What non automotive projects and repairs are you doing?

[volvolugnut]

Pulled all the wire to build in a secondary circuit for power outages.

I’m powering furnace, freezer, refrigerator , and a single outlet ground floor that can be isolated from the main , the powered by a generator in case of outage more than a day.

We live deep in beautiful oak trees, so wind is our disaster in the fall and winter.

Do you have underground electric power or wires on poles? What size generator will you use?
Did you have any damage from latest hurricane?

volvolugnut

Wire on poles in our area. No damage from Lee, it skipped to the east of us, no rain either

We run a 2kW Honda which will run at half capacity for our reduced storm needs. It uses 1 gallon gas for about 9 hours, we keep 7 gallons in reserve plus we can tap the fleet for more if needed. We turn it off for overnight and put block ice in the fridge

We have heard you can have outages of 2-3 days here, worst case

Does your furnace use a standard wall plug so you can manually switch plug from grid to generator power? It appears all you other emergency loads are powered by cords form the generator.

I am seriously considering how best to arrange for emergency power for our house. The major load will be 220 V hard wired at breaker box for the heat pump and auxiliary resistance heating.

There are several large scale battery backup systems (Generac, Tesla, and Panasonic are some brands) available. They can be charged by the grid, solar, or fueled generator. In my case with the heat and AC load, I would want a grid to backup switching box. This could be manual or automatic switching.

On further study, it appears you may be using a transfer switch for selective connection of your generator to some household circuits. Transfer switches can be manual or automatic and isolate the grid from generator power.

volvolugnut

[Sveedy]

I set up a simple backup system for my well by installing a plug in line between the panel and the well pump. When power goes out, I can simply unplug the well pump, and plug it into the generator. Water is my first concern.

[foggydogg]

More good wiring photos...to come

Obviously the fault here is poor grounding of the BX sheath

Clearly needs a bread-wrapper wire tie or scotch tape. I do like the red gasket maker on the cover though.

[abscate]

All manual system in my house. You pull a manual double pole isolator at the box to disconnect the red circuit from the mains, then plug the generator into the red circuit.

All the key loads are already on the red circuit.

The same pullout is used to connect the generator to the red. Since I threw out the second pullout, it’s impossible to have the dangerous backfeed condition

[BlackBart]

Water is my first concern.

Our main concern is those Canadian Barbarians coming over the wire. Can you imagine? What next, politeness and civility?! We can't have that!!

[BlackBart]

Also, I see your college football team clobbered our college football team and the coach is - very - disappointed in his team. Griz Nation is in turmoil. They just assume they'll win.

[volvolugnut]

Recent project is replacing an outside wood walk-in door on my garage. The door is original from the 1970's. I will replace with insulated steel panel door. I have prepainted the door and the frame. I have removed all the old trim inside and outside and temporarily tacked them back in place. I will need to buy some more western cedar wood for the new trim. Trim will also be prepainted before installation.
volvolugnut

[Chuck W]

Finished up a small (10 panel, 3.5kW) solar install on the house a couple weeks ago. Would've liked to have finished it earlier in the year, but life was busy.

No storage yet, as I bought what we had money for. I wasn't going to take any loans and didn't want to just sit and wait to install.

Right now it's all about reducing consumption and storage will also probably get installed for that purpose too. I've been looking at some emergency back-up options, but those are 2nd-tier concerns currently. I'd also like to add another 8-10 panels when we can afford it.

[Sveedy]

Water is my first concern.

Our main concern is those Canadian Barbarians coming over the wire. Can you imagine? What next, politeness and civility?! We can't have that!!

You didn't get the note ? All of that silly stuff went out of style with the last guy in office.

[volvolugnut]

Finished up a small (10 panel, 3.5kW) solar install on the house a couple weeks ago. Would've liked to have finished it earlier in the year, but life was busy.

No storage yet, as I bought what we had money for. I wasn't going to take any loans and didn't want to just sit and wait to install.

Right now it's all about reducing consumption and storage will also probably get installed for that purpose too. I've been looking at some emergency back-up options, but those are 2nd-tier concerns currently. I'd also like to add another 8-10 panels when we can afford it.

Will you provide more details for your system and why you chose what you did? I want to add solar panels in the future.
volvolugnut