Does infrastructure bill include power grid upgrades

[Ralph Mowery]

You must be using the propane for more than the generator then. 120 or so gallons is a lot to have on hand for a 5 kw generator.

[gfretwell]

About 6 days if the tank was full. After Irma we were out 9 days. I burned 50 gallons of gasoline and most of that propane tank.

[hubops]

lots & lots of rural folks are on propane - - where natural gas is still a pipe-dream. < pun >

Home heat ; hot water ; cooking ; etc. The other option is electric ... 'nuff said. During a big long duration failure - ALL the sources will be severely tested .. diversify ... ... if you can .. as much as you can .. John T.

[Ralph Mowery]

All depends on what part of the country one is in. I live in central NC and very few in the rual areas are on propane. Most were either oil or heat pumps for heat and AC if natural gas is not in the area. The heat pumps are very cost effect in this area as the winter temperatures don't fall below 25 deg F all that much. Not too many ice storms , but we have had a few that took out the power, some for a week, but most are only a day or two for the main lines.

As I have a heat pump, there is a wood stove in the basement and a good amount of wood stacked up under cover. Also have 2 generators one gas and one gas/propane. I do have a small propane camp stove and 2 propane lanterns. So I feel diversified.

[invalid unparseable]

I'm reading maybe 20 gallons of gasoline for a full day's usage of portable generator I have. Certainly not cheap. I have never run mine for a full day and turn it off and on as needed.

Looking at manual, I never run it once a week as recommended. I know the whole house Generac units self test once a month. There is other maintenance like oil changes. Could not find this but I believe my lawn mower is either every 25 or 50 hours.

[gfretwell]

That is our situation and after Irma propane was over $4 a gallon. I decided I would take my chances and waited until the next spring to fill my tank. It was worth the wait because I paid $2.08.

[gfretwell]

My 5.5 KW ran the general lighting loads in the house, a pool pump, the house pump, well pump, 2 fridges and at night I swapped the pool pump for the mini split in the bedroom. I cooked outside on propane and heated water there for dishes and other stuff that you didn't need a lot of water to do. I could play with the load a little and run the washing machine. We dried stuff the old fashion way, a clothesline. We lived fairly normally. The only thing we really didn't have was the water heater, oven and the dryer. Having the pool blue really helped us cope.

[gfretwell]

Portable generators usually want fresh oil every 100 hours. Mine ran at least twice that. I was burning a half gallon an hour at over 5KW load on gasoline. That was the big difference between gasoline and propane. Both would handle the generator at full load but you burn a lot more propane (5:8 ratio). The better whole house units have regular oil filters and an oil pump so the oil should last a lot longer. I just assumed propane was cleaner and the oil would be OK. It is a pain in the ass to change on this Briggs. The plug is hard to get to and you end up spilling most of the old oil. I have the parts to extend that out to a better place and it is on the list ;)

[Ralph Mowery]

Probably not really that much better, but I am using the Mobile 1 in my small engines when I change oil for the first time. It may let me run longer with out changing. I would think the propane would let the engine run much longer between changes. I bought a lawn tractor this year and there is a conflict in the company that made the enging and John Deere manual for the oil change, so I changed it at the shortest one. I think it was 25 and 50 hours, and 200 hours after that. It does have an oil filter where the generators do not.

I did extend the oil drain on an engine with about 6 inches of pipe to make the oil change less messier.

[angelica...]

Mine self-tests once a week.

Thus far, we've performed the annual maintenance ourselves. It's not difficult.

Cindy Hamilton

[invalid unparseable]

I have the same engine and it is a mess to change the oil. I have done it a couple of times but now will wait longer.

At the time our house was built the power company stopped supplying natural gas to new customers. Would have been ideal for a generator.

[Tekkie©]

On Sat, 14 Aug 2021 16:37:16 -0400, [e-mail] posted for all of us to digest...

I would think it would be more precise. The three pins are probably different closings of the survey. Adjust as needed ;-)

[Tekkie©]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 05:22:10 -0700 (PDT), Dean Hoffman posted for all of us to digest...

I say again: The Tekkie Institute, money well spent.

[Tekkie©]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 05:28:45 -0700 (PDT), Dean Hoffman posted for all of us to digest...

What other newsgroup?

[Tekkie©]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 10:45:13 -0400, [e-mail] posted for all of us to digest...

Now ya got me thinking about O'scopes again...

[Tekkie©]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2021 20:07:56 -0400, [e-mail] posted for all of us to digest...

A street elbow and nipples? 8|

[gfretwell]

They were results of surveys over the last 40-50 years I imagine and each time, they got closer to the real spot. I didn't get a survey when I bought my house. I didn't see anything I was willing to argue about. When the surveyor was next door I talked to him about it, he walked over, put his GPS down and said "this one is the right one". Then he walked away. I guess if he drove a stake it would have cost me $300. ;-)

>

[gfretwell]

Yup

[Dean Hoffman]

It was devoted to radio commentator Don Imus. He wouldn't last long in today's environment. He commented on current news with a biting sense of humor. Shock jock might be the right term. He died in December 2019 but is still on YouTube. There might be four or five of us that comment off and on in the group.

[Jim Joyce]

The group is most likely alt.fan.don-imus