Winter Chores

Throughout the summer, I thought that winters here would require less work since there is so much less daylight and we'd be stuck inside. Well it turns out there is still quite a bit to do even if it is dark outside.

Whenever it snows more than a couple inches, which is more often than I expected, I have to run the snow blower down the driveway and to all the locations I walk regularly--the generator shed, the solar panels, the wood pile, etc. I have the routine down to under an hour if it isn't a blizzard, but when we get a foot of snow all at once it can take twice as long or more, depending on how wet the snow is. I always try to clear as much snow as possible before it rains, because the watered down snow will inevitably freeze in fairly short order making walking up and down our driveway quite treacherous and delaying the day that we can actually drive up it. Since I work during the day, and because the snow blower has a light on it, I usually end up doing this chore at night if it's a work day.


Maintaining clear walkways makes daily chores much easier, especially
when the snow gets deep like it is now. These solar panels were installed
with summer use only in mind. They will probably get raised or even
moved to a less shaded (in winter) location this summer.


I chop wood about every other day. I do it manually, because I didn't want to spend money on a wood splitter this year after all the money we've spent on home improvements, and because I really wanted to make sure I can split wood without power tools if I have to. I've discovered that it only takes a few minutes a day to split wood once you get the hang of it. I spend 15 to 30 minutes to produce about a two day's supply of firewood. Our wood pile contains mostly pine, fir, larch, and birch. The birch is the hardest to split, but even birch rarely takes more than a few good whacks before it splits. I've actually come to enjoy the chore of splitting wood!

I use a six pound maul with a fiberglass handle. A friend back east who has chopped more wood than I had at the beginning of the year told me what to get. He told me an eight pound maul can be more than light skinny guys like us can comfortably control. I'd have to say I agree with him. The six pounder that I have feels like a good match for me.  After the incident last November, I try to split the wood so that logs are no longer than six inches wide. To ease stress on my back, I use a large diameter short log to lift the piece I'm splitting about a foot off of the ground. Next year, I might try putting this setup inside a tire, so that when the log splits, the parts don't fall into the snow. If that turns out to not be very safe, I'll abandon the idea. Feel free to comment on this idea or if you have a better idea for solving this problem.

And of course, there is the never-ending chore of feeding the wood stove. It's necessary to stay warm, and we've gotten used to it. But there are times when we are just so involved with what we are doing that neither of us wants to. We do it anyway because we have to. Such is life.

The one winter chore I really don't enjoy is changing the oil in the generator. The old generator just wasn't designed for maintenance. The Honda generator looks much easier and cleaner, so maybe I can finish changing the oil before my fingers freeze. Time will tell, I guess.

Generator Troubles

When we came back home after being away for about a month for the Christmas and New Year holidays, our generator was giving us troubles. It refused to start. Eventually, the starter cord broke and I had to give up for the time being. I went to the local Honda dealer because the local small engine repair shop was closed. While there I checked out their line of generators and as it turned out they were able to repair the spring and cord for my broken generator while I waited. How nice! I replaced the spark plug and the generator started right up, although occasionally, it would stop every once in a while for no apparent reason.

Well, here it is a little over a month after that incident, and now the generator doesn't run for longer than about a half hour at best. That's enough time to pump some water out of the well, but not long enough to do a load of laundry, and certainly not long enough to charge our batteries. During our cloudy winters, I usually need to run the generator about two to three hours per day to charge the batteries. It's time to get the generator repaired, but due to all the snow we've had I can't get the generator from the generator shed to my SUV parked at the bottom of the driveway. My neighbors tell me they have backup generators for just these occasions since they have been in the same situation as me before. In fact, their primary generator was in the shop. It was time to pay another visit to the Honda dealer.

Honda generators have a reputation for reliability. Also, Honda has a nice line of super quiet generators which are also very fuel efficient and don't require ethanol-free gasoline.  Each of these features appeal to me. I just wish Honda generators didn't cost so much.

We rarely use anywhere near the full capacity of the 8KW Generac generator that came with the house. I wanted an efficient generator that could charge our batteries or run an 1800 watt appliance, or charge our batteries and run a smaller appliance at the same time.  I ended up buying the largest Honda super-quiet inverter-based generator they offered--the EU3000is. The weight, at 134 lbs plus about 25 lbs of fuel and oil, was just manageable by my wife and me on our steep icy driveway. It took two days to get it hooked up because the NEMA L5-30 receptacle did not mate with any NEMA L5 plugs I could find at Home Depot. So after another trip back to the Honda dealer to get the special L5-30 plug, I was able to fabricate my cable and wire the generator to the house.

I fired it up and admired the fact that I could actually talk to my wife on a 2-way radio even as I stood over the generator. I was impressed when I came inside and inspected the charger and noticed that it was charging at a full 100 Amps (at 12 volts). I had never been able to achieve that with the old generator; at best I got 80 amps and more typically 40 to 60. I can now charge batteries in about half the time and burn less than half the gasoline at a lower cost because it doesn't have to be premium ethanol-free gasoline. I used to go through five gallons in two to three days. I now get three days on 3.4 gallons. That's really nice! And there is a wireless remote start kit that I will probably install later. That would come in handy if I need to start the generator at night and don't feel like getting all dressed up to go hiking through the snow just to get a small burst of power.

The new 3KW 120V Honda generator with the
broken 8KW 240V Generac generator behind it in
our generator shed about 120 feet from the house.

When the snow melts and I can get my SUV up to the house, I do plan on repairing the old generator. After all, it is capable of providing over twice the power, even if it isn't super-quiet or fuel efficient. And it's always good to have a backup, although, I think the backup will be the bigger, noisier generator from now on.


Resources:
Honda Generators: http://powerequipment.honda.com/generators