an even huger “Whew!”

I blogged a week ago that Jude and I were sighing a huge “Whew!” of relief because our neighbour Harris had brought our diesel generator back to life. He replaced a faulty voltage regulator. We don’t have to use it much because of an abundance of rain in the winter for the micro-hydro and an abundance of sunlight in the summer for the solar panels that usually provide all the juice we need.

There are times, however, when we have to use the generator. The stretch of cloudy weather we were experiencing a week ago has continued, without providing enough rain to reinvigorate the hydro. Our battery capacity was falling far below our comfort zone. So with copious concern we turned on just about everything electrical and went to bed, hoping that we would drain the battery low enough to trip the genny automatically.

In the 20 years we’ve had the system, we have never had to risk this. After an anxious sleep, heightened by the dogs’ insistence that there was Something Terrible outside, we awoke to find the battery level had dropped close to the trip point. Just before Jude had to leave to run her recovery group, the genny kicked on as programmed. We were immensely relieved. Again.

Now I’m monitoring the battery level as it slowly rebuilds. It’s supposed to shut off automatically when it reaches 54.6 to 56.6 volts. Stay tuned.