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The tough love approach to repairs
Well we’ve hit a bit of bad luck with our Rutland wind generator, aka our source of power. Rutland was battling some pretty strong gusts in the wind storm of Poris Bay and in the end he suffered a lethal blow (wink, wink); he overheated and the safety was thrown to stop him from burning out. Apparently he has a faulty thermostat and it won’t allow him to turn back on so Rutland is spinning away but not producing any power. Adam has been emailing with a technician and we spent a fair bit of time yesterday trying to get Rutland off the pole he is mounted on. It was a complicated ordeal that involved mallets, halyards, a hydraulic jack, and help from a neighbor but Adam was finally able to pop Rutland out of the pole. From what we’ve been able to gather the part that needs replacing is expensive and it’s not clear that we would be able to install it as it requires taking the whole generator apart as well as specialized tools and adhesives. The second option that we have been offered is buying a new generator. For now Adam has by-passed the thermostat, disabling the safety system but allowing Rutland to charge the batteries. In the immortal words of Red Green if the women don’t find you handsome they should at least find you handy. Our concern at this point is that we have to make sure Rutland doesn’t overheat and we haven’t really figured out how to do that exactly. Well, fingers crossed!