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I agree. I wired up a spider box to be able parallel the house, and be able to run additional heater loads from the spider, as well as the house loads (generator to spider, spider with two high amp outlets, one to the house, one to a 1.5-10kW heater). Kills two birds with one stone, so to speak...

That sounds like you have engineered a really nice system, congratulations. I especially like your charging setup. Are you on wood heat? Is your hot water a heat pump? Just curious. Do you have a ballpark of the total cost? Over the years, I have seen a few Homestead Engineering videos, and...

@heimlich Just FYI, purely resistive loads, such as stoves, and heaters, make better load banks than motor based loads, as the motors can impose some complexities on the power and power quality. (Reactive power, and harmonics)...

Great stories. I can only imagine trying to clean/disinfect a pager that had been deep in... I'm curious what did the plant make? All the best, 2Pbfeet

I would keep looking for your desired MEP-003; you have many of the spares, and know the '002. FWIW: We have had wildfire smoke bad enough to cause a 90% reduction in solar output. That drove us to upgrading to a MEP-803A. One thing with planning a solar+generator+battery that I would...

I wish I had seen the selectable load models! That would have saved me some work. I bought a dented 10kW, and rewired it for 1650/3300/4950/6600/10,000W. Internally, the control boards seem to be laid out for possible 3 phase operation, but I did not find those models for sale. FWIW, the unit...

FWIW: a while back, I bought a used Onan 5500 with close to 5000 hours on it. It didn't run that well and smoked a bit. I serviced the fluids, add carb cleaner to the fuel tank, changed the filters and spark plug, started it up (smoking), then gradually loaded it up to full load and ran it for a...

If it is rated, great, and F-4040-A is hydrocarbon rated, so you should be good to go. (y)(y) (And thanks for correcting me; good to learn something new!) All the best, 2Pbfeet

@Guyfang Eagle eye!

Tygon comes in a variety of formulations, all PVC based. As far as I am aware, none of them are deemed "recommended" for diesel. If Tygon is being used, I would keep an eye on it, as I have seen it swell and soften in fuel line uses, though I have only used it in an emergency. (EDIT: I'm wrong...

Nice job, regardless. I'm I the same boat. It is a great incentive to just roll up your sleeves and get it done, when you know the buck stops with you, so you just dig in and have to get creative. ;) I think a fair amount about prior generations who didn't have the luxury of power tools and...

I haven't managed to find a CAT at a price that makes sense for me. There are too many folks around hereabouts that can keep one busy earning money, and pay accordingly. @MatthewWBailey That is impressive work with that boulder! Biodiesel is great if you can find a local, and cheap, source for...

Nice attention to detail!

FWIW: Also on Amazon.

That's an insight and half! Many thanks! All the best, 2Pbfeet

That Husquavarna is impressive. I really like the load LEDs that seem to make it a lot easier to stay within the loading of the drill. I am in the process of planning on adding a ground mount array, and I know that I will hit rock somewhere. Some of the rock is barely aggregated limestone, some...

There are lots of ways to skin a cat... We lived in a house plumbed like that for awhile, and it was basically "free" hot water, though I might check the stove temperatures before you get too far into it; most of the versions that I have seen use steel, usually stainless. If the water heater is...

Dual 12V 20W waterproof solar panels with built in charge controllers, one wired to each battery to keep them in balance.

A half HP well pump should be generally pretty easy to handle. However, the LRA on your AC may set your minimum generator size; 69A is a chunk, and might put you up into a 20kW unit, if you can't install a soft start to lower that number. Can I also suggest considering moving to a heat pump...

@MatthewWBailey On your earlier post with the solar array going in, that's a heck of a hole. I was looking at the hole picture, thinking that looks like a big chunk of granite, thinking "how the heck", and then I saw your second photo. That's one of the largest diamond core bits I have seen on...