Genmon plugin for XTension (was Re: Whole House Generators)

[Richard Leonard]

If you are going to store gasoline, or use gasoline in any small engines for that matter, see if any filling stations near you pump no-ethanol gas.  It might be high test, and it might cost more, but from what I hear, it is much better for the reliability and longevity of small engines.  We have a station near us that carries it and that is all I use now in the mower/chainsaw/splitter/snowblower/pressure washer/weedwacker/etc…. Seems to be good for them.

Rich


> On Feb 9, 2022, at 12:38 PM, Jerry — MacSolutions <jerry at stlmacguy.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>> 
>> I just don’t think that a single solution will meet all your needs. I think that if the scenarios that you mention happen, the major earth quake or massive long term civil unrest you’re not going to be able to stay in one place indefinitely. Your home is not a castle prepared for siege. At some point in such a situation you will have to bug out. If the generators get you past the initial evacuation so that you have more time to get yourself together and wait for the worst crowds on the highways to lighten up then it’s done it’s job. I don’t think you can really plan to stay indefinitely once civilization has collapsed ;) I could really get stuck here for a couple of weeks if we get hit as badly as we did for that storm who’s name I don’t remember. We were lucky to have no major damage to the house, no flooding even reached my crawlspace and no tree fell on the house, though several fell away from it so that was pretty scary. So I do plan to be stuck here that long. The longer we have to stay the less pleasant it’s going to be. If the NG stays on then we’re golden for power and AC. If not we can get by on the smaller generators. But not indefinitely.
> 
> I guess that my goal timeframe would be a few weeks to a couple of months.   I don’t expect the world to end if there is some kind fo civil conflict but it may cause people who maintain pipes to not come in to work.  An Major Earthquake would be a real issue.  That might last a year or more, try to rebuild road, pipelines, etc.  So I do understand needing a more portable, short term, solution.
>> 
>> As far as stock piling gas, that is basically what I was doing. In rather expensive special storage canisters with enough to run that smaller generator for almost a week. Storing gas is dangerous and if you don’t do it right it can build up to the right concentration and explode taking your entire garage off the side of the house or worse. What I was doing was staggering my buying of it by a year and adding stable or whatever that stuff is that keeps it from going bad for a couple of years. After the hurricane season was over I would start using the 2 year old gas in my car and save the newer gas, then start buying up again as the next hurricane season began. That way it never got so old that I had to find a way to throw it out or recycle it which is a pain. I can’t recall exactly how many gallons I was storing, I’m not doing that anymore. I planned on running the generator at half load about half the time and did the math on a little more than that. It would not have run the big generator for nearly as long of course, but I planned to run that only for a few hours a day to make the main AC drop the house temp and then switch to the smaller one for just keeping the fridges going in between. So now I just have a few gas cans filled up, but not the scary amount that I did have previously. If a storm was approaching I would probably fill up one or 2 more just in case or to share if necessary and the NG was still on.  In the past at least some gas was available here as soon as the bridge was cleared for access. It was expensive though. At least I wouldn’t have needed that much every day.
> 
> A neighbor, during the gas crisis in the 1970’s, had a huge tank of diesel on a stand in his garage.  At the time, we just smiled, shrugged our collective shoulders and moved on.   At the time, I didn’t know that diesel wasn’t flammable.  So we stayed away from his garage!
> 
> I didn’t realize that the additives would keep gasoline “fresh” for such a long time.   I’ll ponder a place where we might be able to keep several cans of fuel, like that. 
> 
> I just need a place to store the actual generator.   That may be the hardest part of all of this.   We just have no room!
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks,
>>  James
>> 
>> 
>> James Sentman                       http://www.PlanetaryGear.org		http://MacHomeAutomation.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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