You Can't Get Anything at Alice's Restaurant
6 hours ago
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Interesting off-grid day
A buddy of mine had me over to his place to help him with some wiring. We hooked up a 14,000 watt kiln to a 175,000 watt diesel generator. We put in breakers, a massive power switch and all that. I'd never played around with a generator of that size. It took a bit of figuring out, but the generator fired up without exploding or catching fire. The multimeter showed it was putting out rock steady voltage just where it was supposed to be. Nice.
He has an off grid house and normally his power needs are small. However, his wife is a potter so they needed a lot more electricity than their two solar panels put out. The diesel generator will be running on waste vegetable oil. My buddy is picking up WVO from my clients for me all winter. He should get a good stockpile while I'm gone.
One the way home a strong storm overtook me. Just as I pulled into my driveway, the grid and Internet went down. My lovely wife had friends over and they were doing crafts. I switched over the whole house to off grid solar electric power and they were all set.
The Internet went down for a few hours, but it's back. I was wondering if I'd be able to do a post tonight or not. I'd better sent this out as the wind and rain is strengthening.
-Sixbears.
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Nothing beats being prepared!
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
DeleteAs I write this I hear on the news that in the US, the Tea Party are terrifying that country with their demands. And that they're holding your country to ransom. Which makes you all hostages.
ReplyDeleteIt's none of my business but doesn't that make them terrorists?
One man's politics is another man's terrorism.
DeletePolitics in the US has gotten a whole lot nastier than it was in the not too distant past.
In your use of waste vegetable oil; do you "prep" the oil before you use it? Do you filter it? Do you process it somehow?
ReplyDeleteI have always been interested in using alternative fuels; I just have never had the opportunity. I use to work with a lady whose husband used WVO in his diesel car. He ruined the engine because he didn't process it. Could you or have you ever written a post about your use of WVO?
Thank
Steve
It's coarse filtered before it goes in the tank. (take the french fry bits out) There's an on board fine filter. The key is having a hot tank to lower the viscosity. ~180 degrees F.
DeleteThere are a number of WVO posts, including one of my recent conversion of a former ambulance to WVO
Having the ability to just switch things around to be off the grid and prepared is just amazing.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun too. Nice to barely pause and go on with life.
DeleteGlad you had the ability to switch over. Probably impressed some of your visitors!
ReplyDeleteIt sure did. Pretty cool.
Delete