Bringing a new genny home

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I have been watching this couple build their home, and they have new videos almost every day. They are building a timber frame home with SIPS, etc., and they are trying to get into the house for the winter, and out of their RV. They still have lots to do, but should be able to at least live in the house this winter, although not completely plumbed and with electricity. They have a little of it done, with a bathroom in the basement garage, and enough electricity to hook up some lights, stove, refrigerator, etc.

In today's long video (32 + minutes), he is talking about power--electrical, solar, propane, wood, and how much it has cost them to run their generator, their propane stove, etc. versus using electricity during their interim living mode.

 
I have been watching this couple build their home, and they have new videos almost every day. They are building a timber frame home with SIPS, etc., and they are trying to get into the house for the winter, and out of their RV. They still have lots to do, but should be able to at least live in the house this winter, although not completely plumbed and with electricity. They have a little of it done, with a bathroom in the basement garage, and enough electricity to hook up some lights, stove, refrigerator, etc.

In today's long video (32 + minutes), he is talking about power--electrical, solar, propane, wood, and how much it has cost them to run their generator, their propane stove, etc. versus using electricity during their interim living mode.



I watched their "progress" until I couldn't take him any longer. He acts like he is all knowledgeable but keeps screwing up. The few times his wife suggested a better way he verbally slaps her down. Did you see the one about erecting the foam blocks for the foundation? He had a laser level, bragged how it would help them and did not used it on his foundation walls. Then they trimmed the top off the foam wrong and then visually guessed when they poured the concrete.

Or the time he ignore the professionally drawn blueprints because he knew of a better way...and screwed up?

Dug the water lines from the hill to the house put didn't put the water lines in. Next spring the trench had caved in and his wife was digging the trench out by hand. And he didn't use the fitting recommend and has to go back and dig up the water lines again.

The two water tanks he has above on the hill. He didn't install them on a firm foundation. The tank are connected under ground by a PVC pipe. When the tanks sift the pipe will break.

He/she hauls water from town. Generator powers the pump they use to pump the water up hill to the storage tanks, then the water flows down hill when they need it. He didn't have any problems driving his backhoe up the hill to install the underground water tanks. Why doesn't her drive his truck up the hill and graivty fill the tanks?

Backhoe has an electrical short which kills the battery. All he has to do his find the short or disconnect the battery after use or put in a battery disconnect switch. Nope, he jumps it every time.

Excellent free advise from Poster, he ignores and freely admits he doesn't read them.
 
I watched their "progress" until I couldn't take him any longer. He acts like he is all knowledgeable but keeps screwing up. The few times his wife suggested a better way he verbally slaps her down. Did you see the one about erecting the foam blocks for the foundation? He had a laser level, bragged how it would help them and did not used it on his foundation walls. Then they trimmed the top off the foam wrong and then visually guessed when they poured the concrete.

Or the time he ignore the professionally drawn blueprints because he knew of a better way...and screwed up?

Dug the water lines from the hill to the house put didn't put the water lines in. Next spring the trench had caved in and his wife was digging the trench out by hand. And he didn't use the fitting recommend and has to go back and dig up the water lines again.

The two water tanks he has above on the hill. He didn't install them on a firm foundation. The tank are connected under ground by a PVC pipe. When the tanks sift the pipe will break.

He/she hauls water from town. Generator powers the pump they use to pump the water up hill to the storage tanks, then the water flows down hill when they need it. He didn't have any problems driving his backhoe up the hill to install the underground water tanks. Why doesn't her drive his truck up the hill and gravity fill the tanks?

Backhoe has an electrical short which kills the battery. All he has to do his find the short or disconnect the battery after use or put in a battery disconnect switch. Nope, he jumps it every time.

Excellent free advise from Poster, he ignores and freely admits he doesn't read them.
I have read some of the comments. I am no pro, so I don't know the mistakes. I do know others do and tell them.

If it were me, I would have a well drilled, if possible, closer to the house. I do know they consulted someone to have it done. They do live on a big hill of rock, so I imagine have a well drilled would be difficult.
 
Yea, have someone check out that second panel. You'll want to make sure it's a "transfer switch", not a sub-panel or panel related to a demand meter.
 
Yea, have someone check out that second panel. You'll want to make sure it's a "transfer switch", not a sub-panel or panel related to a demand meter.
I have an electrician friend that made his own transfer switch on his main panel, he made a flat metal slide plate on the dead front of the panel that only allows the generator breakers or grid power breakers to be turned on separately, actually quiet ingenious, low cost and safe. Transfer switches can cost almost as much as the generator but I have another friend that is a generator expert and salvages the electrical equipment from wood mills that have shut down and he sold me a transfer switch for $100, I have it in our solar power system shed and will be installing an outside inlet box for plugging a generator into that connects to the transfer switch. It's not automatic but it does the job. My friend told me that he could get about $300 for that used transfer switch, anyway I'm grateful that he gave me a break on the price, he also helped me get wire and wire terminals for connecting the batteries, panels and the inverter/charger. Generally the terminals go for well over a dollar a piece and wire in the gauge I needed is really expensive, however since most of the wire was salvaged wire he gave me a decent break.
 
Yea, have someone check out that second panel. You'll want to make sure it's a "transfer switch", not a sub-panel or panel related to a demand meter.
We have a 200 amp automatic transfer switch for our Kohler generator.
 
FINALLY got to unpack and assemble the "genny". It took only about 15 minutes to put it together and attach a 20lb cylinder ,that wernt bad. I let it run about a half hour then per instructions hooked up some items to load the windings. I did not have any hi amp items handy but I did use a skill saw and then run two 50ft extension cord to a 12 amp electric leaf blower then commenced to blow off the driveway. The genny did not hardly even skip when the load was applied.
I had found the outside connection box for the emergency power but it does not have a plug installed. I am going to continue with my plans for having an electrician check out the wiring because inside the emergency connection outlet(inlet?) There was the expected four wire 240V but also a three wire 120? My only guess right now is that there was provisions for two plugs on the inlet or it is a 120V power supply to run a larger home standby generator?
 
Back on this project......The Jenny does a great job within its specs 10000 w gas 9400w on propane,
The electrician and I spent a whole day trying to"figger" out the previous owner's logic in the power supply to the house from the generator panel? Plenty of power to the electric water heater, none to the well pump? 220 to a Jacuzzi bath tub but none to the basement where the freezer lives? Plenty of power to the A.C. units but not to ceiling fans?
We found out not to our surprise that if you use water and the water heater kicks in the breaker on the genset kicks off, I am going to upgrade to a gas water heater to remove that load from the power grid.
Finally have the 250 gal tank installed and spent time yesterday putting together the regulator ,shut off valves and quick connection for the generator.
 
After the Tornadoes came thru Sunday nite the power was out for hours I got to use the generator.
It worked perfectly but fortunately it only had to supply power for only one and half hours since the power was knocked out at one thirty in the morning by a fly over tornado.
When we came up from the basement at 1:45 a.m. I just did a quick check around the property from the porch as far as a Streamlight flashlight would reach to see if there would be any downed tree's or other concerns, Twern't nun so I tried to just go back to bed.....
That is when I discovered a downside to having an auto connect genset!
I don't have one but the neighbors do and every time it would cycle their outside flood lights would come on for three minutes lighting up the area not to mention the noise.
I talked to another neighbor yesterday who confirmed my thoughts on the auto systems, his kept him awake the rest of the night from cycling also. For me I will just stick with the manual connect model.
 
...That is when I discovered a downside to having an auto connect genset!... cycle their outside flood lights would come on for three minutes lighting up the area not to mention the noise....

I don't understand what was causing the neighbor's generator to cycle on and off?
 
My guess would be the well pump . When the pressure drops in the accumulator tank,they may have a leaky foot valve letting the water drain back.
 
Could have been getting short bursts of grid power, even low voltage bursts. ????

Automatic generators I'm familiar with have an adjustable timer. Power has to out x minutes before the generator starts and utility power has to be restored x minutes before generator shuts down. At work we had generators set at 1 minute to start and 30 minutes to shutdown.
 
Automatic generators I'm familiar with have an adjustable timer. Power has to out x minutes before the generator starts and utility power has to be restored x minutes before generator shuts down. At work we had generators set at 1 minute to start and 30 minutes to shutdown.
I was just throwing out a possibility. Otherwise nothing I can think of makes any sense.
 
Generac generator 's that seem to be the most common around here are noted with having electronic component problems, the reason for the cycling bugged me also.
 
Automatic generators I'm familiar with have an adjustable timer. Power has to out x minutes before the generator starts and utility power has to be restored x minutes before generator shuts down. At work we had generators set at 1 minute to start and 30 minutes to shutdown.
I had a good backup system (non-generator) that we sold in the house in Alabama. Used it for over 10 years.
It could run 80% of the house. Switchover time: 0 volts utility to backup - 40ms. Faster than you can say the word "it". Nothing even blinked. If we didn't try to use something high-amps, we would never even know the power was off. It was impervious to brown-outs, surges, overvolts, or spikes.
It would wait for the utility power to be stable for 60 seconds before switching back.
The nice part, it was 'user-transparent'. No sound and no input needed from a human.
I kept it running for 4 days straight one time using 2 pickup trucks in series.

It was still working flawlessly when I walked away from it in 2018. (I demo'd it for the buyer).
Probably posted about it all over here, somewhere.
 

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