and just 2 days before xmas
and just when the 2nd lot of inlaws turn up, ahead of alot of family coming for xmas
our back up diesel generator (our house is off grid), the wiring from the alternator, caught fire…I had to put it out with a fire extinguisher…now that was some excitement!
it turn ifselff off after only going for 30 minutes
just as it did this in the evening before we went to sleep, otherwise we would have had a big fire no doubt, what with a plastic diesel tank next to where the fire was !!
now to try and get someone to fix it on xmas eve or get a replacement or hire one…
luckily the sun is out today so we will get good solar power today
OUCH! That was a close call! Checking with a thermal imaging camera should be a must in high amp circuits to prove the installation is sound. Likely a loose joint if not wrong gauge of wire. I hope it does not affect your solar operation - perhaps that was just the generator starting circuit on separate batteries and the solenoid locked on and stayed engaged?
2 hour drive round trip on xmas eve to get the original generator back
but now the electrician said its holiday time now, will wire it up in 2 days time
so we are running on solar only now
good thing it was sunny today, and will be for the next 2 days
That’s nuts! It shouldn’t be happening to you . But if it’s any consolation, I know many of the gang here would be jumping right in to help out if we could be there, after all you do for us!
the fire was right under the plastic diesel tank in turned out in the light of the next day, which had just started to melt…cloud have been an inferno
with as much as could turned off, battery charge only dropped 5% last night (gained 30% during the day yesterday (summer timer here) (with the pool pump off)
12 solar panels, giving out 1.7kw between 11am and 3pm or so
so we should get up to good battery status by the end of today
not a cloud in the sky here today, xmas day, and no wind either (with a valley fog even)
it turns out that the loan generator we had (they had been waiting for us to bring that back and get back our original) had wiring that was not meant to be used permanently…we were not told all that by the installer
I think I would replace plastic tank with a metal tank. Do you have some type of smoke/heat detector in the generator room with alarm in the house? I think you were very lucky this time. Good time to have hole system checked for loose connections. A thermal image inspection under load is always good every few years. Hope you get it up and running soon. Have a nice holiday season.
we are planning to replace this model generator with a different sort…a low revving water cooled one…in the new year
If we add even more solar panels (we recently added 4 more), to a 2nd sunny boy, then we would not need to use the generator very much at all
■■■■■■ mate, you seem to have a bit of hassle with your setup. No such thing as smooth sailing really is it.
Re diesel tank, might be an idea to move the diesel tank behind a “fire wall”, would not think it is a good idea to have fuel, heat and electricity together in such a confined space. For sure it is designed that way, but sometimes compact is not always a good thing.
Big bummer for the electrician, hope the wind and sun will be there for ya.
there is a fire/heat wall between the engine and the tank
the original generator did not have the electrical connection (which was all taped up with black tape too, so not easy to see if there was going to be a problem (i.e not really designed for long term use)) that caught fire that the loan one did…
we are doing OK on sunshine alone, luckily nice sunny days
Ricky and some work mates to the rescue!
they got the generators swapped over and working great
thanks for coming to my rescue Ricky!
and one of his work mates got rid of years of built up dust and fluff from the CPU fan/heat sink on my laptop…which now runs faster (and quieter/cooler)) (I had got used to it being like what it was you see, not realising…)
