Lost Power Tonight for Two Hours

[tig1]

After the power was off for 15 Min. I broke out my 5KW Coleman Powermate Gen and powered up the house. Since it is around 15F tonight it was nice to have have some power for electric space heaters. I back feed through my welder outlet, so all the lights and garage door opener worked. It started with 4 pulls.

 

[Chris142]

My mother in law has been without power for a week.

 

[OneEyeJack]

Back feeding the house is a great way to go with a generator.

 

[dave1251]

Sorry to hear tig. The good news is you know your set up works when needed.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
My mother in law has been without power for a week.


Now that would be a trial. Hope it comes on soon.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: dave1251
Sorry to hear tig. The good news is you know your set up works when needed.


I have a friend that is an electrician that schooled me on this. I have had this set up for several years and have needed the gen several times for power loss, but thankfully the longest time without power was 12 hrs.

 

[AZjeff]

Originally Posted By: tig1
After the power was off for 15 Min. I broke out my 5KW Coleman Powermate Gen and powered up the house. Since it is around 15F tonight it was nice to have have some power for electric space heaters. I back feed through my welder outlet, so all the lights and garage door opener worked. It started with 4 pulls.


Hopefully you pull the main breaker when you do this. If not you're backfeeding into the grid and you could kill a lineman working nearby thinking the lines are dead.

Google "backfeeding generator into house" and see what you get. Several sources say your power goes through the local transformer and gets converted back to line voltage. Did not know that.

 

[Merkava_4]

What if the house doesn't need all the power that the generator is generating; where does the extra power go ?

 

[Shannow]

Only generates what it needs to power the load.

Connect an electric toothbrush charger, and that's all it makes.

 

[4WD]

Mine is switched so you don't hurt a lineman trying to restore power ...

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
What if the house doesn't need all the power that the generator is generating; where does the extra power go ?


Here in the Midwest all that extra electricity is used to power our giant fans (posing as wind turbines). The giant fans push the contrail delivered, mind-altering chemicals out to the west coast where they're dropped on California in the area between San Francisco and Los Angeles. That's why you see so many of the giant fans along I-80, it's the perfect corridor to keep pushing the contrail chemicals west. And it's the reason why there are an abnormal amount of power outages along that route.

The folks in the area between San Francisco and Los Angeles have been under the influence of concentrated contrail chemicals for a couple of decades now. Explains quite a bit, doesn't it?

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
What if the house doesn't need all the power that the generator is generating; where does the extra power go ?


The generator only produces to the load. Transients (step and drop load) are somewhat of a different story, but just like your car doesn't always make x kW all the time, neither does the generator.

 

[4WD]

Case in point - add an electric motor load and listen to the motor surge hit the gen and ICE ...

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: AZjeff
Originally Posted By: tig1
After the power was off for 15 Min. I broke out my 5KW Coleman Powermate Gen and powered up the house. Since it is around 15F tonight it was nice to have have some power for electric space heaters. I back feed through my welder outlet, so all the lights and garage door opener worked. It started with 4 pulls.


Hopefully you pull the main breaker when you do this. If not you're backfeeding into the grid and you could kill a lineman working nearby thinking the lines are dead.

Google "backfeeding generator into house" and see what you get. Several sources say your power goes through the local transformer and gets converted back to line voltage. Did not know that.


It's like driving a car. One has to be careful when driving or one could hit something or someone. Backfeeding is like that. One must know what one is doing. Of course the "Main"(OFF) must be the first step in Backfeeding a gen and the last step(ON) when line power comes back on. At any rate it works very well, as long as you manage the breaker box with power supply to the house properly.

 

[sw99]

My set up is similar. I have a transfer type switch on the main breaker that shuts off the main house power when I am back feeding. My electrician buddy also set up a nice little feature for me. If the power is out during the day, I flip a switch on my photo cell operated night lighting pole. That way, if the power comes back on, the light will come on so I don't have to keep checking.

 

[Whimsey]

I have a 5500W B&S generator I bought in Nov 2012, after Sandy

. I exercise it every 3-4 months with a 3,000 watt load split evenly between both circuits. I installed a manual 6 circuit transfer switch. I would have needed to use it this past September, but I was on vacation in Cape Cod at the time

. Oh well, I'm sure there will be more times for it's use. meanwhile I'll continue to "exercise" it.

Whimsey

 

[robert_at_honda]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit

The folks in the area between San Francisco and Los Angeles have been under the influence of concentrated contrail chemicals for a couple of decades now. Explains quite a bit, doesn't it?

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: Whimsey
I have a 5500W B&S generator I bought in Nov 2012, after Sandy

. I exercise it every 3-4 months with a 3,000 watt load split evenly between both circuits. I installed a manual 6 circuit transfer switch. I would have needed to use it this past September, but I was on vacation in Cape Cod at the time

. Oh well, I'm sure there will be more times for it's use. meanwhile I'll continue to "exercise" it.

Whimsey


I use my gen to provide power for hedge and tree trimming a couple of times a year. If necessary I pull the gen out of the garage and hook two electric heaters for a load bank for 30 minutes to exercise the gen.

 

[Cujet]

It's always good to run "off grid" a few times per year. Being ready is a smart thing. Especially for people who live with unreliable power. We had a significant power outage last week, due to some major equipment failure. I powered up, and continued watching my movie and cooking dinner. Life was good!

So, good job Tig1 !!

I have a few generators, including one like yours above (which runs my house nicely) . The big one is this one. It's a listeroid 2 cylinder 20HP diesel, with 15KW generator head. I fire this one up for extended power outages, or just to run off grid:

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
It's always good to run "off grid" a few times per year. Being ready is a smart thing. Especially for people who live with unreliable power. We had a significant power outage last week, due to some major equipment failure. I powered up, and continued watching my movie and cooking dinner. Life was good!

So, good job Tig1 !!

I have a few generators, including one like yours above (which runs my house nicely) . The big one is this one. It's a listeroid 2 cylinder 20HP diesel, with 15KW generator head. I fire this one up for extended power outages, or just to run off grid:

Thanks. I saw this gen on your web site and as I remember it you rebuilt this gen. Beautiful machine.