On genset power. Storm knocked us out.

[Chrispyny]

Upstate, Albany, NY.

FIRST major power outtage while awake since i moved here in 2012. Excellent and first real world test of the genset.

Ugly storm rolled thru approx 8:40pm eastern. High winds, heavy rain. Lost cable ‘tv’, then lost power 1 minute later. SOMEHOW we still have internet.

Started MEP-802a up and hooked into prime genset power. Now sitting in chilly a/c, watching netflix, drinking hot decaf from Keurig, surfing the net at 10pm. Other than my next door neighbor who has an NG generac, the rest of the neighborhood is out. Spoke to her to make sure they are well 30 min ago. They had a solar hot water panel on their roof. Lost it right before the power went out. I heard it. Didn’t know what it was. She called the claim in before the winds stopped. Sheesh! Wierd cause it’s held in MUCH higher winds.

Anyway, life’s good when yer prepared.

Wish my 30 gal diesel caddy wasn’t buried in the back of the shed.

That’s lesson 1. Keep yer diesel close to the shed exit.

Lesson 2. Keep good stack of batteries handy. I went around changing the double A’s in the strategicly placed led motion lights around the house, as half of them were dead cause i’m lazy. The others were on the way out. Now i’m low on AA’s.

Cheers.

PS. Just installed a multihead ductless minisplit on the west side of the house a few days ago. And installed a multihead ductless minisplit on the east side last spring. With both running right now and cooling my house, they barely register on the meter. The keurig did change the tone of the genset a touch, but prolly cause it drew off one leg heavily for a short period of time to heat the water.
Glad i went with the 802.
Thanks everyone for this website and its members.

 

[Light in the Dark]

That line is going to hit us in the next hour.

 

[justacitizen]

AHHHH the peace and tranquility of living on "home made power" sitting back and enjoying that java. for a short time you will be the envy of your neighbors. great job!!!

 

[csheath]

We have had multiple opportunities to use our 803 since we got it. Feels great to be prepared.

Stay safe!

 

[Chrispyny]

After action report...

Woke up to the genset still running nicely at 530am. Found power was on in the neighborhood so shut her down. The exhaust flap was a touch oily looking. Running lightly loaded for 8 hours began to wet stack the genset. I’ll load it good this week and clean her out with a good workout.
Found maple seeds from the silver maple overhead in the engine bay. Dunno if they can get there via the radiator exhaust port on top or not. But i think its safe to say i’ll be removing the top very soon to make sure no critters decided to make “MEP-802A-U.S.A.” their home. A good shop vac should clean it out nicely.
Found the genset burned theu ROUGHLY 3/5’s of the diesel tank. Bad news, gauge still registering full. Will be looking into that. Either bad gauge or stuck float.

Today i spent half the day spring cleaning the shed. The diesel caddy is now at the front of the shed, off to the side, awaiting orders. Need to top it off.

I’m a touch anal so some work is required to make it 100%. Easy enough!

Oh yeah, the reason we lost power was because an old tall pine fell over and across a road three streets down, and fell on the power lines. Repair crews left by 5pm today.

 

[Bmxenbrett]

I was out camping in that storm. Wasnt as bad a hour south. We hit under the open hatch of my yukon for about 5min then back out. It was quite windy.

 

[csheath]

Remember the cooling air gets sucked up from the bottom and sides and forced out though the radiator.

 

[Chainbreaker]

...Woke up to the genset still running nicely at 530am. Found power was on in the neighborhood so shut her down.

For those that don't have close by neighbors, or another way to determine if power is restored, there is a device (Power Back Utility Return Alert) that has a sensor wire that hooks into your breaker panel and notifies you via an alarm that power has been restored. Very handy capability to have during an extended outage so you know when its safe to shut down and return to utility power.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Reliance-Controls-PowerBack-Utility-Power-Return-Alert-THP108/202216506

 

[m32825]

For those that don't have close by neighbors, or another way to determine if power is restored...

Our neighbors are several hundred feet away, here's how we tell when power comes back on: we stop hearing the sound of their generator over the sound of the 803a running in our back yard!

-- Carl