Getting ready for winter

[Fiddlehead44]

         Many years ago, it was customary for the Hydro company

to dispatch several crews of linemen to clear away dead trees,

branches and other dangers to their lines. These days cutbacks

have eliminated this practise and the first snow storm will cause

many power outages. I live in a rural area and this problem is

even more severe.

From info obtained from this site, I built a backup generator.

An old lawnmower that I bought at a yard sale several years ago.

$20.00. The engine is a 3.8 HP Tecumseh and I bought a new plug

for it, changed the oil and cleaned the air filter. I fitted with

a 4" pully and purchased a Delco 37 amp alternator from the local

wreckers. $15.00. I had the pulleys and an old belt. I took the

old mower wheels and handle and mounted everything on a scrap piece of

3/4 " plywood with a 2x4 frame. I also had a small walmart battery

and some used cables. I plan to get a better(bigger) battery for it.

Before I started it today, I hooked up my voltmeter.



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Started it up and turned on the handle mounted switch.



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I can hook up my little inverter and run a drill or a grinder.

My main interest is to power my fridge or computer. It will do this easily.

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Fiddlehead.

[AbyssUnderground]

Looks good. At least your food won't go stale if you have an outage.

[etownlax]

Thats the least of your concerns.. You need TV for up todate sports. Thats where its at.

Hahah.. but seriously thats a nice set-up you have there. Hopefully you won't even need to use it but, its there if you do.

-Randy

[TomW]

Abyss;

Food loss would suck but the reality is most furnaces are scrap iron without power. couple days of sub zero and then the joy of replacing your plumbing. Another plus of ye olde steel box with a vent to heat. Works as long as you got fuel most any fuel. wood, coal, straw, hay even tires. Joking about the tires but if its "freeze or torch the spare tire" its bye bye  tire. We keep a fair size shed at least half full of firewood at all times so unless its an ice age I won't need the tires.

Seen stretches of several days with no power here in the past. Usually during some literally killer blizzards and -30 F temps for days on end. Just the kind of event you need to be capable of coping with here occasionally. Snow bound with no power and nothing but stale Cheetos to lunch on is no fun. Even then, there is always the cats and the dog.

I ramble.

By the way, nice setup, Fiddlehead. Its nice to have the amenities when the rest are sitting in the dark.

Cheers.

TomW

[spinningmagnets]

A website with stuff like this recommends putting several light bulb sockets in parallel. Insert 100 watt bulbs until the voltage dips slightly, and this will give you an accurate mark of actual max output (some inverter losses, etc)

"A psychiatrist is a man who goes to a strip club,... and watches the audience." -Merv Stockwood.

[DamonHD]

TomW,

If it's not a huge secret, whereabouts are you based?

Rgds

Damon

[AbyssUnderground]

TomW;

I suppose you're right. I guess because I'm in the UK I don't think about cold being an issue so much. In winter here, temperatures rarely plummet below freezing and a nice blanket would keep the average person adequately warm.

Most UK houses also have gas so people's gas fires will still work even if there is no electricity. An upside I guess. I suppose furnaces have the downside of no heat with no electricity.

I need some other sort of charge source now as well with Winter rolling in. Over the last 7 days I've managed less than 2Ah of incoming power through my 36w of solar. System voltage is down to 12.80v at rest, the lowest its ever sat at. I've actually not used any loads on it for over a week because of this.

[TomW]

About 43 degrees North Latitude about a hundred miles west of Lake Michigan. [upper Midwest]