MEP003a and hurricane Ike

[peyton]

I live in the nw part of Houston and, compared to those who lived along the coast, our neighborhood didn't suffer much. We were very lucky ... lots of minor debris and a few trees down but most trees fell away from the houses. As of right now, I and another 1.7 million or so don't have electricity.

The 003a has run well for the periods I've used it ... only an hour or two at a time to keep the refrigerator cool (not cold) and cool off the house a bit. I'm wondering about the variations in frequency and voltage that I'm seeing when the AC kicks in and out.
Frequency/voltage without AC is 62.5/123 and with AC 59.1/119. Everything seems quite happy with the variations but I wondered what your opinions were on it.

Peyton

[Elden DuRand]

Peyton:

The voltage and frequency variations you measured are easily tolerated by all appliances.

Sorry youall got hit but glad you have a generator.

Take care - Elden

[peyton]

Thanks Elden. We were very fortunate in this part of town as opposed to those along the coast and in other areas. A little time without electricity is, at worst, only an inconvenience.

Peyton

[peyton]

Well, we were without power for 12 days and were fortunate in that the weather cooled off the 2nd day and it was tolerable, if not pleasant, without AC the rest of the time. The mep003a handled our needs, including AC when needed, along with 2 neighbors via extension cords, with aplomb. We used about 6 gallons of fuel per day (approx 8 hours) and our main problem was finding a service station that had (a) electricity and (b) diesel fuel. I had filled the diesel suburban's 40 gallon tank before Ike and thought I was all set but later found I couldn't siphon any fuel from it ... some sort of anti-siphon device perhaps? Live and learn.

Altho it is a wonderfully robust genset, it is too large for our needs (it ran at or below 25% load) so I'll be trying to replace it with a mep002a in the next few months.

Peyton