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Funny how the distances that used to seem so huge have been so diminished by the internet. Here in Florida those who can afford one all have a generator but not for winter storms. Here it is for summer; specifically for hurricane season. Both storms are devastating and potentially deadly but diametrically opposed in nature. The people who are particularly well healed have a whole house generator that will run on natural gas because a hurricane causes no disruption to gas service... normally at least.
If you have power outages it’s worth it, this is the 3rd house we have had with a whole house backup generator, very efficient, runs on our natural gas from the city, last house was propane and the first was diesel. Once you have one you won’t feel comfortable without.
Power is restored in 1 minute, shuts off as soon as power back on. I could make due, but the wife’s condition, she can’t with without cool air and oxygen. Before it was just convenient to have with me gone 300 days a year so she was protected. You can get smaller ones that will just run certain items that are really inexpensive. Installed in a house our size with 2 zones air, around 10k if done when you build, the electricians are there.
It's a LOT more if you do it after the fact. My sister in law and her husband added one that will run the whole house and it was a lot more than that. I think like $35$-$40k. They have a 5k.sq ft house though so it had to be a huge one. With theirs the power goes out for about a second or two before the generator kicks in. They love to overspend on stuff though so they probably got the most expensive option made. It sure is a nice feature though.
Not sure why so much. Ours is 3500 and a big barn with power. The units theirselves were about 10k 10 years ago to run everything. If I had 3 zones I would have had to step up and size. 12,800. Now the electric install not sure. It was in the price of my building and the disconnect box is pricy. But I don’t know it was in my contract to build but I can’t imagine it was another 20k for install. For that kind of money you can just build it solar and wind and be off grid and sell back. Not sure maybe it’s just floridat
Still waiting for mine.
The electrician was here and said 8,500 will do the whole house.
The problem here is the pandemic. The transfer switch he needs to use has been backordered for months. He's on the list at his supply co. No telling how long it will be.
Pete <:-}
Pete you will be happy. The transfer box is the life of the system. Hope yours comes in soon
Sometimes I think it would be cheaper to run on the natural gas than electric. Once a month mine goes into maintenance mode and runs for an hour and gives a diagnostic update
Well, I'm not positive about the exact figures. It might not have been quite that much but I know it was more than twice what you mentioned. I want to say upward of $30k. I'm not kidding though, they insist on paying upwards of full retail on everything. My brother in law...in law :thinking: is brilliant but I'd be surprised if he can tie his own shoes. He has the cleanest tools you've ever seen. I hear him talk about his experiences at the auto mechanic and think, "Boy, they really saw you coming." He's the kind that gets "took" by unscrupulous contractors. Plus they live in the gated golf community so I'm sure they bid high.
Oh... I do remember that they were told they had to upgrade their service which I didn't quite understand. The house is not that old and I would be surprised if it didn't have 200 amp service already. I can't imagine why they would need to go higher than that. Not sure how that relates to a generator anyway but they did also add on a mother-in-law suite for his spinster aunt.I often wonder when I hear about these things after the fact and say, " They told you what? " These are the kinds of things that people like him get horned into because they don't know any different. So anyway I'm sure that added to the price too which really can't be considered part of the generator price.
Couldn’t be 5k sq ft and not be 200 amp, the only thing you need to install one is the transfer box like Pete is waiting for. It taps into the incoming power and senses loss off street power and switches on the generator, if I guess right that box is around a grand, then you need an electrician for an afternoon, and of course depending on the size of your house max load then the generator, Pete’s usage may not be as high as people in the south because we need air conditioning, most houses over 2500 have 2 zones, over 4000 3 zones, mine had to include a 100 amp service to my barn, so the Ginny needed to be sized a little big. But hey if they got him to pony up, his loss, I got the best one on the market, and it was 10 k
Yeah I couldn't remember exactly what the square footage was so I looked it up on the property appraiser's site. 5,391 square feet. It wasn't quite as new as I thought, built in 1995 but it's still should have had 200 amp service by that point. I'm no electrician and I'm not an expert on generators either but I didn't understand why it was they needed to upgrade their service unless he just didn't say it right and that wasn't exactly what they needed or needed at for. The problem with him is he doesn't know and he wouldn't know if they were giving him the shaft and he can't explain to you why or even exactly what they did... It doesn't pay to have no mechanical inclination at all. So maybe you would rather take your car to the mechanic but you should at least know enough to not get taken to the cleaners while you're there
I hear people still say, "you just can't work on cars anymore." I work on cars every single day and it's true that there are more components and systems to consider. On the other hand some things are easier. In the old days there was air, fuel, spark and compression. But you had to actually know how to diagnose the four elements and what was wrong. Now you hook a machine.to it and read a list of codes and look up what is the problem. If all else fails you can Google it. In the old days there were books if you went and bought one but, again, you had to know how to find it...and even what to look for.
In my business, 30-40 years ago we had to just figure it out. What was inside the lock was just a mystery and.everyone had to figure it out on their own or have a friend or co-worker show them. Now there is a book or a program written by some guy who DID figure it out and makes a living selling software now. We also had to make our own tools and equipment, (boring technical jargon ommitted) now that is a business of its own.
Anyone remember setting air fuel mixture? Now the computer does that by itself but if you do want to tinker with it you download an app to your phone or tablet, plug a dongle into the OBDII and make some key strokes.
I used to have a kit with a see through plug that I replaced a spark plug with. It let me see the colour of the ignition part of the stroke and it was easy to adjust the mixture by comparing the colour of the bang with the ideal colour shown in the little book.
I also used to buy a Haynes manual for every car i got. Still do actually because there is plenty that has nothing to do with an engine management system, although your right Paul, my ODB is also very useful.
I don't touch this car because it is still under warrantee but as soon as the dealer stops being responsible i will do it all myself. I've only ever put a non warranty car into the garage once years ago when the carburetor seized and I couldn't diagnose it. I was only 20 though.
I have always done most everything for myself. In my family all the men worked on their own cars or tractors or motorcycles and repaired whatever needed fixing. Generally I will repair anything like the washer or dryer, faucets and appliances, water heater...you get the picture. If it's got moving parts I can fix it. One thing I have learned to do though is weigh how much it will cost me to fix. If I wouldn't do it for that much for someone else then I will (sometimes) pay someone else to do it. If you consider your time as money it changes the way you look at it. Sometimes though I have trouble letting go of enough trust to let someone else do it. It's also important to know your limits though.
Again you make good points.
I have spent much too long doing things on my cars, changing the rotors and pads for example but for me it's not so much a case of trust in the dealer, more that kills me that someone wants several hundred dollars to do something i can do myself - even if it takes me all day. I'm semi retired so I have time to waste.
Interestingly, there are a few differences in car servicing and maintenance between the UK and North America that I had trouble getting my head around.
In England I used to change my spark plugs at every service, over here they are very rarely changed. I had my last car for 5 years and they weren't changed.
On the other hand, the rotors (brake disks) are changed every time the pads are changed. In England the disks (rotors) are never changed unless either you wear your pads to metal and score them or they crack.
You mentioned fixing just about everything.
My main fridge is still not working and I can't get a new one until the shop opens again.
Its still humming quietly but not getting cold. I don't know what the hum is but even though it's not silent, is it likely the compressor is gone?
If I did change the compressor, would I have any issue with Freon like releasing it into the kitchen and having to refill it, does a fridge have a capacitor like a TV that could shock me?
What could the hum be and how can I diagnose and establish I need a compressor?
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HVAC is one thing I have never done much of. License restrictions and the special tools and gauges don't help much. My understanding though is that it is not particularly practical to recharge a refrigerator but it is possible. It is something that you could do yourself but paying someone to do it would cost more than a new fridge or so I have been told.
I would however pull it out and check to make sure the coils are not dirty/dusty and clean any dust or algae off the coils and compressor. Also check to see if the fan or coils are frozen. That usually happens because of the coils dust over or algae build up. Be careful with the fins and also careful of things like bleach to kill algae as bleach can damage them. There are solutions made specifically for that. The one easy thing to try is to unplug it, open the doors and let it sit for a day or two. If there is icing that should be long enough for it to melt. If it cools afterwards then you may still need cleaning or repair but at least you know it is not shot.
This is one of the things that did it for me. Back when I was working 80+ hours per week and still had more work than I could do it just made no sense for me to try to do it. Also, with only one car having me work on it for a few evenings and not be able to drive it made less sense than having someone fix it up in a day.
And, for the record, I said "I gave uo". It was never something that I particularly enjoyed, so learning new things on top of the two above just never made sense to me. Let someone trained handle that stuff.
I'd have to disagree strongly with this. In September I'll have worked in the vehicle repair business for 50 years. I was a Bosch system technician. The last five years have been as a technical trainer. Mostly bringing techs up to speed on EV and Hybrid systems. To know what DTCs (trouble codes) are telling you, you must have an in depth knowledge of modern systems. If I had a dollar for every part I've seen needlessly replaced "because the fault code said so" I'd be doing well. Since the arrival of various digital bus systems, like Bosch CAN, which interfaces powertrain management to brakes, transmission, and a whole host of other systems, you need to know exactly what you are doing diagnosis-wise. We have a major shortage of qualified techs in the UK. There are plenty of filter spinners, but not many guys that can use a 4 channel oscilloscope.
Well that's fair enough. You do have to know what the machine is saying and being intuitive enough to interpret it on top of what you've learned. It is still true though that in the old days you didn't have a machine telling you anything. Something I see a lot is a vehicle shows up in a repair shop with a no start situation. They run diagnostics and it comes back security system codes. So they call me to go out and reprogram the keys or the fob if it's a push button start or something. I'll go out to it, check that the transceiver is sending an RFID signal, check that the transponder in the key reads, if necessary perform parameter reset, program the key back in or a new one if the old one won't reprogram, plus a whole list of other things on a case-by-case basis and I can't get it to work either. The mechanic has done all they know to do, I have done all I know to do and everyone is scratching their head. Usually those go to the dealer and I don't often hear back about the cause. Sometimes though it's replacing the BCM or PCM or ECU but sometimes even then that doesn't fix it.
However, in the old days, although there were schools for mechanics people who were repairing their own vehicles didn't have the diagnostic tools or Google to look things up on and even at one point there were no Hanes or mitchells or Chilton's manuals to look it up in. You had to just learn it from someone else or learn it yourself the hard way. I guess maybe it's not really harder or easier exactly but mainly different. One thing I will say though is that making keys for cars these days very often is easier than it used to be mechanically speaking. There are readers on the market now that allow me to have the information I need to make the key in less than 5 minutes without taking anything apart or putting a file to a key. That notwithstanding, even this long after the advent of transponders in car keys people are still shocked when it cost them $200 or more to have keys made for their vehicle. The programming machines aren't cheap and some of them charge a per use fee sometimes called a token depending on the machine. Also the keys themselves are more expensive and the margins don't match. I actually made better money 30 years ago making keys for cars than I do today.
I have to do it all, as a marine mechanic.
Computer diagnostic
Engine repair/ diagnostics
Cosmetic and structural repair
Plummer
Electrical engineer
Hydraulic engineer
HVAC
Trailer repair
ect. ect.....
Yet I do as little possible, to my own vehicle. Go figure.
WHY.!? cause I do it everyday, all day, for a living. I don't want to waste my free time, feeling like I'm still at work. Ive got to decompress.! God knows I've got plenty more things to do, being my wife is extremely lazy. Well...not so much lazy, more of a pro, at procrastination. Until it overwhelms her. Then I have to deal with it.!
So if it needs done, and done right...I gotta do it myself, or pay someone I trust will do it right.
Back to pictures--not really wordless but I'm sure my friend Dave would have approved:
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Well I decided at one point that I was sick of working on vehicles and was just going to take it to someone to fix it... Then I got the bill. It's not that I think they're advertised labor rate is too high, hell, my labor rate is $100 per hour unless it's a fraternity hose and then it's $150 per hour from the time I pull up in the parking lot until the time I boil the tires out of it. But when the guy charged me $2,000 to replace a fuel pump that would have probably taken me 2 hours I said all right I can't do that. The problem is for me that I know what it's going to take to do a specific job, usually at least. I'm just not too hip to paying some joker 95 dollars - 125 dollars per hour to stand around and scratch his ass and drink coffee.
Edit: actually it was $1,800 and change but I rounded a little.
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I dont understand that one at all. But at least it a picture
It's an insulated platform in an old lightning prone fire lookout on top of a peak. Lots of grounding everywhere.
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Is that a Bonneville or a Thruxton?
Cercis canadensis: Eastern red bud
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Prunus angustifolia: Florida sand plum, Chickasaw plum
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..............................BobAllman!.
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I wonder what happened to him?
BOB!!!!!!!!