Author Topic: I am VINDICATED !!!!  (Read 14668 times)

George A

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I am VINDICATED !!!!
« on: September 04, 2015, 03:59:15 PM »
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........." :)
« Last Edit: September 04, 2015, 06:11:19 PM by George A »
I've joined "the dark side"....if it has a spark plug, it's obsolete technology.

honda lee

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2015, 04:35:57 PM »
I love it!

Tom

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #2 on: September 04, 2015, 05:35:46 PM »
"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.
Tom
2004 Ashwamegh 6/1 #217 - ST5 just over 3k hours.

George A

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #3 on: September 04, 2015, 06:05:24 PM »
"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..........
« Last Edit: September 04, 2015, 06:09:04 PM by George A »
I've joined "the dark side"....if it has a spark plug, it's obsolete technology.

32 coupe

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2015, 08:53:32 PM »
Funny how that works !!

Gary

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"I was sitting here reading this thinking what an idiot you are until I realized it was one of my earlier posts !"

Tom

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2015, 09:27:00 PM »
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.
Tom
2004 Ashwamegh 6/1 #217 - ST5 just over 3k hours.

carlb23

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2015, 12:43:22 AM »
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

cujet

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2015, 12:58:01 AM »
It's cool that you have an efficient diesel generator to provide back up power.

People who count on their fingers should maintain a discreet silence

George A

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2015, 01:31:06 AM »
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.

I've joined "the dark side"....if it has a spark plug, it's obsolete technology.

cujet

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2015, 11:38:15 AM »
Why not simply use a car muffler? They work wonderfully on the Listeroids. Very quiet.
People who count on their fingers should maintain a discreet silence

carlb23

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2015, 12:44:44 PM »
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

George A

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #11 on: September 05, 2015, 05:29:55 PM »
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!
I've joined "the dark side"....if it has a spark plug, it's obsolete technology.

Horsepoor

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #12 on: September 05, 2015, 11:32:35 PM »
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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t19

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #13 on: October 18, 2015, 06:24:15 PM »
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!!!!
There is plenty of room for all of Gods creatures... right next to the mashed potatoes...

Hugh Conway

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Re: I am VINDICATED !!!!
« Reply #14 on: October 18, 2015, 09:06:40 PM »
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
JKson 6/1  (Utterpower PMG ) Off-grid
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