In search of heat, or solar generator review

[DonnaBudgie]

My mother’s place (also in Oregon) is slightly more remote than my dad’s.
They (my mom and her partner) had one of those Generac I think they are calling.
It ran on propane and I was told it was so noisy they would mostly rather do without power than have to listen to it screaming.
But….. they had a cast iron stove (function not decorative) so the well pump and fridge was all 5hat had to have power.

I didn’t ever mention this before.
Earlier this year my stepmom showed me a video clip from one of her outside security cameras.
It was early morning dark so camera was using its poor infrared.
But they recorded a cougar walking on the driveway on their property .
I been going up there since the 60’s .
Never ever seen a cougar. deer, skunk, lizards &snakes, hawks and eagles.
never a cougar before.

Wow! I'm not scared of many animals except cougars and bears. I knew there were cougars up there but not in people's yards! SoCal has them too and they are all collared and monitored. I wouldn't go outdoors at night if I knew the house was in their home territory.

We sell a lot of Generac home generators at Lowes. We have two- a gasoline powered Honda 3500 that's too small and a new Westinghouse 7500 dual fuel (gasoline or propane). They're both noisy so we have them about 40 feet from the house in an overhang adjacent to our 16x36 shed/garage. Our closest neighbors are a few hundred feet away and only about 20% of the 90 homes on our 3 mile long road are occupied year round. Problem with our generators is how to get them running if we are out of town for the holidays when the power goes out like last year. My wealthy sister in NJ has an automatic built in system at her huge year round beach house on the Jersey shore. It cost her $30k, which is nothing for her, and she's only had to use it a couple times in the ten+ years she's had it. Not many people here (where we really need it) have those fancy automatic back up systems. Too expensive.

 

[texsize]

The generator my dad set up he did from the ground up.
I believe it’s a 15 Kw .
he built it out of a refrigerated tractor trailer diesel motor.
He rebuilt the litt 4 cylinder engine (I helped him do i)
And now my dad can’t tell the difference between a tv remote and a cordless phone and can’t operate either one.

 

[texsize]

This has turned in to an unexpected topic.

I haven’t done much since retiring 3 almost 4 years ago.
But I am enjoying messing about with the solar power.
It’s using my knowledge (long dormant) of electronics and power.
I am even trying to include my birds.
I keep the drapes open so they can see me and I took Bingo out with me in the Pak o bird to set up for charging.

I bought a pair of used solar panels and plan on making a ground stand for them today..

Messing about with the portable panels is ok for a weekend trip but for every day.
It’s too much fiddle faddle.