Genny not generating, still sitting in the dark. . . any generator advice???

[Christyhicks]

Well, by the time we hit the sack last night, Larry decided that first thing this morn he was going to pull the plate off of the generator head.  He had flashed the vr earlier when first trying to figure out if the regulator was bad, so he really had decided that it was a broken wire or something in the generator head itself. 

Sure enough, today, he pulled the plate off and a wire had come unsoldered on one of the diodes.  It'll be a pretty simple fix. 

They've got the main wires up on top of the insulators on the entire section of high-line that was down, and they are back down at the corner near our house, so I'm thinking we might have power soon. . . I'll be very surprised if we're not up and running today.   

I spent the morning rewiring the blowers on our wood heater and hauling wood. . .got two big carts full, and the sun is out and shining, so the ice should be melting to beat the band today! 

Am getting tired though. . . we hit the sack about 1:00 a.m. last night, and I sure thought we'd sleep in late this morn, but we both were awake by 6:00 a.m. anyway.  We really can't go anywhere. . need to be here to monitor the generators, wood heater, etc.,  Getting tired of tripping over extension cords, taking a flashlight EVERYWHERE you want to go, and a million trips up and down the stairs to check the fire, check the generator, switch cords.  .shoot, everytime you want to turn something on, you have to unplug something else. . .we're running out of clean clothes. . . piles of laundry building up. . .my back is sore from all the times I snagged my foot on a cord or my hair on something downstairs in my shop, (because I'm so darn tired of carrying a big flashlight with me). . . it's to the point now where I can pretty much go down the stairs in the pitch blackness, take a  couple of steps, turn, and go up and down the stairs leading into the furnace room, and then turn and go another 20' or so to the back door to open it for light. . . arrrrrgggh whew. . .have to practice that patience thing again I guess.   Christy Hicks

[Christyhicks]

    WHOOOPPPEEEE!  We've got power! 

Well, finally, late, late this afternoon, they got our power back up again.   We ran around plugging stuff into the normal outlets. . .refridgerators, freezer, furnace, etc.  It has never felt so good to toss an extension cord down the stairs as it was this afternoon! 

I had already ordered a pizza delivered, so we just finished it off and are waiting for the softener to complete it's cycle, so we can take the longest shower ever taken. . .we're talking Guinness Records for this shower!  I will be SOOOOO glad to wash that gasoline smell off my hand. . .yep, I told Larry, "You check the oil while I fill her up with gas. "  only to have the stupid spout push back up into the gas can so I had to grab it and pull it out before I spilled gas everywhere. . meanwhile, he's checking the oil, and it doesn't need any. . . so all he has to do is put the plug back in!  Next time, I'M checking the oil!   Yuk!

We turned the heat up to 73 degrees and cooked it out in here. . . ahhhhhh, it feels good to sweat!  AND I plugged in the heated mattress pad and turned it as high as it will go!  Yipppeeee!  I hope it's so darn hot that when I jump into bed I have to jump right back out with a scorched backside!

Larry just let out about the fifth huge sigh already. . . when you're running on generators, and your parents are doing the same, and you know, if they or you have any problems, you'll be out there in the cold and dark trying to fix them, well, it's just kind of hard to really relax.  NOW, we can kick back and relax. 

Thanks to everyone for their help and good wishes for us.  We did make it through the whole week with a pretty decent comfort level, and we know that the utility guys worked their tails off to get our lights back on for us, so overall, it was an interesting experience. . .notice I did NOT use the words "fun", "exciting", or "entertaining" experience. . . ha ha ha. 

Everyone have a good night and a good week ahead, ok?  Christy Hicks

[bubbaqgal]

Hip Hip Hooray!  I am so glad you got the power back on.  Now, if those limbs don't pop back up and knock the lines down again.  Get clean and snuggly and enjoy flipping that light switch and dumping that flash light.

[NJT5047]

YEAH!   Power...on...PRICELESS!!
We've BTDT.  Don't want any more.   Still, could be anytime now.
During Hurricane Hugo we spent several weeks without power out here....Hugo the hurricane in '89.  That lasted 2 weeks plus.   
And a couple of ice storms have torn our power system all to hell.  But, in  a week and a half it got fixed and we moved on. 
My problem is keeping everything from freezing up.  We have water in the barn, wash pits for the horses.  Home never gets cold enough to freeze up.  I've got a Buck Stove in an unvented gas log design.  Sucker makes a lot of heat....with or without power. 
Glad ya'll are back to COMFORT!!   And showers...HOT showers!  More better priceless! 
Best, JR

[Ncbob]

This is for general information, but probably applies to Christy and Larry's generator as well.

Most voltage regulators function the same but the difference in them depends on the resistance in the field windings or the stator windings, if you will.

As a general rule there are 4 leads goig to the voltage regulator, some have 6 but that's a rarity. In most cases there are 2 leads labeled F1 and F2.  These are the field exitation leads and generally speaking F2 is - or ground.  The other 2 are voltage reference leads (some ore 120VAC others are 240VAC) but even in the case that the generator is wired for 120/240...the sensing leads may still sense only the 120V side of the winding.  That's OK.

To test the windings of the generator to prove that it's a voltage regulator problem...connect a quality meter to the AC leads...for safety set it at 240V.  You can use a 6V lantern battery to jumper the + to F1 and the negative to F2.  You should read a reference voltage on your AC meter. Since you are only using a 6Vlantern battery you might not get full voltage since it may require more than  6v to excite the field...but you have proven that the generator end is OK and the problem is the voltage regulator.

That was simple wasn't it?

Bob