generator failure

GENERATOR FAILURE


Today’s story, as were so many before, chronicles the life and times of Bison and more specifically the dismal failures resulting from poor decision making and perpetual dumb-assness. In short, your favorite kind of tale. But before we get to that, a short detour. I just got done reading the first half of the book “Eaarth” by Bill McKibben. Normally I don’t take environmental books all that seriously. It is a change of pace from Peak Oil, but it rarely inspires night sweats in me. It is too much of the usual “Gore is our hero, immediately give all your money to Democrats and live like a third world peasant or we are all doomed as the polar bears swim helplessly in search of an ice berg”. In short, while it might contain mostly truths, it is also a tool for dictators to steal most of our remaining wealth while those in power live like kings. Al’s office alone is several times the size of my entire dwelling, his fax machine and computer using more watts than I get for all my tin box power uses. He is a fraud and a whore. Of course, so is my ex-wife.

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The second half of the book has been threatened by the author to be a “change human nature now and you can minimize the pain” type of self-help BS, and I am in little hurry to finish it. But the first half of the book is some scary crap indeed. This is the only Gore Warming book that has ever put the fear of god into me. Peak Oil is easy to fear, easy to prove and an obvious rearview mirror exercise, with little self serving BS. Gore Warming is so larded with creepy players intent on feathering their own nest at the expense of soiling ours that it is easy to ignore. But this book, while written by an activist no less intent on pushing an eco-dictatorship, and no having no less of a tree hugging religious fervor, was also written in a largely unique style that makes it much more effective and believable. Don’t get me wrong, this could be just another screed trying to enslave us for the benefit of the elite. But even acknowledging that, you have to be impressed at how it was presented. Rather than give you nothing but blind panic lacking rationalism, rather than present a science fiction joy ride by guessing what will happen based on extrapolating from dubious data, this book only looks back rather than forward. Instead of saying, the seas will rise ten feet and kill us all unless everyone but Al Gore stop driving SUV’s and flying to conferences, and if you don’t believe us after we present you with consensus rather than hard science you are a scum sucking Republican and must die, rather than hysteria over what MIGHT be, this book just looks at what already happened. And it is some pretty scary stuff. It could all be brilliant propaganda, but it is kind of hard to argue with the compiled facts. No, it is not worth your $15 unless you have no better use for it. But if you are going to buy an environmental book regardless, this just might be the one you should get. At least the lens is focused on what has already occurred rather than what might be.

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Okay, the generator experiment is over and there is nothing good to report. In short, I was worried about over charging the batteries and was looking for a way to keep the generator from doing that. To calculate the watt/amp ratings, you take your amps and multiply that by 14 ( a 12v charges at 14v or slightly under ). Hence, a 7 amp charge controller will handle up to 100 watts ( 7x 14 is 98 ). If you have more solar panels than 100 watts you need a charge controller larger than 7 amps. Also, you know that 10 amps will give you 130 watts in an hour, give or take, and hence 10 amps from the generator gave me 65 watts in a half hour of run time. The solar panels gave about the same in an hour. If I had a day without sun and I ran the generator for one half hour I would generate what I had used. So you would think I didn’t really need to worry about overcharging. But I like to worry about things and it still bothered me that I might be damaging the batteries ( which cost as much as the generator for two marine batteries ).

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I received my 20 amp charge controller in the mail late last week and hooked it up to the generator by splicing it into the controller. A mistake. The generator didn’t like that, tripping the 12v off. And it won’t reset. I have no idea why it did this. Different size wire? 10 amps are too much for the current to be diverted? Different wave current than solar panels? I don’t know where I screwed up, not being an electrical engineer and knowing just enough to be dangerous. But the $47 charge controller wasn’t the answer to keeping the batteries from being overcharged by the generator. Kids, don’t try this at home. I think I would have been much better off by not making this an issue, just making sure I didn’t leave the batteries charging for hours on end. Hey, what can I tell you? I over-analyze things to an unhealthy degree. In instances such as this it proves expensive. But it also gives you wisdom for the ages as I pick apart the unsound advice of “experts” in all fields. Just by carrying things to a logical conclusion unhampered by fuzzy thinking and flawed reasoning. You are welcome.

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I knew the generator was an extravagance. A luxury. Really the only benefit to it was the ease of giving you extra articles for the weekend. I’m still going to do my best to provide that extra free service. If I can. Stay tuned as I figure it out. Until I decide whether to sink more money into the black hole or not. I have no idea what a two stroke mechanic will charge. Boy, this new year is sure starting out badly.

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The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/

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My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
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