i have been reading this forum for about 3 months and have been entertained and educated- it's great! the city council in my small town recently approved an unbudgeted expenditure of 35,000.00 to purchase and install a generator for back-up power for the water system (city wells). i guess what i would like to know, is this a large amount for a generator for a town of 15,000? and that this must obviously mean city officials feel there will be a definate outage, since they only have water reserves for 2 days. any opinions would be greatly appreciated-thanks! also, dieter will you marry me?!!

-- dory morton (crtwheel@eburg.com), April 23, 1999

Answers

It may be a bargain. This from Canadian Merx search.

Work under this contract includes, but is not limited to, the provision of labour, material, equipment, for the supply of a UPS System, Storage Batteries and Racks, and a Diesel Power Generation to be assigned to the Y2K Upgrade Project at the Data Centre, CFB Borden, Ontario.

Those wishing to obtain a set of P&S for this project must place an order with MERX by calling 1-800-964-MERX (6379).

The estimated cost for this opportunity is in the order of $1,000,000.00.

http://www.merx.cebra.com/english2/index.html

-- B (bendere@dondat.com), April 23, 1999.

Go to http://www.americasgenerators.com and you can see a wide range of generators. I assume your town is going the diesel route and is not going to depend on the natural gas lines to keep working.

Now please note that most of the new and used gensets listed at that and other sites are "raw", ie. skid mounted, no enclosure, no fuel tank, no transfer switch, etc. Installation isn't cheap either, neither is topping up a 1,000 gallon fuel tank! Just off the top of my head, some SWAG estimates, $4,000 for fuel, structural tank, and install. $1,000 for a really sturdy reinforced concrete pad to put it on. $5,000 for auto-transfer switch and wiring. All weather enclosure and install $3,000. The rest goes for a 100-200kw genset and shipping all of that, and install. Reduce install prices for in-house or non-union labor. Oops, add a bit for insurance and liability rider. To do it right costs money.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), April 23, 1999.

But not to do may mean no water.

Insurance is not neccessarily cheap.

Send them a short letter, thanking them for their foresight. After you have gotten their attention with the compliant compliment, ask how the rest of the city and county are doing: 911, fire, police, jail, tax office, courthouse, etc.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), April 23, 1999.

A "2 day reserve" of water suggests there is an elevated water tank system. That's 2-days under normal conditions for that time of year. If the power goes, people won't be using water to wash clothes, but might start filling containers or finding other uses that could empty the tanks more quickly. Or maybe without power-related water uses, the water reserve lasts a lot longer than usual. So that makes another level of uncertainty about a critical public service. Here's hoping a generator is still available.

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), April 23, 1999.