I have a blogging friend who lives in Corpus Christi and has had to go through the power outage there. Thank goodness I heard from her today that things are getting better for them. I had once mentioned to all of my friends that the stand-by generator that we had installed here six years ago was the best money we ever spent. It still is. BUT!!! When I read that the generators in her area froze up I had never been warned about this. I researched and found the following:
"During the winter months, standby generators need proper maintenance and grooming in order to operate properly and efficiently. Leaves, sub-freezing temperatures, snow, and ice can all damage your standby generator if not properly maintained and can prevent your standby generator from starting and running during a winter power outage."
"Exercise Your Standby Generator - Just like letting your car run for a few minutes during winter, a standby generator needs to be exercised or run for approximately 10 minutes during long periods of inactivity during cold temperatures. Without this exercise your standby generator may not automatically turn on or operate correctly in temperatures lower than 40 degrees Fahrenheit. To prevent your generator from not turning on when you need it most, let it run for approximately 10 minutes, once per week. Doing so lubricates all moving parts and maintains important seals within your generator."
The folks who had their generators freeze up must have not kept them well maintained. That's really a shame. Ours is thoroughly serviced every Autumn and it automatically runs for 12 minutes every Saturday without fail. The Mister also checks the oil level and keeps snow and ice away from the inlet and outlet.
