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Old 12-11-15, 07:23 AM   #1
stevehull
Steve Hull
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: hilly, tree covered Arcadia, OK USA
Posts: 826
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Default ice storm, generators and lessons learned

Been off line for almost a week as a big ice storm caused a lot of disruption here in central Oklahoma.

I was prepared, but I thought I would share a few triumphs and also lessons learned . . .

Understand that I have a livestock farm and livestock MUST have water. I do have ponds, but a well known danger is that cattle can get stuck in muck, or fall through ice in winter. I have several large chest freezers for frozen beef, which we sell from the farm, and those must keep going. My power need at a minimum is about 6 kW as it takes a significant kick to start the deep water well pump on. Once started it just needs a kW or so. A small generator (2-4 kW) is simply not big enough.

Last spring/summer I got REAL good advice from this forum on using large "hooded" connectors, which expensive, proved invaluable. I had been using "suicide" cords with double male ends and I owe a thanks to Jeff to use that term (suicide cord) to alert me to the dangers.

Anyway, I have a battery start 8 kW, gas generator (internal combustion engine + generator) and a power take off (PTO) 15 kW generator available. Two tractors with PTO shafts; a 30 HP "my little" tractor with a 7 gallon diesel tank and my "big" 80 HP tractor with a 20 gallon diesel tank.

I put an app on my smart phone that allows me to see the electric utility "map" of outages as I knew that my internet service would likely also be down (we have a microwave internet system).

We are absolutely the last customer at the end of our coop electric utility. That means that any disruption ahead of us drops our power. We have not had any prolonged outages, but I knew that sooner or later we would get hit - and hard.

The ice storm was not terrible, but it caused a lot of car accidents that brought power poles along the road down - and that was our problem. Then as poles were replaced, they were replaced closest to the substation first.

As the storm progressed, I had that sinking feeling and got all ready. I moved the 8 kW gas generator out of the shop, got the power cord ready, checked oil, topped off the gas and fired it up. Started like a champ. Got two more 5 gallon "Jerry" cans of gasoline and also topped off the cars and truck with full tanks of gasoline. (Note no mention of a gas siphon here . . . .)

I also put the 15 kW generator on the big tractor and wrestled with the PTO shaft and all. I topped off the diesel tank, started the tractor and found the throttle position where about 60 Hz was. I use big 55 gallon diesel drums of fuel so I put my diesel "Jerry" cans next to the diesel tanks. The fuel tanks use a hand crank pump to transfer fuel into the cans - or I can simply put the diesel fuel nozzle into the diesel tractor tank and fill that way. All this took every bit of the afternoon and frankly took me far longer than I thought it would.

I thought I was ready (and that actually alarmed me . . .)

Lights flickered and went down. The utility update on my iPhone showed only small parts of the utility down, but it was rapidly getting worse by the minute. So I threw the transfer switch to isolate us from the utility, turned off the main breaker in barn, guest house and farm house and started up the 8 kW gas generator. Now I went panel to panel, only turning on those things that I needed. Damn! Why hadn't I put a red dollop of paint next to each essential breaker? I could have done that before . . . OK, water pump on, freezers on and kitchen power on.

Three hours later and the gas generator is out of gas - refill it, get all started again and see that the outages are just getting worse. Refill the gas generator and very soon go through all my stored fuel in the Jerry cans. OK - where is the siphon to get fuel from cars and trucks (none to be found). Time to hook up the big tractor.

A rule of thumb is that 1 HP = about 1 kW of power, so my 80 HP tractor was WAY large to supply the 15 kW generator. But this tractor had a BIG fuel tank so it seemed appropriate (note the word seemed) to use the big tractor.

I got that hooked up and going, turning off the "little" gas generator first. Go back, turn off all breakers and then after power on, go back and turn all on. All was well and we could actually use the geothermal heat pumps. I checked the diesel fuel level and all seemed good. It went all night before getting low. Now I was shlepping 6 gallon Jerry cans of diesel from the storage area up to the tractor (~ 100 yards and up hill too!). Don't want to drive the big tractor down to the storage area as that means disconnecting all. Should have pre positioned the diesel fuel drums closer to the transfer switch location . . .

Couple days later and shlepping diesel from storage to tractor is getting really, really old. Am using the "little tractor" and putting the diesel Jerry cans in the bucket. Two full trips to refill 20 gallons of diesel. I is a pain to hold the heavy 6 gallon diesel transfer can up to fill the big tractor. Diesel is spilling on the ground and there will be a big dead spot in the lawn next summer.

The big tractor is too big and a lot of fuel is simply used keeping the engine going. Transfer the PTO to the "little tractor" with the small 7 gallon tank. Refilling this is tougher as the fill spout is on top of the hood and lifting diesel fuel tanks higher is getting old. But the fuel economy is better and I still have to refill every 10 hours with 6-7 gallons, but not 20.

I could really tell when the water well kicked on. With the big tractor, there was just a flicker, but with the smaller tractor (less mass momentum), there was a more distinct power drop. Probably not good for electrical appliances . . .

Now for the dumb part. We probably had grid power back on for 12 hours before I knew it. I can't see neighbors so I can't tell if they have power.

Lesson learned. Put a 55 gallon diesel drum CLOSER to place where tractor generator hook up is. Even better would be to have it elevated so that gravity could supply tractor tank . . .

Another lesson. This is tough. Can I do this in my "older" years? Am eligible for Social security now, but what about doing all this in mid 70's (or later). No way . . .

I have concluded that spending some cash on an fixed 10 kW propane fired "Generac" or equivalent, might be a very good investment. The prices for these are way down and they kick on within a minute of a power outage and also throw the transfer switch automatically. They use about several gallons of propane per hour so you can go through a LOT of propane over several days. My propane tank (currently 250 gallon) would have to be a larger one, but that is no big deal. I am looking for a used "Generac" or equivalent unit right now (hard to find).

Last kick in the ***. I ran out of diesel in the small tractor. Have only done this once before (in twenty+ years) and you have to loosen all injectors, re prime the system and then tighten all back up. A knuckle buster of a job in the daytime and in warm weather. At night, in the dark and in the cold just sucked. Lesson relearned - do NOT run out of diesel fuel. Yes, I slept through the alarm . . . .

Major lesson PRE POSITION FUEL.

Second major lesson - this is TOUGH. My wife was able to go to work, but keeping power up was a constant job.

All in all we were out of power for almost five days. I now need to do oil change and filters on gas generator and dig up diesel soaked dirt (before the diesel spreads).

Hope some of these lessons, plus and minus, are applicable to you. Few of you are as rural as I am. But the fuel issues are very applicable to all. I really thought I was smart to have the big diesel drums. It was, but I had not thought of the difficulties transferring the fuel . . .

But some good news. The spare guest house put up an "elderly" couple (actually not much older than we are) that live nearby, their kids and their grandchildren (9 people in that house, but it was warm, had water and TV for the kids.

The internet just came back up yesterday as the microwave repeaters were down. It is just so nice to have power!!


Steve

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The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to stevehull For This Useful Post:
AlaricD (01-12-16), poorman (01-12-16), SDMCF (12-11-15), ToddT (01-02-16)