It sure is nice to have a hydro-electric system here at the lodge to keep the food in the freezers frozen, run electric heaters, and make lights turn on when you flip a switch! So, I was very concerned one morning shortly after Jen arrived when the lights started flickering wildly as I was standing in the kitchen drinking my tea. We have electrical meters in the kitchen and I watched them swing wildly as the lights flickered and then went dark as the meters all went to zero. I jumped into my Xtratuff boots, and ran out the back door towards our hydro shed. As soon as I got outside, I could hear the pelton wheel overspinning as the load of the generator was obviously not slowing it down. My heart sank as I got closer to the shed and smoke was pouring out of the windows.
There was too much smoke in the room to do much. I took a deep breath, then ran in, opened the windows fully, and ran out. Once the smoke was mostly clear, I was able to shut down the water running to the pelton wheel and take in the scene in the shed. It all looked normal, except it was very dark and very quiet! It also smelled like something expensive had burned up!
Jen was shocked when the lights went out!
We do have a diesel generator back up, so there was no big concern about losing all the food in the freezers. There is a big difference though, between running a diesel generator three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening, and having quiet, clean hydro running 24 hours a day.
Our neighbor John comes to the rescue!
Luckily, our neighbor in the bay, John, is an experienced electrician. We were also very fortunate that there was a new generator already sitting in the hydro shed. That generator was going to be hooked up to a separate pelton wheel sometime in the future, but we decided to hook it up to the existing wheel. It was a different generator, so the key was to mount it where we had perfect belt alignment.
Jen was very unhappy after three days of no hydro power!
We took our time figuring things out and started at daylight on the third day without power (that was long enough!). This is the start of the installation of the new 350 pound generator. John and I tried to pull the generator out of it's storage spot and couldn't budge it, so we used a comealong to drag it out where we could get look at it. The Pelton wheel is in the red housing and you can see the old shorted out generator that is still in place.
We used a chain hoist to lift and maneuver the new generator into place. John is attached to the boots coming through the ceiling as we cut a hole to attach the chain hoist.
We lifted it up and down several times to find the proper place to put the mount for good belt alignment. We tried several dry fits before finally settling on a location. We marked the spot, then lifted it one final time to drill pilot holes for the lag bolts that hold the mount down.
Putting the drive belts on to check for alignment.
Once the generator was in place, John wired it and made some final tests and adjustments.
At the end of a very long day, we had hydro power again with the generator putting out almost 13 KW!
Looking at the images above, Jen, what would you do without Rick and John? These two are 2 highly skillful pioneers. By the way, may I assume that the Pelton wheel is turned by the water flow in the red housing which in turn spins the generator, yes? When our lights go out, we call Public service. Many people, including myself, would be jealous of your life in nature at Warm Springs. Of course, I mean when the generator works! Enjoy the season. We will stay in touch.
ReplyDelete