There I was early last week, we were having a long string of partly cloudy days, and I had been running the air conditioners a bunch. And of course with that combination our solar system batteries were running a bit low. Okay, not just a bit low but hovering in the 40 – 70% charged range.
Time to check the Victron app that shows all kinds of system information. Ooooppppsssss…..
So as of mid-July the batteries hadn’t been 100% charged since May. While not terrible for the batteries or the system, it isn’t good practice to do so. Before I go down that rabbit hole let me explain our power system…and our back-up plans. Yes, meaning Plan B & Plan C & even Plan D. Why? The irony.
Our Plan A is a rather robust 100% off-grid solar system that powers our house very nicely.
Plan B is an inverter style (clean power) 4000watt gasoline Champion generator. It can power the whole house directly, or provide power to the solar system to assist in charging the batteries if needed.
Plan C is a regular (dirty power) 4375watt gasoline/propane Champion generator that can do the same job as Plan B’s generator but with lower quality power. But, this generator is also dual fuel…meaning it can run off gasoline or propane. So run out of gas, no problem…hook up one of our 5gal propane tanks, or one of our 25gal propane tanks, or hook into our 150gal propane tank.
Plan D is a very small portable solar panel and charger system that could probably keep the refrigerator and a couple of lights on. Plus, we have 4 small solar charged portable lights in storage. And some emergency candles as well. This is survival mode plan.
FYI…our freezer is located in my shop and it has its own solar system. So not all our cold food is dependent on a single power system. And if there ever was a very serious grid-down problem and our house solar system went down, I could relocate all of the shop solar equipment to the house. So I guess in reality we have a Plan E as well.
Now, back to early last week…
As I looked at the history from the Victron app I saw we were marginally producing more energy than we were consuming. And that is consistent with last year which was a driving force to the major system upgrade I had planned for our system. Part of that plan was adding an additional 3000 – 3500 watts of solar panels for much needed production capability. Ooooppppsssss…..
So I got 2/3 of the upgrade done and everything worked perfectly. Yeah, the other 1/3 that didn’t get done was…you guessed it…the additional solar panels installed and on-line. Well, no problem…go to Plan B to assist in charging the batteries back up to 100% taking about 6 – 10 hours. Then keep the generator running for another 24-hours while its cloudy to keep the batteries fully charged for conditioning purposes. No problem!!
I grabbed the 6×6 UTV, hooked up the generator cart, pulled it to the house, topped off the gasoline, and it started on the first pull. (That’s a Champion for you!) Plugged it in, system recognized the power coming in, and within seconds the generator was supplying an additional 2000watts charging the batteries. Yea! Back-up plans work!!! Well, almost.
Two hours later I had a prompting to go check on how things were going. Ooooppppsssss…..
The generator was running but a red flashing light on the panel indicated a fault. Twenty minutes of troubleshooting later the generator was dead for all intents and purposes…it wasn’t producing power. No problem, go to Plan C…the back-up generator.
I went to the shop to get the back-up generator and remembered that I had not fixed the pull cord after its last use; broken cord. No problem, I had fixed it before, maybe a 10 minute job. Ooooppppsssss…..
It wasn’t the easy fix it was last time…the pull cord mechanism was shattered and unusable. And then no shop/store in the area carried a replacement.
Time out…Remember our solar system was still up and running, just not at full potential and not fully healthy batteries. And now both generators were out-of-service. The back-up generator was an easy fix, I ordered the part from Amazon and it would be delivered late the next day, install it the following morning and back up and running for Plan C. The Plan B was a different story.
The primary generator used in Plan B was down hard…meaning I couldn’t fix it no matter what I did…it was an internal burned out issue. Why did it happen? Me.
I have written about that Champion generator before…an amazing machine, better than a Honda for sure. The generator had about 4000+ hours on it; about 2/3rds of that was daily use for 6 – 12 hours a day over the span of 18 months. It was run in the rain, snow, dusty wind, harsh sun, etc. While I did change the oil and clean the air filter, other maintenance was mostly overlooked and I knew there were problems…that I would fix later. Yeah, well, later never came around…and it simply wore out from neglect.
There was only a realistic fix for it…replacement. It was $589 originally so we could afford to replace it…well, kind of. Now that same machine was $960…OUCH!!! But I did some looking and realized it was no longer in production and that is why the increase in price…availability. What I could buy put a smile on my face.
On Amazon I found a 4250 watt, dual fuel (gasoline & propane) inverter style (clean power) Champion generator for $555. Yup, the same high-quality Champion generator but with slightly more power and the dual fuel capability for less money than the old one, plus a couple other additional features. So the replacement for Plan B in on the way.
Summary –
I have a solid Plan A all along but the improvement for Plan A was delayed…and that caused a problem. My Plan B failed because I neglected to perform the maintenance to keep it viable. And the exact same thing for Plan C…my neglect.
Yes, I still had a Plan D…and theoretically a Plan E…and thankfully I didn’t need to go to those extremes. But, had I stayed on top of my prepping…well, all of the plans would have been just fine should I have needed them.
So what is the irony? My back-up plans didn’t work out so well. So I guess they didn’t really qualify as plans at all.
Do you have back-up plans…and are they realistic and viable? When was the last time you tested them?
If you are interested in learning more about or purchasing this great FANTASTIC generator from Amazon…click the image below…
(note: if you buy the generator through the link above I might earn a small commission from your purchase, about $4.)
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