S&L are out of the state on some family business and I’m watching their place. Notionally watering the plants, not that that has taken any effort. Keeping the wild birds fed and interested in hanging around. And generally…
“I hope the refrigerator is still working,” said the text…
Um…okay, I honestly hadn’t given that a thought. I mean, my batteries topped off yesterday with just a little afternoon sun but I don’t run a big side-by-side fridge. So I went over there early in the evening and the fridge was indeed running.
Went over there this morning and it was dead. The battery voltage bottomed out overnight and the inverter switched off.
As it happens I don’t know anything about their inverter but you can’t go too far wrong just pushing buttons, and it only took a minute or two to reboot it – not that that would help if there was no sun, which there wasn’t. So I drove home, since I had forgotten my phone, and texted a request for instructions on how to get their generator to charge their batteries. Because you can go really far wrong doing the wrong thing to an inverter with a generator.
Turns out they had rigged it to be really simple so I drove back over there, turned on the generator and plugged it in…
…and sat down to watch Youtube on my smartphone for half an hour. Went out to shut down the generator, and found that the fog had lifted and there was even faint shadow. By the time I got home, Uncle Murphy had sprung his little joke…
Sky hasn’t looked like that since before Landlady’s last visit.
Stupid weather.
Glad you were able to solve the power issue. With the way Uncle Murphy likes to play games, if you had your cellphone on you so you didn’t have to return home, there would have been no signal at S&L’s place.
I see their generator is a Champion, made by the best that China has to offer. I’m actually somewhat familiar with this make/model. It’s the same one that my brother has for his place. The duel fuel option is nice…
This is, at least for some people, deep into anal retentive and OCD territory, but….given the remoteness of your “community” and the interdependence factor among its residents, it might be worthwhile for each to have a set of operating instructions for domicile tech (and, perhaps, basic animal requirements, plus whatever might be special to their abode or lifestyle circumstances) in a convenient place, and in clearly written English, understandable by all who may assist (that last bit is a great deal more important than most understand). Had, for whatever reason, texting not been available – at either end – or S&L being engaged in an activity such that accessing texts be delayed for a prolonged period, the opportunity for negative outcomes increases.
In case you get too lazy to feed the chickens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTpQc_ARp8A
Of course, you’ll still have to water them.
I have discovered that the need for CLEAR instructions is exacerbated when they need to be followed by the less mentally gifted (not that anyone in the gulch fits this description), or those not paying attention.
I have an outrageously illegal, but immensely useful, power lead that has male connectors on both ends. (It was FAR cheaper than having an isolation switch and power transfer coupler installed.) This special cable is VERY clearly marked, and is stored with my generator, apart from normal electrical stuff.
in the event of a prolonged power outage, it allows me to throw the breaker on the circuit that connects to the essential electrical devices in my house, plug one end into my generator, plug the other into a particular outlet, and BINGO, I have juice for fridge, freezer, radio, and a couple of LED night lights.
I have lost count of the number of times people have tried to use it as a regular extension lead, fortunately without disastrous consequences as yet.
@Sendarius – those things are called “suicide cables” for a reason. I have one – 20 ft of 8 ga SO to fit an L30-R on the 125 ft 8 ga that connects to the generator, and a, uh, um, 60A 240V “welder’s outlet,” yeah, “outlet for the welder,” that’s the ticket.
Pro Tip: If it’s long enough, coil it tightly and put a padlock on the coils – a bicycle lock works for mine – and I keep it locked in the job site tool chest far, far away from the generator or anything that looks like a generator, or anyone who can spell “generator.” People will expend an amazing amount of effort to do something really stupid, and severe ignorance about electrons ‘n’ stuff exacerbates that.
Sedarius ‘n Jerry:
I like the way y’all think. Although, I wonder if there’s any way you could accidentally back feed to the mains if something went wrong with the house wiring…
Does a normal transfer switch (the thing you’re avoiding needing) break the neutral from the mains, or does it break just the hot sides?
Robert:
The (legal) transfer switch installation was quoted at $1600. As far as I can tell it switches all conductors & earth. My (cheating) method doesn’t do that. so there is potential (see what I did there) for a back-feed problem.
Now that’s Oz dollars, so it translates to approximately USD$1100, but it seems excessive to me.
The switch itself is probably not cheap, and I can’t buy the switch without an electrician’s license, but I am guessing AUD$1400 for 30 minutes work to install it.
Sendarius:
Thank you. That’s what I wanted to know.
Seems a bit much to need a license to merely purchase a switch but that’s just our betters trying to protect us from ourselves. Bah. I can understand wanting a licensed (presumably competent) electrician for the install as we don’t want to fry a lineman upstream on a supposedly-dead line.
Potential. Heh.