Merry Christmas

[Bret McFarland]

Well out here in the country, do not have data center clean power to start with. Electrical storms etc. Personally avoid appliance with a lot of electronics.

Twenty years ago, started off with Onan DJB 2 cylinder diesel 6 KW genset from 1960's. The DJB is air cooled and you can hear it 1/2 mile away. Replaced it with newer Onan HDKAL 7.5KW genset powered with Kubota 1105 3-cylinder diesel so can run the heat pump. Used a Hyper Engineering SureStart soft starters to drop the LRA down to less than 40A. At full load burns less than 1/2 gallon of fuel per hour.

We had a weekender down the road whose Generac did not start during a major snow storm due to a bad circuit board.

You just have to go with what you feel comfortable with...

I was saying as a hobby - What are recommendation for residential gensets?

Bob G.

Bob, my apologies for the snarky reply. I had a bad toothache lol (better now). Smokstak is a great site with alot of smart people, got lots of good info there when restoring a P220G a few years ago. Funny about that DJB generator being so loud! I've had a couple of Northern Tool generators they have been great, Generac has ruined their once-good reputation. The one thing I wish that I had in a winter storm is a wood stove. My 4-ton heat pump has soft start but kept hitting the 2nd level backup heat strips when temps got into single digits, so I had to pay extra attention -- my 13kw NT generator got overrun a few times -- the Water Furnace heat pump normally pulls only about 4500 watts.

 

[Bret McFarland]

Speculation: It was probably too cold for the heat pumps to operate so they kicked in the emergency electric heat strips. All of a sudden, electricity demand shoots way up. Also, Duke energy had several generating plants that "were offline or not responding at the time of the outages." Everywhere I go it seems that they are upgrading power poles and running new cable, so they are certainly funding transmission upgrades. If they are are also working on generation upgrades and maintenance, well, some changes don't work as well as anticipated...

The power line maintenance in our area is horrible. Instead of keeping lines clear, the power company waits until an outage to trim the trees or limbs -- you really need a whole house surge protector around here.

 

[mgwin]

Harry,
I wish you the best. The candied fruit and cherries get gone pretty quick around here. You won't be able to eat it on new years anyway, it has to sit in the fridge for at least two days!
If you can find all the ingredients, it will be worth it. Just tell your wife she can't have any.
Once you get everything measured and ready, it only takes a few minutes to make.
You are welcome to stop by and try some of my fruit cake. It's been two days since I made it. Just don't book a flight on Southwest to get here!