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kilogulf59

kilogulf59

Enlightened
Joined
Feb 12, 2013
Messages
394
City & State/Province
Central Wisconsin
What this man suggests seems to make sense to me. Since I am certainly not an authority on this subject, I was wondering what you more knowledgeable folks thought about his advice.

https://youtu.be/sX442FodiT4
My appologies, I couldn't get the video to show up in the post. The link does work.
 
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kilogulf59 said:
What this man suggests seems to make sense to me. Since I am certainly not an authority on this subject, I was wondering what you more knowledgeable folks thought about his advice.

https://youtu.be/sX442FodiT4
My appologies, I couldn't get the video to show up in the post. The link does work.
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Exactly what I do. Made this instruction sheet and keep next to the electric panel to remind me or anyone else if I'm not home.

1742218437410.jpeg
 
I think that is all correct in the video. But, this brings up the question in my mind, about the auto start back-up generators. Obviously, it is going to provide instantaneous power to your whole house breaker box, so, it would bypass the manual system in the video. If I understand the purpose of the video, this auto start backup generator is going to dump a full house load onto a cold engine. This seems like a worst case scenario for a generator. What am I missing here?
 
@IMA SOL MAN I actually thought about that years ago when I first learned about the Generac type units. My first though, being more mechanically inclined that electrically, was of the engine (especially in very cold weather). Honestly, I think I'd prefer to do it manually, as demonstrated in the video. When it comes to things like this, I prefer to have control. Also, the more automation, the more chance for a problem, maybe. As I said, I am certainly not an authority on this subject.
 
Auto start whole house generator - I work with a guy who had his whole house burn down. He had one of these (I didn't think to ask the brand). Apparently, they (either can be set to or do) start up once a month on their own. The fire department told them rats had probably chewed through the wire insulation and when it fired up on its own, the wires arced and caused the fire.

They are getting a new home through insurance, but they lost everything except some docs that were in a fireproof safe.
 
I had a friend who moved to Florida. Part of their hurricane prepping was a Generac system. It did a once a month start up and returned analysis results to Generac. All my buddy had to do was change oil and the air filter once a year. Generac even monitored the LP tanks. I didn't like the idea of that at all. Maybe it's a control thing but it gives me a bad feeling. Your co-worker's experience explains my bad feeling, though that's probably a one in a million shot.
 
kilogulf59 said:
I had a friend who moved to Florida. Part of their hurricane prepping was a Generac system. It did a once a month start up and returned analysis results to Generac. All my buddy had to do was change oil and the air filter once a year. Generac even monitored the LP tanks. I didn't like the idea of that at all. Maybe it's a control thing but it gives me a bad feeling. Your co-worker's experience explains my bad feeling, though that's probably a one in a million shot.
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It probably was - like you said - a one in a million thing. They live in the country AND they are again going with the generator with their new house. He said though he was going to be inspecting the wire thing much more often.

If I had one, that's probably not something I would ever check. I'm certain I wouldn't be alone in that regard.
 
Well, Generac isn't the only company making them. If I was going to get an auto-start back-up generator, I think that I would check around and see what the broadcast industry uses, telephone/cell phone companies use, government agencies, etc. I'm sure that I could not afford a nuclear power plant's water pump back-up generator specs, but at least checking these types of critical use scenarios would give me an idea of who was respected in that field.
 
wacbzz said:
If I had one, that's probably not something I would ever check. I'm certain I wouldn't be alone in that regard.
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I probably would. Mice are a problem in rural settings. We've been lucky insofar as serious damage is concerned, but have had their nests give us car problems (air intake) and other such things. I flipped the cover open on our LP tank and there was a nest there, LOL. We've had friends who've had vehicular and house/barn wiring chewed up. So, with a unit like that, sitting outside all the time, yeah, I'd pop the covers and give it a looksee.

We hardly ever get power outages. We've been up here for 20-years now and we can count the total outage time in hours. Yep, we're lucky and we know it. This is an area that does interest me and if we had unlimited funds, or at least more than we've got, I'd have a generator setup, JIC. It's nice to have the knowledge ahead of time if I need it.
 
@KITROBASKIN no doubt correct, sir. Nonetheless, I don't know how about solar in my particular area, though I do see people with panels. We're in central Wisconsin and don't get a lot of sun as can be seen from the chart below. Plus, at my age I don't think it's worth it, however were I younger...😉

zertbcx357665.jpg
 
True but we're talking about inside stationary generators and parked vehicles and equipment. Remember. mice caused the German army a lot of problems in Russia.
 
IMA SOL MAN said:
Really? I have never heard about that. Can you point me to some records of that? Studying WWII history is kind of a major hobby of mine.
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An article at the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine speaks of this --
Medicine at the Battle of Stalingrad, by Robert Kaplan, February 2000, Vol. 93.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1288080/
Another would be the book by historian William Craig, Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad (1973), which was based largely on interviews, survivor stories, communiques and memoirs from combatants and participants on both sides of the conflict.

Basically, the cold got them badly. But the mice did-in electrical systems, the presence of lice increased incidence and severity of disease, etc.
 
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pnwoutdoors said:
An article at the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine speaks of this --
Medicine at the Battle of Stalingrad, by Robert Kaplan, February 2000, Vol. 93.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1288080/
Another would be the book by historian William Craig, Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad (1973), which was based largely on interviews, survivor stories, communiques and memoirs from combatants and participants on both sides of the conflict.

Basically, the cold got them badly. But the mice did-in electrical systems, presence lice increased incidence and severity of disease, etc.
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Hitler should have learned from Napoleon Bonaparte's experience.

Thank you very much for the sources.
 
OK moderators, one more comment and we'll go back on topic. Sorry 'bout that.
@IMA SOL MAN just Google "mice problem for German army in Russia".

I also spoke too soon. Yesterday evening we had an approximately two hour outage. Our area got hit with a storm, freezing rain, wet snow, and ice. I figured we'd loose power for a few with conditions like that. No biggie.
 
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