Lister Engine Forum
Lister Engines => Listeroid Engines => Topic started by: George A on September 04, 2015, 03:59:15 PM
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Forgive a somewhat "windy" post........but this is too good to not share.
My wife is a wonder among women....intelligent, caring, the center of my universe. It took me three tries to find her, but the wait was worth it. Up until this point I had collected various antique stationary engines (gasoline) and she tolerated that with a simple rolling of her eyes and a "I don't get it" attitude. When I began fussing over my Vidhata, mounting generators, etc.....the attitude got a little more challenging.
"Our power has never gone out for more than an hour. You spend way too much time on that thing......we'll never need it." "It's noisy." "It smells." etc. etc.
Well, last night at 6:30 pm while our kids and grandchildren were visiting for dinner....poof! T.V. quit. Lights went out. No one said anything except "Oh, great. No cartoons for the kids". I waited. Patiently. After an hour or so, I calmly asked her to back her car out of the garage so I could roll "that thing" from its storage position into the center of the garage. I quietly cranked up the beast, made note of the voltage and began stringing extension cords into the house (still waiting for my circuit breaker lock out kit). Since it was getting dark, I plugged in two lamps and my coffee maker....ignoring the refrigerator for awhile, as I was sure the juice would be back on soon. I turned to my daughter in law, the only other coffee drinker, and asked in a loud gloating tone......."May I offer you a cup of DIESEL coffee? Brewed by the standby generator that SOMEONE had the foresight to build?"
My wife ignored this and kept setting the table, placing the still warm food and inviting everyone to sit down. After a couple of minutes, I rose and got the coffee, placed it in front of the daughter in law and asked "Does everyone have enough light? Would you like me to turn on.....oh, I don't know...four or five MORE lamps?" My wife just sat there, quietly eating.
After dinner, she asked if the grandkids would like to bathe before going home (they live quite a distance away) so they could go right to bed after getting there. "Oh!" I said, in a smirking tone....."Let me plug in our tankless water heater!" I walked to the door, looked outside and said "Oh, look. No one else in the neighborhood has lights! Thanks to some resident electrical genius, WE DO!"
By this time my stepson was laughing his head off as he realizes that, like revenge, gloating is a dish best served cold. They finally packed up and headed home before my wife finally said something. "Do you think you should shut that off now? It's almost nine o'clock and people do have to go to work tomorrow....." I agreed, even though I had not plugged in our refrigerator since the initial outage.
I had called the power company and their estimation was 9:30 for power back on. By 11:30 we realized this wasn't the case and the power did not come back on until 4:00 am this morning. It looks like our fridge held the cold alright so we didn't lose any food.
So, finally, the closing quote. I asked my wife if she now saw the reason for "being prepared" (yes, I was a Boy Scout). Her only comment?
"It needs a better muffler........." :)
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I love it!
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"It needs a better muffler........."
Your mouth or the Vidhata? ;D As a man who as of this month has been married 30 years, it's always best to apologize when you're right. Fortunately I've never needed to do that. :P
Congrats on the successful run! A transfer switch and a big cord makes thinks a lot easier. Next the neighbors will be wanting to plug their extension cords in too.
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"It needs a better muffler........."
Your mouth or the Vidhata?
Not to worry. We've had a 21 year relationship based on the fact that she's always right. I am too........when she lets me. :) All of the above was in good fun.
I forgot to mention that I had a 300 watt halogen worklight plugged in next to the Vidhata also. All together not much of a load really, in fact the ammeter hardly showed anything at all except when the coffee maker was fired up. Then it indicated a whopping 2.0 amps or so, and dropped to almost nothing when the main heating element shut down. So, the grand total was two LED light bulbs, one worklight and the coffee maker.....a "toy" load really, but it proved the point. I plugged in the tankless water heater (gas) also, but the only power it needs is for the little computer inside and the ignitor.
"Lister flicker"? Yup....had that too, but it could only be noticed if you looked directly at a lamp and even then it was so minor that it can be ignored. This may change when the load gets larger and only time will tell with that one.
As for the engine itself, it just chugged along merrily. The noise was only noticeable outside as the open garage door served like a megaphone to the neighborhood. I should have walked across the street to get a better idea of the sound but I was too busy patting myself on the back. This morning I'll check fluids and make note of any improvements. Like a better muffler..........
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Funny how that works !!
Gary
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I used an expired 20lb LPG tank which worked out pretty good. The exhaust on mine is underground and exits out the side of a hill. Like this is quite directional. In line with the exhaust it can be heard for a long distance, but 90 deg off and it can barely be heard. You might a straight up stack and see how that does.
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We had a three day power outage in june and my wife was so happy that we had power since we have a very large frig and two chest freezers full of food. The freezers are mostly meat. My metro ran like a champ for about 12 hours a day for those three days. Being a hybrid diesel / natural gas it used very little diesel.
We also have a larger 3600rpm 8kw screamer (also running on natural gas) if we need to run our central air.
We are using a a generator interlock like the one listed below which allows us to energize all of the loads in our house. While we cant run everything at the same time we can run anything we need to except the central AC on the listeroid. If we need to run ac I just switch to the 8kw generator
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GE-200XA-General-Electric-GE-Generator-interlock-kit-200A-Panel-Listed-/290985213752?hash=item43c011ff38
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It's cool that you have an efficient diesel generator to provide back up power.
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My interlock kit arrived in this afternoon's mail. Not bad, considering I just bought it Tuesday and it shipped from New Joisy! I'll put it in tomorrow.
The exhaust noise being directional interests me. I had originally intended to use a propane tank as suggested above, but that was back when the unit was to be permanently installed. Now it looks like it will stay on its rolling cart for awhile, so I'll either buy or build a smaller, longer vertical tank to allow the gasses to expand before they exit......and have that exit pointed straight up. With an exhaust flapper (rain stack) of course! It will work on the principle of a "cyclone" style air cleaner, spinning the gasses to cool them. It would cost me nothing to build and should make an interesting improvement.
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Why not simply use a car muffler? They work wonderfully on the Listeroids. Very quiet.
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i use a very cheap about 20 dollar automotive muffler on my listeroid with an expansion tank (not sure if the tank is necessary) and the exhaust cant be heard at all 40 feet away.
even at 5 feet away all you really hear is puff puff puff
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You know, I considered an automotive (or tractor) muffler but thought it wouldn't be sufficient. I'm glad to find out I'm wrong.......a decent sized car or tractor muffler would fit better on my frame too. Thank you!
Still gonna put the rain stack (flapper) on top though........have to stay with tradition!
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Junk yard, saws-all, old Cadillac, and $5. Near perfect quite. Wrapped all exhaust pipe and muffler with heat wrap too.
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My wife thought I was crazy to buy the roid. Cheaper on Walmart Online
My neighbors on his third Walmart Generator
My roid starts up and is connected to power the whole house... including the hot tub
Nothing better that having to turn lights on to give the roid a good work out, while all about sit in the dark and cold.
Mine sits in my detached garage and we can barley hear it... but everyone in our little hamlet can see its working... go to the light!!!!
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My wife thought I was crazy to buy the roid. Cheaper on Walmart Online
My neighbour's on his third Walmart Generator
My roid starts up and is connected to power the whole house... including the hot tub
Nothing better that having to turn lights on to give the roid a good work out, while all about sit in the dark and cold.
Worked like that for me as well. Got a Listeroid from John Ferguson and an Utterpower PMG a few years back. Comment was "what for, we already have a gas generator"
The gas generator was noisy and used a lot of fuel (my excuse)l. A few power outages later (they sometimes last for days here) the Listeroid was a star!
Eventually, we went off grid, so now the Listeroid runs a lot in the grey winters keeping the batteries topped up. Installed a friction starter to make cold weather starting much easier for both of us. That worked so well that ............
I had no trouble justifying the purchase of a genuine Lister 6/1 to rebuild , and was even an additional PMG from George! These for a back-up should there be problems with the Listeroid
Tall cotton!
Cheers,
Hugh
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Wow !
Unfortunately that is the case. The majority of people do not have a clue how to make things work when the grid is absent.
In an extended outage, the biggest threat is "other people", not the outage itself.
There seems to be no preparedness mindset and a total reliance on the "system".
veggie
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Thank God my nearest neighbours are a mile in one direction and 6 miles in the other.
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Wow.........it was the beginning of October when I first posted this. Been busy with a dozen other "winterizing projects" and just now getting back to my Listeroid.
glort.......I know what you mean about people and their attitude. All of a sudden you owe them EVERYTHING just because they say so. Evidently you fail to understand that they're "SPECIAL". Brother................
Anyway, a quick update....
To get away from the extension cord routine, I did the following:
Reactivated the abandoned 10 ga. 220v. electric water heater feed from my garage to the main panel, placing a male 5-20P in the garage wall and labelled it "generator..30 amps max". A lockout at the main panel prevents that specific 30 amp breaker from being engaged unless the main is disconnected. That breaker heats up only four circuits that are designated for the generator, comprised of lights, refrigerator, freezer and some outlets if needed. The last touch was a 12 ga. cord with appopriate 20 amp plug and receptacle (20 amps max from my generator). It ended up being a nice, clean installation, using stuff that was already in place.
My total output is only 2500 watts, so usage would be monitored and load sharing if needed.....but I think it's more than enough for a day or two.
Looks good! One problem........with all the other stuff I've had to do I haven't had the time to actually test everything. Guess I'd better make the time in the next few days, then I'll feel a little more comfortable.
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My Changfoid "the great walla walla xing dong" is a star in the whole neighborhood, not only at home after the last ice storm that lasted 4 days. So much so that I now have 3 changfoids
and a listeroid, a Kohler 5k gas unit, and two 2 cycle units, one a horrible freight, and the other a "rare" 1960's 700 watt unit.
;D My Wife thinks that I'm a Hero!
All because of a rust addiction. ::) well she calls it junk, but useful.
Ron.
I hope I can keep her fooled.
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You can be comforted that she probable thinks the same of you.
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You can be comforted that she probable thinks the same of you.
Bwahahahahaha! :D
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Thanks! I needed a good laugh.
It's just a little close to home ,though. ;D
After 32 years, I am very well aware that I am "expendable".
Ron.
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Ya Ron, number 1 was always giving me the high eye when I spended money on the rattle bang Changfa/ST generator set UNTIL, we had a near 60 hour outage and she was basking in her central A/C while the neighbors was out on the font porch sweating!
Now she has it marked on her calendar and once a month she reminds me it's time to test run the generator! Actually she is in love with the generator now and only puts up with me only because I know how to start it and maintain it.
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Be careful if she asks you to write instructions on how to run it. That task is actually on my honey do list right now. It's been 30 years of marital bliss just this September.
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HA! I haven't even told her it's electric start capable, and she can't crank it. ::) Actually I've never tried the electric start either.- A real man always has an Ace up his sleeve. Yeah, a man real uneasy about my place in the food chain. :-[ Go Tom! 32 here the day after Christmas. It's gotta be the lost puppy syndrome, she feels sorry for me and is afraid I'll starve on my own.
Ron.
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It's a neat feeling isn't it!
My foray into backup power was a 3600 Watt Trace inverter and 4 golf cart batteries I got off a guy 20 miles up the coast. Got a good deal and he threw the batteries in for nothing (he'd never have shipped them).
I played with it for a bit and worked out a place for it to live and got another set of 4 Trojan T-125's for it (spent more on those than the inverter) and Hurricane Irene showed up and knocked out power for 3 1/2 days. I ran on the first set of batteries (fridge, freezer, some lights, TV, etc) and that ran out in around a day. The second (new) set lasted 2 days and at which point the house got quiet again. I basically said to the family "don't open the fridge and hope the power comes back on soon" and in about 6 hours it did, so we didn't lose any food.
That started me on my way towards getting a generator too, at first I looked into Listeroids which is why I frequent this fine site, but eventually I decided on an Onan single cylinder 3000w watercooled Diesel (MDJA) and bought that for $200. It was a sad state of affairs but I took it apart and cleaned it all up, etched it and sanded and primed and painted. Replaced the injector pump which I got from a guy on the Onan group over at smokestak (good folks there much like the people here, very helpful). It took me a few months and a lot of garage space to finish the restoration.
I did get the "when are you going to get rid of that thing" (not) "It's smelly" (so?) "we never lose power" (yet) "what are those batteries for? (what happens when they run out) "I might back my car into it" (I wouldn't recommend it, you will smash your car up and won't hurt the generator" so it lived on a dolly between the two car spaces in the garage...
Then Hurricane Sandy hit! after the initial storm hit, the power went off and we went dark (around 7pm at night if I recall) I got the house going on the inverter (had replaced the original battery set by then) and since I have an oil fired hot water heater we could put the kids in the shower etc. Next morning I got up (still no power) got the generator out of the garage and fired it up. While it was warming up I pulled the cord to the house and plugged the inverter into it so now the little Onan was running the house AND recharging the batteries. Brewed up some coffee and then had my nice hot shower. I don't care how rough you're living if you can start your day off with a hot coffee and a nice hot shower, you're not doing too bad.
This went on for a week (we were out of power for 6 1/2 days) and that little Onan never skipped a beat. I ran it out of fuel once and a safety oil pressure sense line fatigued off and that dropped the decomp solenoid. Both of those were easy fixes. I ran a cord to my neighbor the first day to chill his fridge down but said long term he probably ought to take his stuff to his brother in law who still had power.
Once the power came back on and life was good we were at the in-laws and my wife's sister lamented on how bad things were in Jersey and they had no power for 7 days and had to bug out to my inlaws beachfront condo. "what did you guys do?" and my wife said "oh we were fine, we ran our generator and didn't lose anything, still had hot showers and TV (dish network). I gave her a funny look and said "Oh it's OUR generator now??? that stinky thing you wanted me to get rid of is OUR generator???" vindication indeed!
I don't get the entitlement of the other neighbor though, that's damned rude if you ask me. There's nothing fair or not about having some forethought to set yourself up with alternate power.
Robert
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During power outages the first thing I do after firing up the gen set. Is to turn on every inside and outside light so the neighbours know we have power and that they don't .
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During power outages the first thing I do after firing up the gen set. Is to turn on every inside and outside light so the neighbours know we have power and that they don't .
Man, I LIKE the way you think......kind of "devious" ;D Heh, heh, heh.
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and my wife said "oh we were fine, we ran our generator and didn't lose anything, still had hot showers and TV (dish network). I gave her a funny look and said "Oh it's OUR generator now??? that stinky thing you wanted me to get rid of is OUR generator???" vindication indeed!
In my family, I am the technical guy, but my wife is the "prepper". She was 100% onboard with the Lister, the Subaru generator, the Honda generator and so on. We have had our share of multi month long power outages after the hurricanes. And, she knew we had better set up our house during construction. We make a good team.
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and my wife said "oh we were fine, we ran our generator and didn't lose anything, still had hot showers and TV (dish network). I gave her a funny look and said "Oh it's OUR generator now??? that stinky thing you wanted me to get rid of is OUR generator???" vindication indeed!
In my family, I am the technical guy, but my wife is the "prepper". She was 100% onboard with the Lister, the Subaru generator, the Honda generator and so on. We have had our share of multi month long power outages after the hurricanes. And, she knew we had better set up our house during construction. We make a good team.
Wow! You married a Unicorn!
Ron.
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My Lister SR2 uses a exhaust off a 1999 f450 cube van....it works...great :-) LOL and the price was right.
Cheers
Brian