2:15 am and one of my neighbors....
 

Knocks on my door asking why my lights are on.

Just after midnight the power went out.. a few seconds later my generator kicked in and I'm still sitting at my desk working. Didn't think about it again. All the sudden the dog barks and I'm freaking out cause it's the middle of the night.

I peek out a window and it's someone I recognize from the neighborhood. I open the door and they ask "How come your lights are on?" I'm thinking what a dumb question and I say "Cause I'm still up". Then I hear the generator in the shed on the other side of the garage (8 cylinder engine running at 1800 rpm) and I realize the power is still off.

So it powers your whole house and turns on automatically? Nice.

How much gas does it chew up?

They seem pretty nosey....

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh that's funny!

what's a generator like that run you? lol but then again when the power goes out here that means i get to stop working and relax

It's piped into the natural gas line. We figured it out one time and at a 50% load it was cheaper than electricity.

are they usually nosy neighbours, or are they just acting out of concern?

We're putting in provision (electrical + gas) for such a generator in our next house, and maybe the actual gen unit too if the building budget allows. ;)

How reliable is your power normally?

Every little outage we would get in the winters I kept saying I was going to get a generator. ..an hour or two here... 8 hours many times... several long dark nights... Then 2 winters ago we had an outage that lasted 5 days in my area. On day four after losing everything in my fridge and both freezers, I snagged a little gas generator at Sears. Even for the one day.. what a pain in the butt.

I started checking on Home Standby generators especially since I'm on a natural gas line. Finally settled for a beefy model so that it ran at a lower rpm. What I got is a Kohler 35KW. It's essentially a GM Vortec 4.3L V6 engine (I posted above it was a V8 but I was wrong). Generator alone was about $16K in 2007. Then there's the transfer switch and a very very long run of gas pipe that had to be done. Installed it was $23K. Some would say that's alot but with the value of my house and the fact that it increases resale value... and on top of that the fact that I'm not without power ever again short of some disaster that breaks the gas lines too....

it was worth it.

They were checking around the neighborhood and my house was one of only a few that had lights on (including my outdoor landscape lighting). They saw enough lights on that the figured I was awake and I guess they didn't even think about the fact they could hear an engine running.

so no 911 calls ?:winkwink:and a chance to have a beer with Obama ?:drinkup:drinkup

your neighbors is curious why you have lights and they dont hehehehe. :)

Mentioned that in the post I just wrote.. which was after your post.

In the winter it would go out with any major wind storm. Then off times the rest of the year for anywhere from a couple of hours to 8 or more. In the winter of 2006/2007, we went 5 days with no power and freezing temperatures. I packed my my desktop and moved it to a hotel with working power and internet about half an hour away from my house. My son refused to leave the house at all, because he has reptiles that had to stay warm somehow. He moved them all to in front of my gas fireplace insert. I felt so bad that he wouldn't leave that I didn't stay in the hotel, but rather worked from there part of the day and came back home.

When the power came back on and things settled back to normal, I went hunting for generators. Went overkill for what most would do, but I figured if I was going to bother putting one in, it might as well power the entire house (except for the outdoor ponds and the A/C unit) which is 4300 sq feet.

lol nice..

you should hit `em from the window with potatos and eggs lol

damn your pretty patient shit talking neighbors big prob

That is a sweet sounding setup.

I would tell him to mind his own fucking business, then call the cops on him.

Its a good time to talk to the neigbors and sell them same system for 40k

Call you say "stalkey"??

Looked at a bunch a while back. Most start at around 5k for a decent self contained unit that sits outside. Your's sounds awesome and for your area a very good idea to have.

they were probably robbers breaking into peoples houses and stealing shit while they had the dark by their side lol asking you why are your lights on theyve been planning to hit your house for 3 years lol they finally got a chance and your shits still running :1orglaugh

Did you read the part in the original post where PK explained that she recognized the person who knocked on her door from the neighborhood?

One a side note it's a rather sad commentary on life when your hosting provider offers you better uptime than your local power company.

PKs do you keep a firearm in the house for nosey people who aren't your neighbors? :D

Fucking amazing!!! I thought you had to shovel coal into the furnace to power up these generators....

And here I thought I was a bit special with a 300w powerwattz inverter as a backup. :1orglaugh

Your setup sounds sweet - jealous here.

I guess it's only a fantasy the fact of having only great neighbors.Nice generator you have :thumbsup

too much work sometimes makes us nuts

funny story

as it was the power came back on at 3:15 am (1400 customers) and then went back out again at 4 am for over 700 customers including me. Dunno what happened the first time, but the second time it was a tree on lines. Not sure if a car hit it or what. Haven't had any windstorms or any rain for a while. It took out the cable also.

Power came back up at 10:30 am and cable about 45 minutes ago.

So all total over 10 hours overnight with the generator paying for itself.

Now I'm waiting on the rain-delayed Nascar cup race to start on tv.. and today is SeaFair Sunday in Seattle.. Hydroplanes on Lake Washington all afternoon.. and weather in the low 90's to go with it.

Nice, just heading out to watch the Blue angels. Will be taking my boat out on the lake with some beer and get some sun :)

we did that a couple of years in the late 90s when I had the boat (36 foot). Boat went to my ex in the divorce.. payments when to me.. until he sold it cause he needed money.

I haven't bothered to buy another one since cause I was scared to have one of my boys jumping off the transom to tie up with two propellers running in the water right below them.

sounds like awesome purchase

What a pimp setup. Good going!

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh only if black :D

You should have told them You work in porn :thumbsup

Damn I need to get something like that.

I ussualy like to smoke a fat joint during black outs... yup! no generator here...

Did he invite himself in? What a dumbass if he said oh well and went back into his dark hole lol

Wait you didnt say if your neighbor is a he or she? i guess it doesnt matter hehe

I take it you have a backup internet connection as well. :) I'm about to get wireless, it's user pays with a $5 monthly admin fee, so it's virtually $nil when everything works fine.

i want one !

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

why do I get this image of PK answering the door going, I have power, purrrrrrrrrrrr.

didn't even know they could hook those up to the natural gas lines. what a great idea.

you never cease to amaze me lady! beauty and brains, a kickass combo :thumbsup the neighbor thing would have totally weirded me out at that hour. that's not normal to show up and ask about your power after midnight. not like he couldn't wait til the next day. he wants in your panties i'm thinkin. but then again, who doesn't?

That is nice...i hate when the eletricity goes down..