Thanks to all that helped

[Mike Cruz]

I just wanted to give a shout out to all that gave good advice and or help with a recent project.

The wife and I have a little horse farm (5 horses, nothing major) and have always gotten a bit squirrely when the power went out for more than a couple of hours because, well, without electricity, we have no water for the animals (at least 70-80 gallons a day).

So, after years of fretting over it, we finally decided to to the generator thing. Being lazy, I didn't want to go the route of getting a minimal unit that would run the well pump, but nothing else at the same time, and have to worry about which breakers I wanted on at what time, etc. So, with the help of a Borg coupon from a fellow Creeker, I took that coupon to a competing Borg and ended up getting 15% off a 15kW Generac Generator...$1900! Almost gloatworthy...

Also, and almost more importantly, because someone started a thread asking whether or not they could plug their generator into a 220 plug in their garage (which I know you CAN do, but also know you SHOULDN'T do...for backfeeding purposes), I found an alternative to a transfer switch. It is called an Interlock Switch. Basically, it is a small metal device that attaches to you main panel that will not allow the Main breaker and the Generator breaker to both be "on" at the same time. This make it to code.

The previous owners of this house had a generator, but did it the illegal way...without either one of the switches, so there was a substantial wire already run. I had minimal work to do, switching out the plugs etc to make everything work for my set up. I didn't have the room to easily put in a transfer switch and a sub panel, so I've been putting the project off for years.

Well, as of Sunday, I am all hooked up! Running perfectly, AND legally, thanks to my awsome friends here at the Creek. BTW, all the rolled eyes and complaints about how long I spend here on the Creek have stopped. My wife loves the Creek, too now... It is here that I found a solution to our issue.

Thanks again, to all that helped.

[Scott T Smith]

Mike - great post, and congrats on the new generator. I too learned about the Interlock switch on that post, and filed it away for future use.

What kind of horses do you have? We have a trakhaner, Cleveland Bay (which came from up in your area), a Belgian and some donkey / ponkeys.

Scott

[David G Baker]

Mike,
I did not know about the interlock switch when I did my generator set-up. I purchased a Square D 60 amp box that has a built in interlock switch that powers the items that I want to run on generator during a power failure. It took a little re-wiring and some research but it has worked great when I needed it.
I really agree with you about the awesome folks on SMC and the help that they give willingly.

[Mike Cruz]

Scott, I have to clarify this... My wife has 5 horses... :D

She has always been a rider. When we bought this property, she had two Thoroughbreds (she's into hunter/jumper riding). I rehabbed the barn. It has 5 stalls and a washstall. Thank goodness, I made the washstall a washstall and not another stall...otherwise, we'd have 6 horses. :eek:

After we moved in, the two quickly became 4 (all Thoroughbreds). Then, after a trip out West to a dude ranch (Wilderness Trails Ranch in Durango, CO...LOVE that place), I meantioned "seeing having a horse of my own for trail riding". HA! 3 months later, enter Snickers, my Quarterhorse. Unfortunatly, Snickers has had some respect and "wiggy" issues, and isn't as bomb proof as the sellers made him out to be...we think he was drugged...hence his calmness when we bought him. He also went without being ridden for a while and when I got on (after not riding him for about 4 months) the threw me off. I got right back on. He threw me again! Needless to say, I had had enough... I am a casual rider that CAN walk, trot and canter, but am not "skilled" at it.

We have had someone working with him, and he is doing really well. I actually hope to hop back on this Spring. I know it sounds silly, but he keeps asking me to...with a look...if you are a horse person, you understand what I'm saying. If you aren't, you probably think I'm a whack!

Anyway, my wife makes the cash, I take care of the farm. While not a horse person in my youth (I'm 41), my wife and I have been together since we were 19, so I've been around them, just not an enthusiast. I guess she could say the same about woodworking. ;)

Thanks for asking...

[David G Baker]

Mike,
I had a horse when I was a kid on the farm in Michigan. I did not ride my horse during the Winter months due to the snow and ice hazard. When the weather cleared in the Spring I would start riding again. It would be a couple of weeks before my horse would settle down and become easy to ride and control. I figured that all of that time not being worked the horse regressed to not being ridden. Another thing I discovered, if I fed the horse rich grain it would become frisky and would want to be in control.

[Scott T Smith]

Mike, sounds like we have a lot in common. My original post should have clarified the fact that my "wife" has the horses - not me. I provide all of the support services (land, housing, etc).

I haven’t done much riding in a few years. When we met she rode horses and I rode motorcycles, and we each introduced the other to our "rides". Over time, she rode less motorcycles and I rode less horses...

As a friend of mine puts it, he doesn't like to get on anything that doesn't have an "off" switch, and I suppose that is why I prefer bikes. I too have done the superman routine off of the back of a horse; the airborne portion can be rather exhilarating but the landings can leave a bit to be desired... I do know what you mean by "the look" though, and it sure is easy to get attached to them.

That was smart thinking about the wash stall - I can relate. We were up to 8 horses at one time, and then got down to 4, now back up to 5 with one more due in the next month or so (we did not know that a rescue several months ago was pregnant until recently).

My wife rides dressage, and became interested in sidesaddle dressage a few years back. She was nationally ranked a few years ago, right before she retired “Black Tie” – the trakhaner. Breyer’s brought out a sidesaddle horse and rider limited edition gift set about three years ago, and it has a photo of her and Tie on the box; it was pretty cool!

On a side note, is your new Generac diesel or gas? If the latter, is it multi-fuel? If so, consider setting it up to run on propane or natural gas (if you haven't already and if it's an option). You never need to worry about stale fuel that way. The only drawback to propane is being able to refill it yourself during an extended outage. My 5KW propane genset is good for 3.5 days on 100 gallons of fuel.

[Mike Cruz]

Great story, thanks for sharing. The things we do for women...

The generator is gas. It has a 16 gallon tank. I'll put Stabil (or however you spell it) in it. I have my "first of the month" list of things I do each month, and this just got added to the list. So, I'll start it and let it run for about 30 minutes every month. That alone is enough to easily run through 1/2 tank a year...yeah, it's a guzzler. And with one outtage a year, that might run through the rest.

[Scott T Smith]

If you want the gas to last as long as possible, go to a local small airport and see if you can buy some avgas. It has stabilizers in it that help it to last for months. I recently started up an airplane on the third crank with avgas that was 2 years old. Some airports will sell it to you by the gallon, and some won't - it depends upon the local manager.

The most significant outages that I've seen seem to take place in the winter, due to ice storms. That's the time that it would be a good idea to have 40 or 50 gallons of extra gasoline available (even if it is in a vehicle tank), since most of the gas stations close when the power goes out... Depending upon the power loading, your generator will probably consume 1.6 to 2 gallons of fuel per hour - more if it's more heavily loaded. Thus a 3 day outage would require 115 to 150 gallons of gas if you left it running continuously.

I excersise my fixed standby generator for 15 minutes weekly, and my welder/generator for 30 minutes monthly. Back before I retired from a major telecom, we figured that twice monthly was the minimum for the cell site backup generators, and weekly for the most critical ones.

You've probably already thought of this, but it would be a good idea to put a float charger on the battery for the generator (unless it already has one).

A real high quality oil is also a good thing to use. Most small engines have 50 hour recommended oil changes, and during an extended outage you can easily exceed this (especially if the oil was close to needing a change when the outage occured). A very good synthetic or LE would be a wise choice for oil. Both Mobil 1 and Valvoline's synthetic's have a great reputation, and Amsoil has a lot of supporters too.

If you haven't already, it's also a good idea to "simulate" an outage and see how much load that the generator can pull. For instance, can it start the well if the stove is turned on, etc. Starting electric motors will be the toughest for it - typically the startup surge is 2X to 3X the running amps. Thus, it may start the well pump without anything else running, but not start it if the house AC is running, etc.

Which model did you buy - a GP15000E?

[Mike Cruz]

Yup, that's the one. Got it through HD. It is rated for 15,000 running amps with 22,500 surge amps. I was going to get the 17.5 kW model, but it still only had a 50 amp breaker on it. Seemed like money wasted (unless it had had a 70 amp breaker...then the extra $300 would have been worth it).

I run my woodstove all winter long, so when we get a power outtage, I won't need to have the geothermal heat pump breaker on...that would use the entire 50 amps. We also don't lose power often or for that long. The longest we have had to endure so far is less than 24 hours. Personally, I don't feel a need to run a stove of oven during those periods. As long as I can get into the refridgerators and pull out drinks and sandwich stuff, I'm okay. What is disheartening is the lack of ability to use ANYTHING. With the set up we have, we CAN use pretty much whatever we want, but will still likely be sparing.

Even during outtages, I don't see us running this thing constantly. At night, while we sleep, I don't foresee leaving it running. Waste of money if you asked me. But when I wake up, we'll get it going for showers and breakfast and taking care of the animals. My main issue was that, if I was spending $1000 for a minimal generator, I had no problem spending an extra $1000 to be able to do a lot more. This unit was the highest kW I could get before the jump to the $7000 range for 20 kW and bigger. Except for the 17.5 kW one I mentioned above, but would get no advantages.

When we were done, we went through the steps of shutting off the main, flipping off all the breakers, powering on the generator, plugging it in, flipping on the generator breaker inside the house, then flipping on each breaker one at a time, slowly. We had all the lights on in the house, ran the water until the well pump came on, etc. So, we should be good. Only a true test or two will tell.

Thanks for your tips. I'll certainly keep them in mind.

[Scott T Smith]

Sounds like you've got it covered. Now you'll probably "LOOK FORWARD" to an outage, just to feel good about being prepared! :D

[Jim Becker]

'Glad that worked out, Mike. I know the barn we board at has a generator on-site, too. Good idea when you have "many" mouths to feed!