Re: Texas, yer drunk

Post by Langenator »

Entering day 5 of Boil Water notice in unincorporated Brazos county.

One thing I will admit that I had thought nothing about until my water supplier lost pressure (due to a combination of loss of power to both well pumps and tower pumps, plus leaks once things started thawing) was water to flush toilets. I had plenty of bottled water, plus a few gallons of stored clean water in water jugs, but nothing for flushing toilets.

I have three toilets in the house, and luckily my kids were with their mom (who only had very short power losses, and never lost water), so between that and resorting to melting snow in my biggest pot, I got through OK. (Somehow, I never had a deuce ready to drop at work, which also had full power and water.)

Not many people in my neighborhood have seem to have generators - I only heard two, and one of those was actually attached to the family's fifth wheel travel trailer. I have another neighbor who works in road construction, and he's always got a few of those self-powered light standard parked in his yard. Not sure if those can't be used to power other stuff, or what, but I never heard them running.

I plan on replacing my rickety wood pole barn shed with a permanent metal shed/garage when I can save up the money. Adding a generator, or at least the proper wiring for one, is going to be considered for sure.
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randy
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Re: Texas, yer drunk

Post by randy »

Termite wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 11:01 am
g-man wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 2:12 am And in about 3 months, when everybody has forgotten about it.......
Yep, that's how you can pick up deals on lots of stuff, such as generators.

A note on generators: It amazes me that so many people will put a generator up after hurricane/ice storm is over, and not run it again for many months to a yr or more. And then get mad because next time they need it, it won't run due to plugged carb, dead battery, etc.
Even "professionals" have that issue. Some years ago we borrowed 2 generators from the local Red Cross for the annual amateur radio Field day.

Took a couple of hours to get one running and didn't get the second one up until Sunday morning. They had been stored with gas still in the tanks.
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g-man
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Re: Texas, yer drunk

Post by g-man »

We filled a bathtub well ahead of the "please don't fill bathtubs" admonition, for that exact reason (flushing). M-I-L did the same at their house, dripping the faucet in the big tub into same with the stopper closed, so they could keep the pipes from freezing, and save the water for use later. Boil water notice came here only after our city lost pressure after loaning Killeen water to deal with the giant hotel fire. Thankfully we picked up a Berkey last summer (again, the off-season, people-not-thinking-about-it timing), so we've got zero issues with the boil water notice.

I keep the generator full, but run it with sta-bil. At this point, since I didn't end up using it, I should probably run a full tank through just to cycle the gas, and go ahead and change the oil. The can I keep on hand is only ever filled with ethanol-free stuff from the one station in town that has the stuff... staves off a bunch of issues with both that and mix gas for the mowers/weedeaters/chainsaw etc.
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MiddleAgedKen
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Re: Texas, yer drunk

Post by MiddleAgedKen »

g-man wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 7:03 pmThe can I keep on hand is only ever filled with ethanol-free stuff from the one station in town that has the stuff... staves off a bunch of issues with both that and mix gas for the mowers/weedeaters/chainsaw etc.
Yeah, I need to get into that habit for the mower & snowblower.

We're thinking about a generator soon. D'you think diesel is worth the extra money for comparable output? Having messed around with boats enough to know what a bilge blower is for (fortunately I always remembered to run the damned thing and never had to learn the hard way), there are things I like about diesel....
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HTRN
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Re: Texas, yer drunk

Post by HTRN »

Diesel generators tend to be large units, like 50kw. The few small ones on the market are pricey - Generac 5kw model is listed at 3700 bucks on Amazon :shock:

Honestly your better off with a dual or tri fuel generator. Costco had a 9400 watt Firman tri fuel for 900, iirc.
Last edited by HTRN on Fri Feb 26, 2021 4:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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g-man
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Re: Texas, yer drunk

Post by g-man »

I had a longer post on this, but got auto-rebooted, and it evaporated. Basically what HTRN said. You can get a 10kw gas for ~$1k, or a 10kw diesel for $5k. For more regular use (off-grid setup where you run occasionally to recharge battery bank when it's cloudy or to run high-draw equipment), the diesel might make sense. But for emergency backup? Propane storage time is measured in decades vs months, so a dual/tri setup is definitely preferred. I would like to get a propane manifold for my EU3000IS, so the whole fuel storage piece gets easier, but it just hasn't percolated up above the budget cut line yet.

Related:
When I build and move to my 'pine box house' (Dad said this when they moved to their current place: "I'm not moving again, unless y'all move me out in a pine box..."), I'm definitely going with multiple split-AC units throughout the house, vice the massive central air system we've got now. Less of a problem with the ducting nonsense, better variability by room/section, and in emergency situations I can run sections independently w/o having to cover the huge draw for starting a whole-house AC. Being able to run the AC only in the common area(s) during the day, and then only in the bedrooms at night would mean a much smaller generator requirement.
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Weetabix
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Re: Texas, yer drunk

Post by Weetabix »

I think those split units are mostly 220.
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Vonz90
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Re: Texas, yer drunk

Post by Vonz90 »

g-man wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:08 pm
Related:
When I build and move to my 'pine box house' (Dad said this when they moved to their current place: "I'm not moving again, unless y'all move me out in a pine box..."), I'm definitely going with multiple split-AC units throughout the house, vice the massive central air system we've got now. Less of a problem with the ducting nonsense, better variability by room/section, and in emergency situations I can run sections independently w/o having to cover the huge draw for starting a whole-house AC. Being able to run the AC only in the common area(s) during the day, and then only in the bedrooms at night would mean a much smaller generator requirement.
Nothing wrong with a split system for the HVAC, but I don't know it will move the needle on what generator you get in the end. An emergency generator probably will not run your heat pumps and whole house setup will run it either way.
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Termite
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Re: Texas, yer drunk

Post by Termite »

g-man wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 7:03 pm I keep the generator full, but run it with sta-bil. At this point, since I didn't end up using it, I should probably run a full tank through just to cycle the gas, and go ahead and change the oil. The can I keep on hand is only ever filled with ethanol-free stuff from the one station in town that has the stuff... staves off a bunch of issues with both that and mix gas for the mowers/weedeaters/chainsaw etc.
AV gas, 100LL, will keep for years. Mix 40%-50% 100LL with ethanol-free mogas, and keep your gennie topped off with that. It WILL NOT hurt the engine, despite your owner's manual saying to run unleaded only. The manual has to say that for EPA reasons.
Just periodically check your spark plug for any lead deposits, change the oil every 50 hrs if it has an oil filter, and every 25-30 hrs if it doesn't.

However, DO NOT run 100LL in any car/truck if it has a catalytic convertor, the lead will stop up the cat in a few tankfuls.
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g-man
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Re: Texas, yer drunk

Post by g-man »

Vonz90 wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 11:39 pm Nothing wrong with a split system for the HVAC, but I don't know it will move the needle on what generator you get in the end. An emergency generator probably will not run your heat pumps and whole house setup will run it either way.
Starting load is what I'd be worried about. For example, starting a 4-ton compressor with a 10k generator is a big stretch, and only if I install a soft-start on the compressor first. However, with three 1.5-tons, a 10k wouldn't have an issue starting them individually, and in an emergency we'd only have to run a single section at a time. Example: Current house would use one for the kids rooms and guest room (1.5 ton + 3 wall units), one for the main living area (1.5 ton + 1/2 wall unit(s)), and a third for the master suite and playroom side of the house (1.5 ton + 3 wall units). I realize this is more expensive than a single 4-ton compressor and the same number of wall units, but it offers a significant upgrade in redundancy.
Termite wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 11:39 am AV gas, 100LL, will keep for years.
Should be able to source that at the local tiny airport, thanks for the heads up. For extended running, rotating marine-sta-bil treated ethanol-free stuff every couple of months in the storage can(s) -(aside: need more...) should be fine. However, making sure that when it gets stored, I've got ~50/50 100LL/MOGAS in the generator tank (and more importantly, the carb), should do wonders to prevent me having to replace the carburetor. Again.



Stream-of-consciousness on the logistics:
Better to keep a single can of 100LL and use it to mix the gennie to 50/50 when shutting down for long-term storage, along with a rotating set of sta-bil treated cans that get poured into the car every so often? That means I can get fresh MOGAS regularly to avoid that stuff going bad, and the 100LL will last longer as a 'mix' fuel.

OR:
Get equally sized cans and fill one up with 100LL, pour half into the other, then top them both off with MOGAS? Keeps it simpler when someone else fuels the generator, but doesn't give me the option to rotate old fuel out through the car.
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