Talkin' 'Bout My Generator

Here's the trench.  I want everything nice and hidden.  There's this dark olive green pipe dope I've had great success with for the joints; I'll admit that getting threads started on 10' pipe isn't easy.

It seemed like I was going way too small with the wires from the generator, especially after wrestling with 6 AWG.  THe tables assure me 10 AWG is plenty for the short run and voltage I'm feeding.  Good thing, too---pulling that wire was hard.

Here's the form so far.  It still needs to be leveled and the rebar/anchor bolts pre-set.  I've got 1800 pounds of concrete mix in the back of my truck all ready to mix but I had to quit to get to Patrick's soccer game.  If it doesn't rain in the next 6 days while I'm working a 144 hour shift, it'll be fine.  Then I have to build the actual housing which should be simple

Projected Projects Project

Well, nature bats last.  We had some flashfloods last week---over a foot of rain.  It channeled down the trench for the power, and filled the future laundry room with some very rich soil.  It's not too bad really and my tenants are going to dig it out and use the soil elsewhere.

   It's a reminder that winter is coming.  This project will get backburnered a bit while I take care of some pre-winter projects----gathering firewood is one.  The other is the generator project.

 AnnaMarie's cottage was built to accept a small generator as backup power.  We get power outtages all the time--hot weather, windy weather, snow.  I finally found the generator I wanted---5,000 watts continuous, CARB compliant, electric start, dual fuel, 240v.  I'm plumbing it to the house propane cylinder which, if full, will provide about three weeks worth of fuel.  That should get us through anything.  I want it easy enough that if I'm gone AnnaMarie can just turn a key and flip a switch.  It was more complicated than I thought---geting the correct inlet pressure through the correct size pipes and all.