Saved by the Generator

Dave got the generator hooked up and working by mid-afternoon on Sunday. The first thing we did was start scrubbing out the stock tanks and refilling them. Who knew that it would be so exciting to do such a mundane chore?! Unfortunately, the water stopped when Jeeves's tank was only about 1/2 filled. :-( Dave was still here, so I grabbed him and told him what had happened. He looked at things, scratched his head, looked at things, and decided to move the circuit breakers to a different slot in the panel. That seemed to work as the pump started working again and we had water. Dave left. Shortly after, the pump stopped working again. Eeek! I checked the circuit breakers in the barn and in the main panel in the basement. All looked alright. Lights were working. But, not the water pump. I jiggled things. I kicked the generator, I cursed. The pump wouldn't work.

This is when I had my little temper tantrum. I threw myself on the couch and pulled the afghan over my head and tried to escape from life. Unfortunately, life has to go on, the horses need water, and I had to figure out what was going on.

Long story, not so short, the generator is 5000 watts. Which sounds like a lot and should be enough to power the water pump, along with the fridge, etc. George and I checked the few things that were plugged in and they didn't add up to 5000 watts. That is, until we looked at the water heater. The electric water heater. That little monster uses 4500 watts! Aha! The light bulb started to dawn over my head. I have a mixer valve in my basement that mixes hot water with cold for the line going out to the frost free hydrant by the barn. Soooo, as we were filling up the stock tanks it worked fine until the water in the heater cooled off enough that the water heater had to turn on to heat up. Then, that would overload the generator. Dave and Jenn actually drove all the way back out here to look at the generator again. It turns out there is a circuit actually on the generator that had to be reset. Once we did that, restarted the generator, turned the mixing valve so that no hot water was going to the barn AND turned off the circuit breaker for the water heater, it worked fine!! I got all the stock tanks filled up and never had any problems again.

Because the generator sucks up gas, I turned it off over night. In the morning, the first thing I did was throw on some clothes, run outside, and tried to see if I could start the generator myself from a cold-start. The day before didn't really count since it was already warmed up when I started it. The generator is started with one of those pull cords, which I usually fail miserably at. It takes me forever to get the weed wackers started up. But, miraculously, the generator started right up!! I ran back into the house and used the toiled...and flushed!! Brushed my teeth with the lights on!! Oh, the simple pleasures in life. :-)

I then turned OFF the circuit breaker for the pump and turned ON the circuit breaker for the water heater. I let the generator run for a bit over an hour, then I reversed the circuit breakers--pump ON, heater OFF. Then, I took my first shower since Wednesday morning! Oh, the joy! Those cold water sponge baths just weren't doing it for me.

It was a pain having to play with the circuit breakers, but it worked. The biggest thing for me was the water for the horses--everything else was a bonus. After that, I only ran the generator for a few hours a day. Usually an hour or so in the morning, so that I had water for the horses meal, quick clean up and toilets and to cool off the fridge. Then again late afternoon for the same. I would turn the water heater on in the morning and, except for when I showered, it would give me enough hot water to make it through the day with frugal use. Everything in my freezer had already been tossed since it had gotten too warm before the generator got working. But, I put a couple of 1/2 bottles of water in the freezer to see how cool it stayed and running it like that, a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the late afternoon, kept the fridge and freezer cool enough. So, now I know for the next time, how to keep the food good. I could have run the generator longer, but I wanted to conserve the gas. It took too long to go out and get more gas--the nearest gas station that was operational was over an hour away. Normally, it only takes 20 minutes to get to that station but with the condition of the roads (trees down, hanging over the roads, roads closed, etc.) it took over an hour to get there. It also gets pretty expensive refilling that thing. I didn't use it enough to really figure out how long it would run on a tank (6 gallons) but I'm pretty sure it would go at least 8 hours with the kind of use I was doing. The more watts you use, the more gas it takes. I now have 2 5-gallon containers of gasoline out in the barn (not where the horses are stabled, it's more an equipment barn). So, I am prepared.

My friends have a whole house generator. They have 3 large propane tanks that they use to fuel the generator. I think they can go weeks without power on the tanks they have. There are diesel generators that probably use less gas and therefore would run longer on a tank of gas. I didn't have any choice, I just took what showed up. But, it is good enough for my needs. If I had a lot more horses, I might want to upgrade to a bigger generator. I don't mind some sacrifices. The neighbors across the street have a generator and even when we just lose power for a few hours, they start that thing right up. I swear they can't go an evening without TV. :-( Now, the neighbor down the street is a disabled woman. She's on an oxygen tank and has to have electricity, so she ran her generator all the time. But, for her, it's a matter of life and death, not a convenience.

So, do some research--figure out what you want to have powered if you ever have an extended power outage. Check to see how many amps those things use. That will help you figure out what size generator you need to get. But, definately do some planning ahead of time and be prepared. I'm 50 yo and have never experienced a power outage like this. I didn't think I ever would. Surprise, surprise. I hope I never do again. When we have horses, we need to be ready. I've learned my lesson, fortunately, without any stress to the horses. They didn't have a clue all this "drama" was going on. They were getting fed and had water and were turned out as normal during the whole power outage. That's all they cared about.