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We had a bit of a squall run through here.
The power went out for about three hours and I now know that my uninterruptible power sources aren't good for that long.
A fan, light and radio, each powered by Ryobi One+ batts, do last for that long.
So I was reading a book when the power came back and everything came back online just like it was supposed.
I'm pretty pleased about that!
I learned that some people are better prepared for outages than me too!
I don't have the scratch for a whole house backup, but I am, officially, jealous now!
Understand the lack of scratch, but there are solutions. There is this company which is U.S. based but I think Chinese, that makes pretty good generator sets. Firman is the name.
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago I gave away my old U.S. made genset (5KW) to my son, his region of Michigan got flattened and they were without power for well over a week.
So had to replace mine, in searching I found Firman who offered a tri fuel version rated at 9KW or so, can run on gasoline, propane or natural gas at the turn of a selector switch on the feed line. Almost fell out of my chair at the price new. Then thanks to divine providence, the company had a sale of factory refurbished units, I think I paid 398 bucks for one where the normal price was north of 800. It arrived by truck, free shipping to boot.
Now the interesting part of the story, unpacked, set up and filled sump with oil per instructions. Got her running and lo and behold, the oil in sump began dripping out under the machine in a steady stream. Shut down and began investigating, apparently the main seal on the engine was damaged/leaking like mad. Contacted the company, explained the issue, included a video of the drip and fast filling pan I had placed under unit to protect floor.
Short of it is that they immediately send me a replacement unit, again by truck, and the trucker took back the old unit on the same pallet the new one arrived on. New unit works flawlessly and as it is battery start (I am getting too old to yank on cords) I put a nice NOCO battery tender on it 24/7. Of course, this means (thanks to Murphy) that we have not lost power since, so other than the periodic test run, it sits collecting dust under the cover.
Keep an eye out for the brand and their periodic factory scratch and dent/refurb sales, it is a bargain and I have to say their customer service was superb. Not on their payroll or getting any scratch for this writeup, was just impressed with their service.
I just looked and if you hit the right deal on e-bay, you can get a Firman 9400W refurb. dual fuel for $525 and free shipping.
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