Being as Utah Power seems to be fairly unreliable, especially during weather extremes, I finally took the plunge and ordered a generator for the house. I totalled-up the requirements of the entire house, assuming everything was in use at once, and discovered that I couldn't afford a big enough generator! Instead I looked at just the essentials. Power the furnace, fridge, and one other large appliance such as a dishwasher, a few rooms of lights, computer, blow-dryer for the wife and daughter. In other words, about 30%-40% of an "everything-on" condition. Then I added a reasonable margin, and ordered accordingly. 6kw should get us through any emergency, and I'll still have enough reserve to run the telescope drive and computer! We discussed RF "noise" from these a while ago; once I get it installed with a transfer switch, I'll report on how it actually works in-use. Now where did I stick those gas-cans???? ______________________________________________________ Yahoo! for Good Watch the Hurricane Katrina Shelter From The Storm concert http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/shelter
Chuck, I often thought about a generator that runs on natural gas. You don't have to stock cans of gasoline. They are more expensive though. If you do go the gas route then be sure to add Sta-Bil to the gas cans so that the fuel doesn't turn to varnish on you. I got through several blackouts with my solar AGM batteries that I took out of my car and just powered a small inverter, played movies on a laptop and had a few lights going. That works unless you want heat which can be vital in the dead of winter especially if it's an extended outage. Broken pipes and frozen kids are a drag. The best electrical setup in your house is a separate breaker panel that you plug the generator into that manually cuts over the circuits that you want to power such as the items that you mentioned like heat, refrigerator and maybe some outlets. It's not too hard to wire up and it makes the job so much easier. 73 de n7zi Gary "Why buy something for ten bucks when you can make it for a hundred." JR ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck Hards" <chuckhards@yahoo.com> To: "Utah-Astro" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2005 8:08 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Generators
Being as Utah Power seems to be fairly unreliable, especially during weather extremes, I finally took the plunge and ordered a generator for the house. I totalled-up the requirements of the entire house, assuming everything was in use at once, and discovered that I couldn't afford a big enough generator! Instead I looked at just the essentials. Power the furnace, fridge, and one other large appliance such as a dishwasher, a few rooms of lights, computer, blow-dryer for the wife and daughter. In other words, about 30%-40% of an "everything-on" condition. Then I added a reasonable margin, and ordered accordingly. 6kw should get us through any emergency, and I'll still have enough reserve to run the telescope drive and computer! We discussed RF "noise" from these a while ago; once I get it installed with a transfer switch, I'll report on how it actually works in-use. Now where did I stick those gas-cans????
______________________________________________________ Yahoo! for Good Watch the Hurricane Katrina Shelter From The Storm concert http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/shelter
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Should have said something earlier. I have a 15000 watt industrial unit I'm selling. 20 HP motor, wheels, it's cool... I wanted something that could power my machine shop along with the house, and while this one will do it, I decided that if the power goes out, I won't feel much like working. Maybe do a little fishing, or, head to Wendover and dive in that warm 70 degree lake just south of the Rainbow Casino instead... ;) Quoting Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com>:
Being as Utah Power seems to be fairly unreliable, especially during weather extremes, I finally took the plunge and ordered a generator for the house. I totalled-up the requirements of the entire house, assuming everything was in use at once, and discovered that I couldn't afford a big enough generator! Instead I looked at just the essentials. Power the furnace, fridge, and one other large appliance such as a dishwasher, a few rooms of lights, computer, blow-dryer for the wife and daughter. In other words, about 30%-40% of an "everything-on" condition. Then I added a reasonable margin, and ordered accordingly. 6kw should get us through any emergency, and I'll still have enough reserve to run the telescope drive and computer! We discussed RF "noise" from these a while ago; once I get it installed with a transfer switch, I'll report on how it actually works in-use. Now where did I stick those gas-cans????
______________________________________________________ Yahoo! for Good Watch the Hurricane Katrina Shelter From The Storm concert http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/shelter
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Hey Guy, I have decided to take off some time around the new moon in October, starting with Friday, July 30. Is there any chance we can be finished by then? I'd love to be able to take some guide-scope guided photos, for the first time. Thanks! Joe
OOPS! Sorry, that was intended to be a private note to Guy, not sent out to everyone. My apologies. -- Joe
participants (4)
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Chuck Hards -
diveboss＠xmission.com -
Gary Liptrot -
Joe Bauman