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I knew they where overwhelmec when I called and heard the massive list of outages. I think they did a great job under overwhelming circumstances. But my original point is the power here went at 12:45 and it didn’t reach the twitter page for 6 hours. A simle tweet at 2 or so saying there were massve outages and power may be out for 8 hours more would have made me feel better. That said, any suggestions for a dual fuel generator with a transfer switch? It was no fun outside running extension cords and having it stop constantly the firs hour.
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I was told the same thing as terracore - if there is an outage at your house, it needs to be reported.
When I called the first few times yesterday, the recording said 'outage in Orchidland and Mt. View' , which is too general to make sure they know about my area. OLE is oddly shaped, and I'm located at the Aulii end of 40th, over 7 miles away from the Mt. View side. When I was finally able to get through to a person ( about 7:30pm ), she sounded surprised I was still dark. My power came on shortly after.
As a related note, I need to voice how unhappy I am that the copper phone wires on my street were replaced with fiber. Previously, when power went out, I still had phone service, which was enormously helpful to figure how widely an outage extended. During the aftermath of Iselle, I had no power for 12 days, but lost phone for less than a day, and became a 'call family on the mainland' hub for the duration. I could put it on speaker, and do other things while on hold for a long time. Now, the first several times I called, there was 'no service' in my area at all, and I had to drive miles to get a signal. When I'm placed on hold, I have to watch my battery run down while listening to the same slack key songs over and over. Not all new technology is better than what it replaced.
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Interesting note today that while watching the PGA Tour, there were numerous Verizon/HELCO commercials about how Verizon has provided smart sensors for HELCO that enables them to detect outages, etc. This was on the Houston, Texas CBS station.
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Hey just as a follow on... we did call, I spent awhile on hold, then reported our outage (as described above) and the very nice woman said they'd call me back when the engineers said the problem was solved, just to make sure it was REALLY solved.
Well, they did in fact call back, about 5 minutes after the power came back on. Great job. Restores my faith in bureaucracy.... 
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"any suggestions for a dual fuel generator with a transfer switch?"
Royall installed our transfer switch and the receptacle outside for accepting the feed from the generator. We already had a dual fuel generator I bought at costco. They sell them pretty much all the time, though the flavors change slightly it's more or less the same product. Sometimes they are on sale.
Make sure you know what your generator amp output is going to be so your input install matches it, although you can buy a 50 amp to 30 amp adapter cord. They are harder to find but you can also find 30 amp to 15 amp adapters so you can run your house (no 220 circuits) with a regular household extension cord similar to an RV- in case you have smaller output like from a 12v auto inverter, smaller gas generator, or small PV system. [Insert standard disclaimer about knowing to match your power source to your consumption so as to not overload or underload anything.]
FWIW, we've never ran the generator off propane. It's not as energy dense as gasoline so the generator puts out less wattage while consuming more fuel. Not a good combo at our propane prices. But it's a nice feature to have, "just in case".
ETA: Here is the "unicorn" of plug adapters: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074PWJVWC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=pw016-20&linkId=073296876efeb9ae735da87550513f5d&language=en_US
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We have the same Costco generator, which, of course, starts every time we test it, but wouldn't start during the outage yesterday <sigh>. In any event, we've toyed with the idea of installing the transfer switch setup so we could just plug into the house. How involved was the installation, and roughly how much did it cost? And do you have grid-tie solar too (like we do)? Would that be another complicating wrinkle?
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We bought a Champion 7kw Dual Fuel from COSTCO right after loosing power for 6 days after Iselle.
Had to get our showers with a solar water bag hanging in the back yard.
We used it when we lost power for 3 days after the Kona Wind a few months later.
Showers were taken in the house this time.
We used it several other times for a day or so to keep freezer and fridge cold so as to not lose frozen or refrigerated foods.
Many of you poo-pooed me for getting a 7kw generator.
It fulfilled its purpose by powering my tablesaw to build a cage to move the cats out in.
It almost wasn't enough to get the saw powered up.
I've been using it the last couple of days to run our water pump so I can get the glass cleaned out of our roof gutters to get the catchment back on line.
I have only used propane in it.
Gasoline has never touched its lips.
Gas may be more energy dense, but it will degrade the operation of the engine more quickly.
Use of propane will extend the life of the generator making it more reliable.
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Was a Democrat until gun control became a knee jerk, then a Republican until the crazies took over, back to being a nonpartisan again.
This time, I can no longer participate in the primary.
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You must have a HUGE tablesaw!
Puna: Our roosters crow first
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Not really.
it only has a 13 amp motor.
But, it completely browns out the fluorescent shop light until it gets wound up a bit.
I won't even try to start it with the shopvac and light plugged in all at once.
Once it is up and turning, the gen doesn't sweat it at all.
I just need to feed the wood slowly to keep it from bogging down and drawing more power.
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Was a Democrat until gun control became a knee jerk, then a Republican until the crazies took over, back to being a nonpartisan again.
This time, I can no longer participate in the primary.
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quote:
Originally posted by KeaauRich
We have the same Costco generator, which, of course, starts every time we test it, but wouldn't start during the outage yesterday <sigh>. In any event, we've toyed with the idea of installing the transfer switch setup so we could just plug into the house. How involved was the installation, and roughly how much did it cost? And do you have grid-tie solar too (like we do)? Would that be another complicating wrinkle?
That is unfortunate the generator wouldn't start. Mine was a little rough starting but the gas in there was 2 years old, though treated with PRI-G to be "like new!" I always shut the fuel valve and run the gas out of the carb until it dies, that seems to be the secret in keeping these cheap engines easy start.
You would have to ask Royall about the installation, if he is reading this maybe he can chime in. The easiest way is a cheap lockout that attaches to an existing electrical panel, however we seemed to have the only electrical panel that wasn't compatible with the device, after a little research the best option in our case was to replace the entire panel. If memory serves the entire job with parts and labor (including the exterior outlet for the generator) was roughly the cost of the generator and worth every penny. We have the same generator voyager mentioned, 7,000 watt / 9,000 peak (6,300 / 8,100 propane). It is overkill in most situations but during this last outage we used some 220 for the first time and listening to the generator and seeing how much gas it guzzled it seems like the perfect size for "all purpose" use.
I don't know about grid tie, our PV is a hybrid system that was installed after the transfer switch was put in.
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