Re: Whole house generators (slightly OT)

["Robert L Bass" <robertbass1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> That's a very cool idea!

My first generator was a small, portable unit.  It was *loud*!!!  It also had to be fed gasoline about once every 90 minutes.  The
first time a storm knocked out power I set it up in my driveway and ran extension cords in for the fridge and a few lights.  This
was at my first home -- a tiny place with the neighbors' home about 30 feet away.

That night when I went out about 11:00 pm to refill the tank the neighbor, an unpleasant older woman with a bad temper through open
her window and started screaming at me that she was going to call the police about the racket.  Of course, since it was a declared
state of emergency at the time, the police were less than sympathetic to her complaint.  They did stop by to let us know she was
upset (as though I didn't already know this) but they said that we had the right to run the generator.

The next morning I spooled out a heavy, outdoor extension cord, plugged it, dragged the business end to her front door and knocked.
She opened the door, took one look at that cord and said, "What did you do?  It got so much quieter."  It was another three days
before the power was restored.  She ran her fridge, a lamp and a small TV so "George" could watch his football games.  After that
they never gave us any trouble.

When I installed the 8 kW genset in our next home the first thing I did was install outside outlets for my two abutting neighbors.
Both were powered from a dedicated 30 Amp breaker.  Every time we had a major outage I ran cords to both neighbors.  The one behind
loved us.  The one on the left side (we had a corner lot) put up a fence and acted like we were invaders except when she needed
power.  Go figure.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

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Bass Home Electronics
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