Home generator now in place - guaranteeing no repeat of Sandy
After several months of planning and waiting, our home generator is hooked up and works. To keep in good shape it is timed to run for 15 minutes one day a week. I chose Wednesdays at 10am, a choice based on assuming no neighbors would still be sleeping or have started napping.
Others in the neighborhood have these powerful generators as well that will run their entire house automatically in the event of a power shutdown, and those shutdowns are more or less certain to happen here in storms or for no reason at all given the incompetence and corruption at LIPA and on Long Island, all discussed in detail in prior posts here. When they are turned on at other houses we can certainly here them, but with houses not so closely packed together it is not an annoyance of any consequence.
Today's first real trial 15 minutes worked perfectly. It was seamless. The generator took over for the 15 minutes and there was no blip of change in the house, no minor dimming of lights on the change, just nothing. What was noticeable when I stepped outside is that it sounds like a '57 Chevy with a defective muffler up close. We can't hear it in the house in any inconvenient way as it is located at the back left corner of the garage, but outside... I guess at times when it is needed neither we nor our neighbors will be lounging outside anyway.
We chose a Kohler machine, modestly more expensive than the most popular brand as it is generally viewed as better made and quieter. I guess the less expensive choice sounds like a motorcycle revving up. What is interesting is that there are three manufacturers of these generators, all based in an area of Minnesota. Just like centers of excellence and talent for technology - Palo Alto, Cambridge, Research Triangle, Austin, and now the Flatiron district and extending to west 10th in NYC etc. - there are centers of talent for many other products as well. Generators now discovered, and through investing, at first not so well, and then exceptionally well, I discovered that the center for Recreational Vehicles and their parts suppliers is in some parts of small town Indiana.
Next step, get the new gas line connected to the boiler and heat with gas instead of the incredibly expensive oil, which is more expensive by the gallon than gas at the pump. This is the next step of coordinating workers, but the first big step is now successfully done.
Others in the neighborhood have these powerful generators as well that will run their entire house automatically in the event of a power shutdown, and those shutdowns are more or less certain to happen here in storms or for no reason at all given the incompetence and corruption at LIPA and on Long Island, all discussed in detail in prior posts here. When they are turned on at other houses we can certainly here them, but with houses not so closely packed together it is not an annoyance of any consequence.
Today's first real trial 15 minutes worked perfectly. It was seamless. The generator took over for the 15 minutes and there was no blip of change in the house, no minor dimming of lights on the change, just nothing. What was noticeable when I stepped outside is that it sounds like a '57 Chevy with a defective muffler up close. We can't hear it in the house in any inconvenient way as it is located at the back left corner of the garage, but outside... I guess at times when it is needed neither we nor our neighbors will be lounging outside anyway.
We chose a Kohler machine, modestly more expensive than the most popular brand as it is generally viewed as better made and quieter. I guess the less expensive choice sounds like a motorcycle revving up. What is interesting is that there are three manufacturers of these generators, all based in an area of Minnesota. Just like centers of excellence and talent for technology - Palo Alto, Cambridge, Research Triangle, Austin, and now the Flatiron district and extending to west 10th in NYC etc. - there are centers of talent for many other products as well. Generators now discovered, and through investing, at first not so well, and then exceptionally well, I discovered that the center for Recreational Vehicles and their parts suppliers is in some parts of small town Indiana.
Next step, get the new gas line connected to the boiler and heat with gas instead of the incredibly expensive oil, which is more expensive by the gallon than gas at the pump. This is the next step of coordinating workers, but the first big step is now successfully done.
posted by John Borden at 12:38 PM
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