Power Outage..

[Trip McNeely]

generac on propane is the best option . my generator is a pto 17k . i store a lot of diesel so i'm good. with diesel you just need good filters . but i cant imagine anyone not getting prepared for another crisis like this. another week and it would have been really deadly .
as for diesel it is not uncommon to fire up a dozer or other equipment that has sat for years .

How do you like your PTO? What kind of HP is your tractor? Does is gulp fuel? Thinking of getting a PTO Generator once I get my 40 horse tractor.

[scootro]

I'm interested to see how much my bills are gonna be after all this crap

[bubbaearl]

i have a 70hp tractor so it uses very little fuel and it will run the gen at a high idle . i spent the money on the 17k gen without a power source . a power source will cost more than a generator . would like to find an old izusu pickup to use to run it . cut it up and put it all in a shed .
first thing i noticed when i moved down here were all the pto generators to run dairy farms and such.

[Trip McNeely]

i have a 70hp tractor so it uses very little fuel and it will run the gen at a high idle . i spent the money on the 17k gen without a power source . a power source will cost more than a generator . would like to find an old izusu pickup to use to run it . cut it up and put it all in a shed .
first thing i noticed when i moved down here were all the pto generators to run dairy farms and such.

That's awesome. With hurricanes impending this year now that I'm in the area to get them I've been looking. PTO sounds great and I'm already about to get a tractor anyways.

[lowthreeohz]

neighbor has a tac-quiet mounted on a rubber foundation behind his house - fucker is almost dead silent when running and it's enough to power his house (2 zones ac/heat) and he paid less than 6k to get it and have it installed. i looked at some the other day but i think your weather drove the price up pretty considerably.

[davbrucas]

We have a generac here as well, that ended up not workin. Some fault protection failed and we can't get a generac rep to come look at it, no one calls back.

That blows. Happened to my friend as well. He got his working though. Had to clear the fault and reset it. Worked fine after. I’ve never had to use mine but it does cone on periodically for a few minutes.

[Tx Redneck]

That blows. Happened to my friend as well. He got his working though. Had to clear the fault and reset it. Worked fine after. I’ve never had to use mine but it does cone on periodically for a few minutes.

I was dickin with it at 3am, in the snow and cold. Couldn't get the fault to clear(two switches to be flipped at the same time), but it wouldn't do it. Interestingly enough, it ran its weekly "exercise" and self test on the previous Wednesday.

[bubbaearl]

you can get a pto unit for around 2 grand .

[TX_92_Notch]

A close friend of mine bought a generator that will power his entire 5,800 SF house. It has a small combustion engine to power the generator - the engine runs on natural gas.

He couldn't get it to start when their power went out. It was tripping some code on the screen. Luckily his son knows someone that works on generators and the guy told him all he had to do is reset it to clear that specific code. Started right up after that.

He told me he paid around $20k for the whole setup, installed.

[GhostTX]

Anybody in Bedford have this happen?

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/weather-news/article249382415.html

[Broncojohnny]

I'm going to be a dick and correct you on this one only because this is a small niche where I can loosely call myself... expert-adjacent. Keeping the tank full is good because it minimizes condensation space, but don't mix gasoline with diesel. You'll instantly lower the flash point and initial boiling point (IBP) to levels that could potentially damage a diesel engine. Octane is the exact opposite of cetane.

Keeping the tank full will minimize nearly all of the risk on its own if you're starting with a clean tank.





Microbial growth in fuel can happen anywhere a hydrocarbon and water molecule touch, which tends to be on the boundary layer at the bottom of a tank. Also, the more biodiesel you have blended in your fuel the more susceptible you'll be to growth - biodiesel is not a hydrocarbon, its a mono-alkyl ester which is polar (contains oxygen) so it attracts water. Nearly all pumps these days are B5 due to economics, but if you go to a Pilot, Flying J, etc you're likely to get B20.

The best things you can do are to get the lowest possible biodiesel blend in the fuel, have the best housekeeping practices possible (full tank and regular water draining), and use an antioxidant storage additive to keep the double-bonded hydrocarbons (olefins, aromatics, etc) from breaking down prematurely, or a biocide additive if you have growth that's already started.

The gasoline is just an algaecide. You put a very small amount in there, maybe an ounce in a 55 gallon drum. As the tank gets lower and the air space increases, you get more condensation which causes the fungus/algae/whatever to grow. The tiny bit of gasoline helps stops the fungus. You can also polish it, which is just running it through a filter and putting it back in at the top of the tank. Both ideas are from merchant marine ships where they have tanks with thousands of gallons sitting around forever at times.

One thing is for sure, I don't want a gasoline generator and if I get one it will only see the ethanol free gas.

[kingjason]

One thing is for sure, I don't want a gasoline generator and if I get one it will only see the ethanol free gas.

I was really surprised mine cranked after not running it at least three years and not putting new gas in it. This thing is probably25 years old, smokes like a chimney, shakes so hard it slides around, and you can here it for a block. Like it was my old ass buddies dads. Maybe they don't have close tolerances somewhere to get gummed up. I mean I had a four wheeler that sat up a year and it all sorts of fucked up the carb.

[Chili]

Anybody in Bedford have this happen?

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/w...249382415.html

Damn, that was pretty stupid! Haha. I guess they locked the cover itself? Ours in Euless certainly weren't locked as I had to turn it off a number of times when working on remodel stuff inside.

This new house we're in has in internal shutoff for water, in addition to the one at the street. Ours is in the garage where the external line comes into the house. Just saves a little effort..

Growing up in CA we were all taught (in elementary school) how to shut off our own water and gas, in case of an earthquake.

[Strychnine]

"ERCOT Removes Griddy's Right to Operate"

[Tx Redneck]

Boy, that's some damage control speak if I've ever read any.

But, to play the devil's advocate, if their claim is true, shame on the PUC and ERCOT.