Sunny, clear, and cool again. Boy it was nice yesterday, if a bit on the cool side. 50s and 60s and even 70s are great with the clear sky and sun.
I did my pickups then hurried home to meet with the electrician. He took a look at what I had and he’ll be getting back to us with a price for the install. One unfortunate discovery, I misread the data plate all those years ago. The capacity of the gennie is 1/2 of what I thought, so while it is more than my portables, and runs on natgas, and is liquid cooled, it won’t run as much of the house as I’d like. It will do, and we’ll continue with the install, but it was disappointing. (in almost every case, when a plate says 240v and 100A, that is 100A for each leg of the 240v. Not in this case. They are calling out 100A ACROSS both legs, or 50A per leg. It’s a beast of a machine to only have that capacity. Very strange. )
Today I’ve got to do my pickups, then head over to my secondary and do some more cleaning and throwing out. It’s past time that I was able to move a bunch of stuff there, and I need to get back onto that task.
On the national scene, President Biden stumbled and fell three times while climbing the stairs to Airforce One. The video looks bad. I know Presidents have stumbled on the steps before. There is very little you can do to make it look good. But holy cow it looked bad. Add that to some sort of shenanigans involving digital additions to footage, and it hasn’t been a great week for Biden the weak. Also consider last week or the week before when his strongest allies, and the people who presumably know him best, moved to take away his ability to make war, and he seemed ok with that.
Watch the videos, what few there are, and note that he’s got a ‘minder’ just a few steps away in every shot. It’s his VP in far more shots than any other President I can recall. Usually, the VP was a compromise and the POTUS keeps them much further than arm’s length away. It’s all very strange.
I might have to try and retcon my prediction that he wouldn’t make it TO March into ‘he wouldn’t make it THROUGH March’…
He’s famous for his gaffes (and what a qualification for POTUS!) but still… he’s referred to his VP as “President” Harris at least twice on camera. He even tossed off the comment that if they disagreed on policy, he’d ‘fake an illness and retire’. I watched that video with my own eyes.
Now he’s picking a fight with Putin? Putin, who issued some VERY specific and odd statements about Biden’s health, and who challenged Biden to a live debate, but it had to be ‘live with no delays and soon’.
Things are getting weird folks, seriously weird. When I don’t know what’s going on, I tend toward an over abundance of caution. And in this case that makes me want to double my food storage. And buy guns. Lots of guns and ammo. Repair kits. Spare parts. Accessories. Water treatment and filters. Meds. Wound care supplies. Canning jars and seeds. Boots. All sorts of things.
Stack all the things!
Stay frosty.
nick
For ext4, the file count limit is in the 100s of Trillions. 2^48
The number of directory entries is fixed at a relatively low number which should be available Googling around. And there is a limit on “hard” links, which we used at my last job to move big image files around a file system when processing plate scans. The DVR might be similar.
dumpe2fs doesn’t require an unmounted disk on my travel laptop Fedora system, but YMMV. I just ran it.
Saw “The Little Things” at Victoria Cinemark with Dad this afternoon. Denzel Washington is awesome as usual. Movie was a little disconcerting. Los Angeles in 1988 or so. The cars and scenery was very well done.
CGI. “Wonder Woman 1984” had the right store signs in the background of the mall scenes, including B. Dalton under original Dayton Hudson/Target ownership.
Posting a few minutes ago reminded me — my travel laptop runs much better under Fedora 33 this year than it did under Fedora 31 on the last trip in July. And I had very minimal complaints last year.
A 4 GB with a recent “Pentium” which quickly became too wimpy to even run Windows 10 Home. No expansion capability. Thanks Intel/Dell.
We’ll see if Fedora 34 continues the trend of improvement or requires 8 GB. If the latter is the case, the laptop goes on EBay when Fedora 33 sunsets.
Something fishy about that generator rating. What is it in KW or KVA?
On the national scene, President Biden stumbled and fell three times while climbing the stairs to Airforce One. The video looks bad. I know Presidents have stumbled on the steps before. There is very little you can do to make it look good. But holy cow it looked bad.
It happens.
Chevy Chase’s career beyond “The Groove Tube” is based on his makeup-free impersonation of President Ford in the first season of SNL, particularly through making people recall the mishap on the steps of the old 707 Air Force One shortly after Nixon resigned.
And Ford was a college athlete, still in great shape through his White House years and well beyond the time he left office. I remember Ford being on local news in Tampa, at the ground breaking of yet another downtown redevelopment project in the late 70s, and the former President entertaining himself and the crowd with some really decent golf ball drives into Tampa Bay, probably warm up for his weekend plans in the area.
Oh, just remembered. Assuming it is simgle phase, that genset probably has two output windings. They are connected in series for 240V. They can be connected in parallel for “120V only.” Each winding has a rating in amps, say 50A. That would be 50A at 240V OR 100A total if parallel connected for “120V only.”
This is popular in the small gen world. Each winding is independent. The panel can be connected series (240V,) parallel (120V,) or independent (two 120V outputs.) That last conection is not usually found, but can be useful in certain situations. There can also be a switch to accomplish this.
ADDED: The most popular is series if 240V is needed. The connection between the two windings serves as the neutral for two 120V outputs, just like the service into your house.
One more thought. Your genset likely has two 120V 50A windings. That would be 120x50x2=12kVA total. The possible connections are still as I described above.
BTW, kVA and W are equal at a power factor of 1, but you already knew that.
Need coffee!
Yep. Even .357 magnum can give a nice fireball. It’s something I don’t recall ever seeing in an action movie.
For that matter, every pistol above .22 gives some flash, visible in the dark. Maybe .22 as well if you look carefully or the night is dark enough. Something to keep in mind if you’re ever in a nighttime fight.
That’s right Joe, keep practicing…
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-kamala-harris-gaffe-mental-state-poll-1577270
The video memes of plugs’ fall on AF1 are brutal and hilarious.
Biden’s fall on Air Force One steps is his first meme as president
tRump hitting him with a golf ball is my fav, but there are plenty more. There is also a great one of tRump tossing MAGA hats and hitting plugs.
Even funnier is how the Lame Stream Media is covering for plugs. And the White House: “The wind blew him down.” LOL!
One unfortunate discovery, I misread the data plate all those years ago. The capacity of the gennie is 1/2 of what I thought, so while it is more than my portables, and runs on natgas, and is liquid cooled, it won’t run as much of the house as I’d like. It will do, and we’ll continue with the install, but it was disappointing. (in almost every case, when a plate says 240v and 100A, that is 100A for each leg of the 240v. Not in this case. They are calling out 100A ACROSS both legs, or 50A per leg. It’s a beast of a machine to only have that capacity. Very strange. )
Ok, the generac that you have is liquid cooled. The smallest liquid cooled generator that Generac makes now is a 27 kw using a Ford four cylinder running at 1,800 rpm on natural gas.
https://generatorsupercenter.com/products/27kw/
We are getting the turbocharged version of this generator at 37 kw, capable of making 158 amps at 120 or 240 volts.
That nameplate may be confusing. I’ll bet that your generator can make 100 amps at either 120 volts or 240 volts for a total of 27 kw. If, you have the four cylinder model.
BTW, is your transfer switch rated for 100 amps at 240 volts ?
copied from a post at AoSHQ:
1973:
–What are you doing with that 4kb of RAM?
–Sending people to the moon
2019
–What are you doing with that 16GB of RAM and 102% CPU?
–Excel has a dialogue box open somewhere
@Nick
If you don’t have a manual for the gennie, try to find one.
“Paperwork failures worsened Texas blackouts, sparking mid-storm scramble to restore critical fuel supply
Dozens of natural gas companies failed to do the paperwork that would keep their facilities powered during an emergency, so utilities cut their electricity at the very moment that power plants most needed fuel. The mid-storm scramble to fix the problem exposed a regulatory blind spot.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/18/texas-winter-storm-blackouts-paperwork/
Ok, the Texas extreme weather event keeps on getting more horrible and more horrible. My natural gas well customers very carefully modeled their wellheads and installed ethylene glycol (antifreeze) system recirculation systems 10 to 20 years ago. Not cheap, they consisted of an 8,000 gallon to 12,000 gallon tank of EG and a high pressure electric pump of 100 to over 1,000 hp. A big electricity user to make huge amounts of natural gas for the gas turbines to into electricity.
So the natural gas producers turned on their EG recirculation systems before the event and went home. And then ERCOT promptly turned the electricity off in the oil fields and the EG system quit and allowed the wellhead to freeze up. Thousands of wellheads. Because the natural gas producers did not file a piece of paper with their electric supplier stating that they were a critical user because nobody reached out to them. What a monumental cluster $%$$.
Without looking further into it yet, I think JimB nailed it with the windings.
I have to look in the manual, and see if I can get a pic of the nameplate myself (its in a weird place).
Transfer switch is overkill for this job as it turns out, 200A 240V Generac automatic transfer switch. Outdoor rated, never installed. My panel is 200A so I thought that would be easiest. And it’s what was on ebay when I went looking.
n
visiting child safely fed and released from captivity back into the wild….
or she ate some pancakes and her mom picked her up. One of those two anyway.
I’m getting a late start consequently. It’s always something.
n
” Because the natural gas producers did not file a piece of paper with their electric supplier stating that they were a critical user because nobody reached out to them. What a monumental cluster $%$$. ”
–every time we USE our preps, we find the places we messed up. Unknown unknown in this case. It’s why you drill, practice, exercise, etc.
n
0 @Nick
If you don’t have a manual for the gennie, try to find one.
Yup, I’ll bet that Generac can help you. You need to know how much fuel that generator will use at wide open so you can size the fuel line properly. The natgas fuel line on mine has to be upsized since my genny is 190 ft away from the gas meter.
Of the costs for my genny, it is $14,000 for the 1,200 lb 37 kw genny. $2,000 to dig an 18 inch deep trench for the 190 ft natgas line. $8,000 to design and install the genny including a six inch concrete pad built on site and a 158 Amp 240 volt transfer switch with 35 ft of electric wiring. And $1,000 sales tax for the state. $25,000 total.
Probably going to be installed in June. They are calling me every week and telling me the status. We are currently in the design phase.
visiting child safely fed and released from captivity back into the wild….
or she ate some pancakes and her mom picked her up. One of those two anyway.
I’m getting a late start consequently. It’s always something.
Cool ! You gifted your kid with some normalcy in these troubled times. Very high value event for your kid.
You know, 20+ years after my kids were your kids age now, I can look back and remember all the crazy going on back then. I just tried to stay out of the way and eat the leftover pancakes.
visiting child safely fed and released from captivity back into the wild….
or she ate some pancakes and her mom picked her up. One of those two anyway.
Of course WE know what you meant, but some random visitor (TLA?) might think otherwise. OK, just kidding, but I found it hilarious. I think the shower and coffee are starting to have an effect. And, I know to never read anything with a mouth full of liquid. 🙂
Lack of paperwork obviously absolves the geniuses at ERCOT for shutting down electrical service for critical infrastructure.
Terrestrial manifestation of deity on an elastomeric mobility-assisting device!
Lynn is right about the gas line. At typical residential pressure, it takes a fairly large pipe to get enough flow. Your generator is probably the biggest flow user by far. Don’t starve it. Maybe that electrician guy will know codes and practices for gas lines, or at least be able to look it up. It’s not hard, but you need someone local with solid knowledge.
While I was taking my shower, I thought about the engine driving the generator. At 1800rpm, a typical small engine only puts out somewhere about a half or less of a horsepower per cubic inch. (Sorry, I don’t get Internet in the shower.) If electrical output is 12kW, that is 12/.748=~16hp. Electrical efficiency is probably 0.8 maximum at full load, so figure about 20hp. That would require, say, a 50 cubic inch minimum engine size, probably bigger. Take a look at the engine label, if any, to get more clues.
I think Lynn’s suggestion to get the manual and specs is better.
Reminds me. Doesn’t apply here for some reasons, but I have always looked at the diameter of the exhaust stack on IC engines to get an idea of their hp. This works pretty well in construction equipment. It works especially well to compare different things from the same manufacturer made under the same rules. Just a rough guess. There is also a trend for larger exhaust plumbing for lower parasitic losses and better sound control. As I said, just a guess. One aspect of engineering is estimating, or the famous SWAG.
SteveF and others, I was taught that muzzle flash from a pistol is a function of many things. Barrel length and propellant composition are the biggest drivers. The flash is almost always caused by hydrogen burning in the air, but there probably are other components involved.
The brightest flash I have seen was shooting surplus .30 carbine ammo in a Ruger 7.5″ (?) revolver. That flash was annoying at noon outdoors. The powder was almost certainly designed for the carbine barrel, and so a lot burned outside the pistol barrel.
An example that negates the higher power = brighter flash notion. I had a .38 Super pistol. Remember that .38 Auto was the predecessor to the .45 ACP. In this case, .38 Auto and .38 Super are the same cartridge dimensions, so it is possible to put the hotter ammo in the weaker pistol, but that is discussion for another time. Anyhow, factory .38 Super ammo produced no noticeable flash at night, but factory .38 Auto ammo produced a brilliant flash under the same conditions. Different powder, but I am not a propellant expert.
One would assume that powders, especially military, would be designed to produce the minimum flash possible. Don’t know the tradeoffs.
I always wanted to brew up some ammo or blanks with a little aluminum or whatever ingredient is in flash powder. It would be fun but not practical. Be great for getting attention.
I have the manual, just didn’t read it. The company that did the refurb and service had to call Generac to get the info and a copy. It’s a commercial unit, so the low capacity shocked me, especially considering the size. 4cyl engine.
It’ll be first in line for gas after the regulator, and it’s only about 8 feet of pipe away, but yeah, we’re having a gas plumber do that part and the other couple of gas things we want done.
At the service center they ran it off a bottle. BIG bottle, but still a bottle of natgas. Looks like it has a 1/2 ” pipe for the gas inlet.
That’s all falling down the list until next week, but I appreciate the good info. I’ve done a cr@pton of work with generators in live entertainment, but those are a different beast. Same physical size box would be capable of 200 A three phase 208v. Fooled me.
n
Biggest flash I ever saw was on the firing line of an indoor range in Cali. I saw a 6ft orange fireball in the lane next to me and ducked away. It was a guy with an AR15 pistol. HUGE fireball. Really loud too. And his girlfriend couldn’t hold it well enough for the action to cycle.
n
Notice how no one makes an effort to help him…I guess everyone has been spoken to by the ‘handlers’.
Biggest flash I ever saw was on the firing line of an indoor range in Cali. I saw a 6ft orange fireball in the lane next to me and ducked away. It was a guy with an AR15 pistol. HUGE fireball.
Another example of slow burning rifle (long barrel) powder in a pistol (short barrel). At least some of that powder burned outside the barrel. Spectacular but not very efficient.
On bigger cartridges, sometimes it is possible to see unburned powder specks on a clean floor. It takes heat AND pressure to burn most propellants.
So the natural gas producers turned on their EG recirculation systems before the event and went home. And then ERCOT promptly turned the electricity off in the oil fields and the EG system quit and allowed the wellhead to freeze up.
They turned on the recirculation systems while “working from home”. No one was in the office, especially that Friday.
If it is safe enough for Disney to run at Spring Break capacity this week, most offices should be safe enough to return to work next week. A year vacation is enough.
Andrew Sullivan blasts media for ‘grotesquely’ distorting Atlanta shootings to push hate crime ‘narrative’
https://www.foxnews.com/media/andrew-sullivan-blasts-media-for-grotesquely-distorting-atlanta-shootings-to-push-hate-crime-narrative
How do they know that a particular user is critical infrastructure without being told?
I can’t imagine.
Unless, of course, they have criteria for qualifying types of user.
OTOH, if they just accepted the word of everyone that filled out the form…
Probably outsourced to India, anyway.
So the natural gas producers turned on their EG recirculation systems before the event and went home. And then ERCOT promptly turned the electricity off in the oil fields and the EG system quit and allowed the wellhead to freeze up.
They turned on the recirculation systems while “working from home”. No one was in the office, especially that Friday.
That was the well pumpers going around and turning on the EG systems. You don’t turn on a 100 hp to 1,000 pump without standing next to it. Each well pumper has 100 to 130 wells that they manage.
Lack of paperwork obviously absolves the geniuses at ERCOT for shutting down electrical service for critical infrastructure.
How do they know that a particular user is critical infrastructure without being told?
The problem is that ERCOT did not have the electrical distribution companies reach out to their customers. It was both their responsibilities and both failed.
Picked up a case of spray bottle alcohol sanitizer. It smells exactly like tequila. Good for cleaning my phone though.
n
http://www.trillium.life
looks like they only exist to sell this one product.
Back from my errands.
beautiful day out there today.
Lots of cops running traffic stops and speed traps.
n
From Friday…
Not exactly. The US has 40 MM (million) doses (might be more if you are careful emptying the vial) of the AZ vaccine warehoused because it has not yet received approval in the US. The deal is to “lend” 1.5MM doses to Canada and 2MM doses to Mexico. Since one assumes these will expire at some point, you are better to lend to someone who will use it now, in exchange for getting back fresher doses once it has passed approval. Now whether “lend” becomes “never mind we don’t need them” sometime later, I can’t say. China and Russia are proceeding with “vaccine diplomacy” right now in the third world. The US should use this stockpile to do something similar with key partners in the Americas at the least. Columbia and Chile come to mind. Venezuela can ask their Cuban doctors to negotiate with Russia and China. Where else the US has interests it would want to support (make in-debt to you for a favor), I can’t say.
On a personal note, I got the AZ jab on Thursday. Much like giving blood here: Questions at the door (do you have a fever, etc…), a 5 page questionnaire with more of the same, and then the person doing the jab asks the same questions AGAIN (I guess because liars are not consistent???). 45 minutes for the 5 second jab. I stopped giving blood because it took me 10 minutes to give a pint, and 45 minutes to get through the stupid vetting. As you can tell this is a personal peeve (and I guess a first world problem). I got the jab. I am thankful. Scheduled for jab 2 in early July.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/illegal-immigrant-wanted-raping-2-young-girls-killed-texas-cop/
–but I thought they were sending us there best? I thought mean orange man was just a racist! How can this be true??
—yeah even in sarcasm it leaves a bad taste. Kudos to the traffic cop, good shooting Tex. Sleep well knowing you saved two kids.
n
https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2021/03/16/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-wipes-out-griddy-customers-electric-bills-totaling-291-million/
–customers saved $17M but that was wiped out when they collectively owed $29M. When you gamble, the odds favor the house, and if you gamble long enough, you will lose. The determined player hedges his bets, but STILL loses in the long run.
–there is no way that what the AG did was legal. And it certainly wasn’t “fair” for whatever values of fair you care to choose.
n
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/03/20/dallas-receiving-8-million-to-host-immigrant-teens-in-us-custody-at-convention-center-officials-say/
That is an invasion. And really despicable to use kids like that.
n
You stopped short of a full assessment. Your statements are dubious. Why did you not taste it before declaring it tequila like? Wimp…
Um, there are a couple of other things on the ingredient list… not harmful but not tasty either.
n
added– I could claim to be out of limes, but I did refresh the strategic lime reserve with the last grocery order….
Congress seeks recall of popular Seresto flea collars possibly linked to pet deaths
https://nypost.com/2021/03/19/congressional-committee-seeks-voluntary-recall-of-seresto-flea-collars-linked-to-pet-deaths/
Germans and pesticides.
What could possibly go wrong?
–there is no way that what the AG did was legal. And it certainly wasn’t “fair” for whatever values of fair you care to choose.
The big question is, is ERCOT sovereign ? If so, they can do anything. If not, they are in big trouble at the bankruptcy court.
Dad and I went to the West plant nursery today, outside of Victoria, Texas. We got to see the guys pets, a Niederrheiner 15 lb Rooster and his two hens. I asked the guy how aggressive his Rooster was as he was wandering around the place. The guy said that is my big pussycat and went and got a 5 lb box of raisins. One of the hens came running at full speed with the Rooster skipping behind her. He gave the hen three raisins and flipped one to the Rooster. The hen already ate her raisins and grabbed the roosters raisin. Then he hand fed the Rooster a couple of raisins. The hens were 7 or 8 lbs too.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niederrheiner
He is selling fertilized eggs for $5 each or chicks for $20 each.
A 4 GB with a recent “Pentium” which quickly became too wimpy to even run Windows 10 Home. No expansion capability. Thanks Intel/Dell.
Two of my windows 7 pro x64 PCs at the office have only 6 gb of ram. I am hoping that they survive the windows 10 pro x64 upgrades.
–there is no way that what the AG did was legal. And it certainly wasn’t “fair” for whatever values of fair you care to choose.
And was it fair for ERCOT to set the top price at $9,000/mwh ? ERCOT may have culpability here ?
BTW, did you notice that when Abbott fired the last Texas PUC commissioner this week, the guy was at The Goldman Sachs ? What was he doing there and who was he meeting with ?
Win 10 is a much better O/S than Win7. Should be better at handling the load.
From what I understand the AG in Texas is very powerful – any chance this will be litigated?
Trying to swap his (supposed) connections for a job?
Has anyone seen a breakdown of these kids by age?
It looks like the convention center will be 3000 boys 15-17 if I’m reading that all right, and the reporting is accurate.
n
Police task force is out working street racing again tonight. Cops are chatty AF tonight.
n
If this is at all organized racing you’d think these guys would have scanners too?
you’d think that, but apparently not.
Every time I raised the issue with LEOs they said the same thing, there is no evidence that the crims ever use scanners.
n
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/breaking-swat-team-moves-spring-breakers-commit-violence-destroy-restaurantscity-miami-beach-declares-state-emergency-video/
–once again I’m struck by the appearance of the people engaging in lawlessness and fighting in particular… perhaps the tweeters are not sharing video of all the amish fighting for some reason… or perhaps not.
n
Two of my windows 7 pro x64 PCs at the office have only 6 gb of ram. I am hoping that they survive the windows 10 pro x64 upgrades.
Not even 8 GB?
My kids decade-old game PC motherboard runs Windows 10 Pro x64 comfortably with 8 GB and a GT 640 2 GB discrete graphics card.
Reasonably fast discrete graphics is probably more important than the RAM.
and an SSD, not spinning rust.
n
And carving out the cruft, killing all the shite MS added, and stuff that phones home.
n
From what I understand the AG in Texas is very powerful – any chance this will be litigated?
The AG in Texas, Ken Paxton, is in a fair bit of legal trouble of his own. If the Griddy situation is litigated, that will come later this year, as part of an effort to unseat him.
@lynn
That’s a beautiful bird. All of our roosters have hated me because I upset their hens (taking eggs, trimming toenails) and loved my husband (the man with corn! The man with corn!)
I like having a rooster around even if ours have tended to be jerks. They keep the hens from jockeying for status and will lay down their lives against a predator. Great courage in that diminutive frame.
They’re also tasty when meanness outweighs usefulness.
Two chicks have hatched so far. A third has made heavy inroads on their shell. Several other eggs have a pip and should hatch tomorrow. I’ve got 41 eggs in the incubator. They won’t all hatch and there will be tears from the nine year old. There’s value in witnessing life and death from a young age, I think. I hope it builds resilience. She’s already named the first two and is trying out names for the others.
The corgis are veerrryyy interested in the peep peep peeping in the laundry room.
Hmmm. Ok hand. Was that not sanctioned as incorrect for some weird thing not long ago?
Indeed. Many suckers were taken in by the 4chan hoax. And it’s become something of a self fulfilling prophesy as some elements have adopted it, since it came ready made….
n