Whisper-quiet!

Photo by BobbaLew.

Whisper-quiet.

Our supposedly whisper-quiet standby generator was merrily roaring away beneath our bedroom window as we went to bed last night.
It’s not as loud as some of the macho Harleys that blast our 40-mph road at 80-plus if they can crank it.
Their riders loudly blatting defiance at the surrounding countryside.
The crotch-rockets get 100 or so, usually wheelstanding.
A tight curve is north of our house. It’s posted for 15 mph.
A crotch-rocket might do it at 40-50 plus leaned over at a 40-50 degree angle to the pavement.
I can’t do that.
I’m 68 years old. I can’t race.
What I worry about is pebbles in the curve.
I lost it on pebbles once. That was an earlier motorcycle. I dumped it; tore my pants.
After the curve is a long uphill straight past our house, so everyone wicks it up. Pedal-to-the-metal!
Our standby generator kicks on if the electricity fails.
It’s an internal-combustion engine fueled by natural-gas.
It doesn’t power the whole house, but nearly.
It doesn’t push our bedroom or laundry-room or air-conditioning.
Nor does it power our dishwasher, apparently.
But it does push our furnace and water-heater, both of which need electricity.
It also pushes our freezer and refrigerator.
Also our computers and garage-door opener.
That garage-door opener was an absolute necessity.
The garage-door is gigantic, eight-foot high by 17 or more feet wide.
It’s so heavy it takes two to open it manually.
Our builder wanted to install two eight-by-eight garage-doors.
I refused.
I knew an eight-foot wide garage-door wouldn’t clear my Ford E250 Econoline van.
It would clout the outside rearview mirrors.
I’d be changing the van’s oil outside in the snow, just like our old house in Rochester.
Our standby is the same as our neighbor’s.
We got it because we were at war with him.
What matters is cylinder-count. Our standby is a one-liter V-twin.
It also seemed like a good idea.
The electricity fails fairly often out here in the country.
We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield in Western New York, southeast of Rochester.
Usually what takes out the power is thunderstorms or blizzards.
Years ago an ice-storm took out our electricity for almost a week.
No standby then. We were operating on flashlights.
And at that time our furnace needed electricity, but our water-heater didn’t.
We had hot water, but the temperature inside our superinsulated house dropped to 50 degrees.
Our standby pauses 30 seconds before kicking on after a power-failure.
That’s enough time for our DVR to lose its settings, so we have that on backup-battery.
We were calmly watching our recorded news, when suddenly we were plunged into darkness.
Our TV and DVR remained on, on the backup-battery.
30 seconds passed, the standby kicked on, and we had lights again.
That was about 8 p.m.
Our neighbor across-the-street, the one with the first standby, called about 10 p.m.
“I see your lights are on, so ya haven’t gone to bed.”
“They’re being pushed by our ‘whisper-quiet’ standby. And I gotta listen to that thing in bed.”
This is our neighbor’s son. Our original neighbors are both gone. They’re the ones who installed their standby, and were in their 90s.
“Somebody take out a power-pole?” our neighbor asked.
There was no other reason for the electricity-failure, no thunderstorms or torrid weather.
The power-failure also took out our Internet. Apparently the nearby substation is on the same circuit as our house.
But it seemed they too had a backup generator. Last time the electricity failed to our house the Internet didn’t.
And apparently our backup battery is not satisfied with our standby’s output.
It stays on battery-backup when our standby is on.
The TV and DVR eventually failed when the battery ran out, perhaps 20 minutes.
Now I gotta completely set up the DVR again. —It lost all its settings.
Finally about 10:30, lights out, our standby blasting away.
I covered both my ears, and fell asleep, but apparently our electricity returned by 11 p.m.
I was able to operate our dishwasher.

• A “DVR” (digital-video-recorder), like a VCR, records television video on a rewritable DVD disc.
• RE: “Our computers.......” —We each have our own computer, my wife a PC, and me a MAC.
• Our “superinsulated house” has foot-thick exterior walls filled with insulation. There also is a lot of blown insulation above the ceiling.