https://FixItRadio.com kicks off 2026 with John Rush and engineer Larry Unger tackling a question many homeowners are now asking: What happens when the power goes out again—and it will? After recent widespread outages across Colorado, the conversation quickly turns to backup power, preparedness, and real-world lessons learned the hard way. Is a portable generator enough, or do you need whole-home backup power? What can actually run your furnace, refrigerator, or well pump—and what can’t? Listener calls from Joe, Jeff, Mark, and Robert bring firsthand experience to the discussion, covering topics such as frozen pipes, unattended homes during winter travel,
SPEAKER 06 :
Walter? Upstairs! Are you alright?
SPEAKER 05 :
In the floor behind the chair.
SPEAKER 09 :
This is America.
SPEAKER 01 :
Does everybody know what time it is? Fix It Radio.
SPEAKER 12 :
And it is that time, Fix It Radio. KLZ 560. Myself, Charlie Grimes, of course, your engineer, Larry Unger, joining us here during this hour. He’ll be with us, of course, during Drive Radio as well, which if you get a chance to listen to that, please do as well. We get started off at 9 o’clock on Saturday mornings with this program. Yes, this program is replayed as well at other times. So if you’re listening to a replay of this program, thank you so much for that as well. But good morning, Larry. It’s Saturday morning. That’s when we record this. So we’re live on Saturday morning. And then, of course, we replay it. But good morning. Good morning. A little chilly this morning. So all of you out there that maybe haven’t got out of bed yet, it’s about 20 degrees or so outside. It’s going to warm up a little bit. Yeah, a little brisk, but it’s going to warm up. We’ll be about 40 degrees or so. I think it’s going to be 50 or so tomorrow. And this little cold snap we just had will come and go. We’ve got several things today to talk about. And, again, appreciate you all listening very much, and thank you again for the text messages and the things that come in and the questions that come in, even outside of the program, which we’re always here to answer, and we appreciate each and every one of you that do that. And you can always go to the website fixitradio.com. Speaking of the text line, I’ve got text messages coming in. FixItRadio.com, which we appreciate. And good morning, Mark. Mark just sent a text message in. So, Mark, good morning to you. We appreciate you as well and all of you. And, yeah, we were gone a couple of weeks over the Christmas New Year holiday. So our first show today of 2026. So this is our first Fix It Radio show of 2026. And, of course, as I said a moment ago, Drive Radio will follow. Lines are open if there’s something you want to ask a question of, you’ve got a problem, issue, something going on at home, 303-477-5050. 307-5600, 303-477-5600. And then anything else you want to talk about, you can also text us that as well, 307-282-22, 307-282-22. Okay, let’s do this. Because of the major power outages that were happening right before we hit the holidays and really haven’t had A ton of chance to – opportunity, I should say, to talk about that because of the holidays and we were gone and we did some replay shows and so on. But I want to recap some of what was happening prior to that. And here’s what’s interesting about Xcel Energy. And, yeah, I’ll be just straight up honest. A bunch of knuckleheads running that company. Sorry, I have no other way to say it. I realize the first power – Shutoff was really a poke in the eye at all of the customers because of the lawsuits that happened in the Marshall Fire. And I guess in a way I can understand why they made the decision that they made, although this past week. We had, in my opinion, just as severe, if not more severe, wind that was happening earlier this past week than we had even prior to the holidays, and yet they kept the power on. So to me, it’s just a bunch of nonsense that Exxon Energy is throwing their weight around, throwing their power around, and that’s what happens when you have a blue state with a PUC commission that allows those sorts of things to happen. And in my opinion, there’s no accountability there. to Xcel Energy when it comes to those things. And if you work for the power company, you know what, maybe you’ve got a different thought process or something you can share with me that I don’t know. But again, I look at that as being nothing more than them just throwing their weight around and causing a lot of pain and suffering for a lot of their customers, myself being one of those. And at the end of the day, not a good situation. Now, all that being said, It will happen again. Yes, it will. So that’s the whole point of what I’m saying here. So I think for a lot of us, and this is where, especially in this hour, Fix It Radio, I can talk about this in Ready Radio on Fridays from 2 to 3 as well. That’s our preparedness show. But in this particular show, I think it’s more along the lines of, okay. With your home, your current home, what is it you’re going to do if that were to happen again? In other words, are you going to look at whole home generation? Are you gonna have something different when it comes to maybe just some small standby generation? There are now, which has changed a lot in the last few years, really last five years especially, They now make the portable battery packs, is what I call them, and they make them in all different shapes and sizes to the point where they are literally very, very close to being what a regular backup generator is. Now, the downside is, of course, they don’t last forever, where a generator, you keep putting gas in it, and it’ll run for a long, long time. These battery packs, of course, will not. But if you get a two or three day outage and you’ve got the right battery pack, you can run your refrigerators and some of your minor, you know, furnace and things like that. You could run some minor things by having two or three small battery packs around. And literally, in that case, you’re not having to worry about, you know, whole home generation, you’re not having to spend a bunch of money on, you know, transfer switches, and so on. Literally, it’s as simple as you get that you get that battery pack out in the case of the furnace, all the furnaces plug in, there’s a wall outlet near the furnace, you literally would unplug from the wall and plug into this device. And voila, your furnace is now up and running. The same would be true for your refrigerator or anything else along those lines. Now something to be to talk about when it comes to even that end of things. I’m guessing, I don’t know this for sure, but I’m guessing there’s a lot of folks listening whereby you probably rarely ever pull the refrigerator out. In fact, might not even know that it rolls out. Rollers might not even be functioning correctly. So this is something where if you’re going to do something along these lines and you’re going to to actually you know in this case utilize a battery backup to keep the refrigerator running which by the way is what i did when we had the power outage my main refrigerator i’ve got a jackery device which i actually bought for the show here i use it when we’re on remotes and doing things like that but i’m like okay i’ve got that thing let’s see how it works and it’s just a thousand watt unit it’s one of their smaller units because when i’m out and about doing radio shows and so on i don’t need a ton of power and i don’t need it for days on end i need a three to four hour you know actually need four hour batteries and have probably a five hour battery supply as backup, and in that case, usually I’ve got power somewhere anyways, but I’ll tell you what, it works perfect. Now, in this case… And I’ve got a built-in fridge, and it will run my side-by-side built-in fridge. It ran it for an entire day before having to charge it up. And then once I got it charged up, it took about three hours off my generator to recharge it. It would run that again for another full day. Now, that’s the smallest unit they make, and it would run a big, large, side-by-side freezer fridge for an entire 24-hour time frame. So you’ll have to do some – now – keep in mind we didn’t open the door much i mean we realized that okay we’re trying to keep things minimized so we didn’t open either door much to to you know so that the refrigerator itself the freezer itself wouldn’t cycle very much and that’s one of those things you learn during a power outage is okay we’re going to minimize things and not open the door as much as we maybe normally would and that’s what you find yourself doing and It’s sort of like camping. You have other things you can do to get around the luxuries of life that we enjoy on a daily basis right now. You just sort of figure out how to do that in those circumstances. And I will just tell you straight up, that whole week, I mean, for us, it’s just my wife and I, but we went without power for about three days total when that was all said and done. And was that fun? No, it sucks. I’ll be the first to tell everybody. It’s miserable. We take power. for granted and i’ll be the first to admit that i’m just like everybody else in that regard you go over to the switch you flip it a light comes on and off you go and we’re very spoiled that way and we have been for years i watched a video this past week speaking of some of what we’re talking about a little bit off track but i think this is something to just in in the modern age we live in to keep in mind across the board and i watched a video this past week talking about how good the lives are we all have It doesn’t matter whether you’re somebody that is very meager and you don’t have a lot to your name, but at the end of the day, guess what? You, just like the very rich person, have the same amenities. A toilet that flushes, water that comes out of a tap, a power that when you flip the switch, the lights come on, and so on. And this particular video is just talking about how blessed we are to live in the day and age we live in, and that even just 100 years ago, A hundred years ago, the early 20s, you know, 1920s, there were people that didn’t have the things I just mentioned. They didn’t have electricity. They didn’t have running water. They may not have had a flushing toilet. And they may not have had this particular example he was talking about, a hot shower, and how most everybody today, when they get up, can go and get in a hot shower. And he likened that to, do you realize how rich, quote unquote, we really are today and how we live just in the simple fact you can go and have a hot shower pretty much anytime you want. And I thought for a moment, you know, that’s really good perspective. Because the homes that we all live in, as I look out here to the west from here all the way to the foothills and then, of course, beyond, there’s homes up there as well. But as you look out across this vast, and I can’t even see all of the city, we see a good portion of it, Larry and I can, as we look to the west out of the 12-story here at KLZ. But you look at all of the homes and businesses and things that are out there and the amenities that they each enjoy, and yes, we are all extremely blessed in the things that we can do today that, again, even 100 years ago, some people didn’t have what I’m talking about. And on top of that, a lot of the other amenities that we have, like how we can drive and where we can go and how quickly we can get places and how you can travel the world now via an airplane or ships or whatever. I mean, the reality is we live in one of the most advanced stages of civilization that it’s ever seen. And yet at times, some of us are down and out. We’re depressed. We’re feeling like we’re not enough. you know, all these different emotions come into play. And there’s times where perspective, as in this video, where it talks about, do you realize how lucky you are just to wake up in the mornings and have a hot shower? And again, I’m talking about, you know, electricity and things like that. And yes, are we spoiled? Absolutely. And I think there’s times where we need to really step back for a moment and realize just how advanced and how blessed we are to live in the day and age that we live in. Because frankly, our lives are pretty darn comfortable at the end of the day, Larry.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, it really is. And if you take a look at some of the countries, others than ours, there’s a lot of people that don’t have the amenities that we have.
SPEAKER 12 :
You know what? Great point. Great point. Somebody also just texted in a moment ago. Mark did our 2000 watt generator will will not run our furnace due to the starting watts. It’s fine for the refrigerator, but not much more interesting. OK, that’s good to know. And again, each one of you, you’re going to have to do some testing. And Mark, thank you, because each one of you will have to do some testing on that. And as we always talk about on Ready Radio, you’re better to test that now when you have power. than to test it when you don’t. So, yeah, for a lot of you, those are things that you’ll have to check out. And some furnaces will draw way more than others. It just depends on your system, how advanced it is. You know, what is it in this case, like Mark was talking about, what does it take to actually start up all of that? So you’re going to have to really do some research to determine what will run, what won’t run. And then on top of that, what alternative sources for heat do you have? Now, fortunately, the power outage we had from xl prior to the holidays it wasn’t super cold we were 60 some actually almost 70 degrees during the daytime meaning most houses were pretty warm throughout the night didn’t need a lot of heat and we were pretty fortunate that way but if what you know what if they were to shut that off and it’s you know now going to be as cold as it is right now well now it’s a whole different situation so point being With the power outages that we had across a lot of the front range, I think there was over 100,000 customers without power at one point in time. That’s a substantial amount of households, not individuals, because there may be two, three, five, six, seven, I don’t know how many people living in a home, so the amount of people affected. buy it was much greater than just that $100,000. But it’s something to really sit back, look at, do some testing. What are you going to do if this happens again? Here’s my point. It will happen again. It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when. And what are you going to do to accommodate that as the power goes out? Joe, you’re next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 14 :
John, two thoughts. One reason to get a whole home generator, if you have a lifestyle where you’re a snowbird, you go to Hawaii or Mexico for a week, or you take a cruise to the Caribbean, and you’re gone for seven days or whatnot, and you get a power outage, there’s an excellent chance during cold weather that you could freeze some pipes while you’re gone. And I know a lot of people, you know, called in, they have a plug-in generator, they wheel it out and plug it in, but that doesn’t do you any good if you’re in Hawaii and the power goes out. Now, you know, people say, well, no, we have, there are people, John, that you know in really cold weather, 80 to 70, even if they have power, if they don’t open the doors under the kitchen cabinets on those outside walls of the bathroom cabinets, you can freeze your pipes even when you have heat on a really cold day. So it doesn’t take much of a power outage. If it’s four degrees outside and you have a 12-hour power outage, since you can freeze those pipes even when you do have power, it doesn’t take much for those to… So if you’re not going to get a whole home generator and you’re going to go away for a week, number one, not only should you turn off the main water supply to the house… When you go upstairs, you should open a faucet in the lower bathroom or the kitchen sink, and then go upstairs and open the upstairs faucets because even though you’ve shut off the main water, if you burst the pipe, say, under the kitchen sink, all that water that’s above you is still going to drain down and come out through that broken pipe in the downstairs bathroom or the downstairs kitchen. So, again, if you’re not going to put in a whole home generator, and you’re going to go away for a week in the winter, shut off the main water to the house, and then take the next step, which is open a downstairs faucet and open all your upstairs faucets to drain down all that static water. Because if you freeze a pipe in the lower level, you’re still going to have a big mess with a lot of damage. Good point. Very little chance that you’re going to freeze. There is typically about a four or five foot section of pipe coming through your wall to the main water shut off, but very low chance of that pipe freezing because the basement, you know, the concrete walls and the floor in the basement retain a lot of heat, and since none of the basement walls, or rarely do the basement walls have, you know, external heat loss, you know, they’re typically below grade, typically your basement doesn’t get below freezing, whereas the first floor to go, the first spot in your house to get below freezing is going to be the ground floor. Right. Because you’re losing heat through all four walls. Heat will rise up to the upper level, so the upper level will be second, the basement will be last. So I wouldn’t worry about freezing that four-foot service line into the water shutoff valve, but I would be very worried about freezing a line to your faucet under the kitchen sink.
SPEAKER 12 :
Mm-hmm. I agree.
SPEAKER 14 :
So, John, are you going to go ahead with your whole house?
SPEAKER 12 :
Yep, I am in the process. Actually, I was looking at all of that even prior to that. As you know, it’s a process. And with permitting and everything else, as you know, Joe, and for all of you listening, this is something where it doesn’t happen overnight. So whatever you’re going to do, you’ve got to get on it because it’s not as simple as just buying one and installing it, as you know.
SPEAKER 14 :
Right, and one more thing. If you’re on natural gas, I didn’t realize this because in Colorado I was on propane, but if you’re on natural gas, typically the meter you have on your house can’t handle the volume of the generator. And the people that were in Sloan said, you’re going to have to call your natural gas company, and they’ll probably have to upgrade your meter. And sure enough, I called up my local gas company. They said, yeah, you’re going to need a bigger meter. And I was surprised it’s a no-charge upgrade. They want you to use the gas. So the gas company handled the removal and installation of a new larger gas meter on a natural gas, but that’s part of it. But yes, you did have to get a permit. It’s got to be so many feet from the exterior wall of your house. There’s got to be, I think, a 24-inch gap between the back of the generator and any structure. There’s walls, and the closer you can get it to your breaker panel inside the house and your natural gas line, the cheaper it’s going to be. If you want to put the generator on the east side of the house and your breaker panel and natural gas lines on the west side of the house, that’s going to add several thousand dollars to the install. So in terms of where you’re going to locate it. So are you on propane or natural gas?
SPEAKER 12 :
Natural gas.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah. So what I think you’ll probably have to do is get a bigger gas meter.
SPEAKER 12 :
I have plenty. You’ve got to remember for me, Joe, I’ve got the house, the shop, the pool, the boil. Yeah, I’ve got plenty. I’m good there.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, they’ll ask you what size meter you’ve got, then they’ll ask you what sort of stuff you’re running, and they’ll do a quick calculation and either say, you’re okay, you need a bigger one. In my case, all I had was a All I had was a kitchen stove and a water heater, and they said, nope, that’s not going to do it. Right.
SPEAKER 12 :
No, I’m fortunate as far as that goes. But, again, like I said for everybody listening, the biggest thing is, you know, A, as you know, Joe, there’s an entire process that goes into making this all function properly, sizing it correctly, and so on. And for a lot of you listening, it will vary, of course, a lot from home to home and what you’re going to try to run during that time and so on. But, yeah, to your point, Joe, if you want to make it automated – get what you need to make sure everything is is going to be up to speed it doesn’t mean that you know you’ve got to run all your air conditioners and things like that but let’s make sure that you’ve got enough to run everything else you need to especially in the cold weather are you in a well john i am not okay because a well is unfortunately going to drive up the inrush on a three horse well pump is going to drive up the uh
SPEAKER 14 :
But they can even do that, John. I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, they can put a time delay on your ACs and your wells so that it all doesn’t try to kick on at once, which minimizes the amount of interest, which will decrease. So, yeah, putting the time delays on adds a couple hundred bucks, but it saves you a couple thousand in terms of how big the genset is.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yep, exactly.
SPEAKER 14 :
And we had a power outage here earlier in the week, John, a five-hour power outage. And other than a brief 90-second, you know, no light, no TV, 90 seconds later, we were good for the entire time.
SPEAKER 12 :
Nice. Nice. Very good. All right. Joe, as always, man, I appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of your day today. Jeff, hang tight. We’ll come right back, give you plenty of time. Let’s take a quick break. FixItRadio.com is our website. This is Fix It Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 01 :
Even in the age of AI, looking for the right insurance can be a huge hassle. Paul Leuenberger has you covered without the hassle. He works with the best in the business. Hartford, Travelers, Safeco, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Allstate, AIG, Chubb, Pure, Berkeley, Grundy, Hagerty, and more. He’s local, independent, and licensed in Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas. and he’s expanding into more states soon. Paul’s mission is simple, to find the right coverage at the best value and to treat every client like family. So whether you’re shopping for home, auto, or something more unique, don’t shop online. Call Paul at 303-662-0789 today. That’s 303-662-0789. Paul Leuenberger, insurance made easy.
SPEAKER 02 :
What if you could get over 110 lab biomarkers tested just like Dr. Mark Hyman advertises, but for a fraction of the cost and with a doctor who actually explains the results? At Castle Rock Regenerative Health, Dr. Scott Faulkner has recreated this powerful biomarker test panel at a substantial savings. We have a special price for both men and women. Just $689. That’s a savings of over $2,500 over the standard price. And here’s the difference. With Hyman, you get numbers on a page. With Castle Rock Regenerative Health, you get Dr. Faulkner and his team walking you through every result, showing what’s off and creating a personalized plan to fix it. What’s even better, you don’t even have to be a concierge patient to get this pricing. This is open to everyone. Think about it. Most people’s deductible is higher than this special price. And your regular doctor, if he could get approved by your insurance, would never order this many tests, let alone know what to do with them. Call 303-663-6990 today or visit CastleRockRegenerativeHealth.com. That’s 303-669-6990. Take control of your health at Castle Rock Regenerative Health.
SPEAKER 09 :
Looking to buy or sell a classic car? Need a reliable valuation you can trust? Look no further than BP Appraisals LLC. With over 20 years of experience in the appraisal industry, we provide fast, accurate, and professional appraisal services that you can count on. Did you know that an appraisal can also entail the forecasting of monetary earning power? An appraisal is a document with a valuation conclusion. It is not a pre-purchase inspection, a mechanical evaluation, or a recommendation to buy or sell your vehicle. It’s the actual value at that moment in time, which many need for things like estate planning, insurance, or investing. At BP Appraisals, we value your property like it’s our own. Make informed decisions with confidence. Don’t settle for less. Choose the experts at BP Appraisals LLC, where precision meets professionalism. Visit us today at bpappraisalsllc.com and schedule your appraisals in just minutes. BP Appraisals, LLC. We know what your property is worth. That’s bpappraisalsllc.com or call 720-295-0108.
SPEAKER 01 :
Are you tired of dealing with hard water, stains or just poor water quality in your home? Do you worry about forever chemicals that have been found in nearly all municipal water supplies? These toxic chemicals, which can linger in the environment and the human body for extended periods, have been linked to various health risks. Municipal water also has chlorine and lead and can have other bacteria. These contaminants can also impact your health. A water filter from WaterPros can provide clean, safe drinking water right from your tap. At WaterPros, we believe everyone deserves clean, refreshing water right from the tap. Whether it’s whole home water systems, reverse osmosis, or water softeners, Water Pros has you covered with customized, high-quality solutions tailored to your needs. Best of all, installation is quick, seamless, and done by our expert technicians. Plus, you’ll love our affordable pricing and industry-leading warranties. So why wait? Join thousands of satisfied homeowners and experience the Water Pros difference today. Visit waterpros.net or call Paul the Waterman at 303-862-5554 for a free consultation. Water Pros. Quality water. Better life.
SPEAKER 12 :
We are back. Thanks for listening. Fix It Radio, KLZ 560. Myself, Larry Unger. Jeff joining us now. Okay, Jeff, let’s get started with you. How are you today, by the way? How’s Montana?
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, good morning. I hope you’re enjoying the new year. Montana right now is partly cloudy, but sun’s just coming up on the Mission Mountain Range. And it’s been a pretty good year so far. Nice. Nothing major. Sounds like you guys had a few issues.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, we’ve had some, and then we had snow, which we needed, you know, badly. And some places got a little more than others. Further west and south, you got there more snow, of course, we had, but didn’t get a huge storm by any means.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, we’ve actually got the snowpack at higher elevations is, I think, above normal, at least right around normal right now. So it’s been warmer, so down where we are, there’s virtually no snow like this. A little bit alongside the driveway where I had plowed. But a couple years ago, February, we had one day that February got above freezing, and that was February 1st. So you just never know.
SPEAKER 12 :
Nope, that’s a fact.
SPEAKER 04 :
A day at a time. Back when I was in the Air Force, my first term in 1973, I had the privilege, in quotes, of serving our country at a remote site at Sinop, Turkey. And for people who don’t know where that is, it’s halfway along the Black Sea coast on top of an extinct volcano. It’s actually the place where Diogenes was born. To get there, you had to fly to Istanbul. Then you had to take Turkish Airlines to Samsun, which is also on the coast. And then you had a four-hour bus ride to get to the site. So on a dirt road. So it was remote. And little villages set up at the time, it has become much more sophisticated now. But at the time, it was very, very backwards. There were times in the summertime when the US Army actually had a generator downtown to actually augment their generation. And we had electricity every other night. And during a period of water action, we had water two hours a day.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hmm.
SPEAKER 04 :
And, uh, and that gave me an appreciation back in 1973 for what we have. And to this day, I don’t get into the shower without marveling at the convenience that I have that I can turn a knob and have warm water flowing to, uh, to my, uh, right. to my shower, and it’s just… Oh, it’s amazing.
SPEAKER 12 :
Somebody texted a moment ago and said, do I personally ever look around and realize just how blessed I am? And yeah, Jeff, daily, all the time. And I’ve said this many times. When I was a kid, if you would have told me that you know, I would have and be able to do the things that I’m doing today, you know, some, you know, 50 years later, roughly, you know, I would have laughed at you at that point in time because, you know, who knew? I mean, yes. Do I ever stop and, and, you know, think about all the things that we have at our disposal today and how blessed, you know, I personally am. Yeah. Every single day.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, me too. And we actually, when you were talking about, I remembered we had a, an issue here for our community water system where, We had a rock that somehow had, I don’t know if it was frosties or not, but it was sitting on top of the power line from the generator to the power panel, which meant it was on the Mission Valley Power side of it, thank goodness. But it actually wore through one of the three strands and sorted out our pump. But we didn’t know that for weeks. So the first time we had an indication when our distribution pumps or our cistern went down, it’s a 30,000 gallon cistern. And they went down and light started flashing and said, Oh my God, what’s going on? So we had a couple of days of water rationing. And again, that brings home the fact of just how blessed we are and how thin, uh, how much we rely on things that can go very bad, very quickly.
SPEAKER 12 :
True.
SPEAKER 04 :
Um, I have a question for you though. I’m just not. Yes.
SPEAKER 12 :
No, you’re fine. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
Jeff wax, wax, uh, on typical, uh, I, like you, am looking at putting in whole home generation. But the thought occurred to me that if I’m going to go to the expense of whole home generation, I don’t even want that little 30, 90-second delay where I’m dead in the water until everything switches over. I would like to have it so that I’m feeding off of some sort of uninterruptible power source. so that for the time it takes for my generator to come in and the automatic transfer switch to kick over, I’m still on power. And I think that’s a good thing because of just effects on motors. Like earlier, Paul was talking about that if motors wind down and have to come back up all at once, you get a tremendous power surge, whereas if you’re coming off of like a, some sort of old home UPS.
SPEAKER 12 :
Right. Which they make. And that’s one of the things that, you know, as Joe was talking earlier and I need to get, you know, Bill Anderson out, he and I said we would do that, you know, first of the year. There are the, you know, the wall packs they call them or the, you know, Tesla’s got them and there’s numerous others that make them as well. And you can size those accordingly. And to my knowledge, this is something that I’ll get more information from Bill on and probably talk about here in the, coming weeks. To my knowledge, Jeff, that’s essentially what those help with is aiding in that. In other words, you can run the wall pack, and that is your first line of quote-unquote defense. And if you’ve got solar, you can actually charge the wall pack with the solar. If you don’t have solar, the wall pack is automatically charged. And then, you know, as it would diminish, your generator would hop up and start to not only charge that, but then supplement accordingly. And again, these are things that I need to learn more about as to exactly how they work. And I’m guessing. that a lot of it has to do with your home, your needs, what’s going on and so on, and everybody’s going to have a different need along those lines. And they make those, by the way, where they can be mounted inside, outside. I think the recommendation is if you can get them inside, do so, because your cold and so on is much better on the inside. You don’t diminish the power of the batteries by being outside. But in some cases, Jeff, some homes don’t have much of a choice. They have to be put outside, and they’ve got the ability to do that as well.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. So I’ve been doing some reading and I have to interact, make some stuff. Uh, M phase is another company. And of course came across the Tesla, um, power wall. Uh, but when I read about them, they seem to maybe with the exception of Tesla, they seem to all kind of emphasize a connection to a solar array. And I may want to do that eventually, but right now my main concern is just not to have power go off. And so, I was wondering about that. As I read, I didn’t know how you had to size those. There’s a whole bunch of questions that came up.
SPEAKER 12 :
And really, for all of you listening, this is where you really need somebody like Bill Anderson. He joins me on Ready Radio, Arc Electric. He’s a guy that knows this very well, has done it on his own home, has done it on multiple homes. On top of that, even for some of you listening, has been involved with some of that. And in my opinion, Jeff, and this is nothing against electricians or anything along those lines, but it’s sort of like back in the day when I was building four-wheel drive rigs and off-road rigs and so on. Did every shop out there build those things? It’s not that they didn’t have the knowledge to do it. They just never had done it. So I’m not saying that electricians can’t do what we’re talking about. But if you’ve never done it and you don’t know anything, some of the ins and outs, and even what has worked or hasn’t worked. What I’m getting at is, while an electrician can wire pretty much anything in and make that work, do they really understand all the ins and outs of what you and I are talking about? And I would tell you that no, not every one of them does.
SPEAKER 04 :
I agree. A couple years ago, I had prostate surgery. I had the tumor removed, and The urologist I’d been talking to had done a couple of robotic surgeries, and so he thought he could do it. And I asked him who he would go to, and he gave me the name of a guy in Salt Lake. And I called him, and amazing experience. He’s done thousands. And which one do you want removing your prostate? And by the way, he was able to spare a lot of nerves and blood vessels, which is something I would not have been able to. Yeah. Another side benefit. So, you know, which one do you want? A dozen or thousands? And, you know, that speaks to your point about installations. You know, do you want somebody who’s, oh, I can do that. I know the theory. Or do you want somebody who’s… Actually done it. Been there and knows all the ins and outs of what happens when you encounter something like you talked about on the side of the house or the other.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, yeah, because as you know, Jeff, and for all of you listening, again, this is not to throw anybody under the bus, but when you do things and there’s some trial and error that starts to happen, and Jeff, there always is, just because a manufacturer even says this will do X, Y, Z. Well, you and I both know that once you get that installed and you start doing a few things and so on, you realize that, Well, not necessarily the way they said it would, and now we need to do this to make sure that it actually does what they said it would do, and so on. And again, these are things that you just learn by being in the field and doing it, and if you’ve never done it, you don’t know those idiosyncrasies.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s called experience.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s right. That’s right. And there’s no replacement for that, as you know.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, there isn’t. It’s… Well, something Dave Ramsey says is that, he got it from somebody else, that a person with an opinion is never at the mercy of a person with an experience. Right. That’s what I hear you saying, you know, X has a multiplier, Y has a factor, and when you add those in, the result can be different.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, and again, a good example of that, I’m going to talk about this during Drive Radio, there was a lot of diesel issues. that was put into gas tanks across the front range, about 13 gas stations affected by that. And I had some inquiries yesterday and asking if I would talk about it during drive radio. And what my point here, Jeff is, is I’ve read so many things on the internet about, you know, vehicles and if there’s diesel in the gas, what does it do? And so on. And I’ll just be straight up honest. The majority of what I have read is flat out wrong. It’s going off of some textbook, I guess that maybe they think, you know, X, Y, Z is the way it works, but it’s, I’m going to give my own advice and drive radio on all of that because I’ve had experience with that in the past to the point of what we’re talking about right now. And the reality is a lot of what I’ve read and even what people are assuming is just flat out wrong.
SPEAKER 04 :
I wouldn’t want to be the guy who filled the wrong tank.
SPEAKER 12 :
It’s a mess. Again, 13 gas stations or filling stations, I should say, across the front range. And it’s all different types of brands. It’s not just one particular outlet. So, yeah, major, major deal. And, yeah, I wouldn’t want to be – Larry and I were trying to figure it out earlier not to get off track because we’ll talk about this during drive radio. But was it a mix-up in what went into the tank on the truck itself, into that section of the tank? Or was it somebody on the truck filling incorrectly? I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know if we’re ever going to know that answer.
SPEAKER 04 :
Could it be somebody who’s not supposed to be in the country doing something he didn’t understand?
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, it could be that as well. Again, I mean, again, will we ever know the real answer here? I have no idea.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. So back to the Powerwall, yeah. Fortunately, up here, we’re a little more limited. But if you get that on Ready Radio, I’d be interested in that. Or if you have any back…
SPEAKER 12 :
Back issues, back… No, we are going to be doing some of this moving forward. In fact, I just sent Bill a message a moment ago that these are things we’re going to definitely talk about here in the coming weeks, and I’ve got to get mine, you know, dialed in and done, which I’ve got to get him out to help me with that. So at the end of the day, yes, we are going to have a lot of episodes on that in the coming weeks, absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, the one thing I was reading about that concerned me, and this, again, is coming out of my ignorance, I don’t know, is when you put one in and… We have kilowatts as well as kilowatt hours on our power bills. My kilowatts go up to 16. At times, I’m drawing 16 kilowatts instantaneously. And the walls maybe go up to 12, I think. So my concern is what’s going on here? What am I going to have to do?
SPEAKER 12 :
Great point.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we’ve got a pretty good electrician here, so I think he’s going to be able to answer it. But it’s It’s not just buy it, put it in, and sit back and watch it. It’s a lot more complicated.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s exactly right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. Looking forward to hearing from you.
SPEAKER 12 :
I’ll do it, Jeff. No, I appreciate it, and I appreciate all of your input, as always.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 12 :
You betcha, Jeff. Take care. Mark and Wiggins, hang tight. We’ll come right back, give you plenty of time that way. Myself, Larry Unger. This is Fix It Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 08 :
Insurance agents, you know the story. A homeowner’s roof is aging, the shingles are brittle, and their policy’s on the line. But what if you could offer them another option besides a full replacement? At Roof Savers of Colorado, we use plant-based treatments that restore flexibility to asphalt shingles and extend roof lives up to five more years, all for a fraction of the cost of a new roof. RoofMax helps homeowners maintain coverage, reduce claims risks, and save thousands. And for agents, that means happier clients who keep their policies. Partner with RoofSavers of Colorado today. Call 303-710-6916 or visit RoofSaversCo.com to learn how RoofMax can help you help your clients. KLZ listeners receive $250 off their treatment. Call today and your client receives an additional $150 off through the end of December. RoofMax of South Aurora, a smart solution for homeowners and a win for insurance agents.
SPEAKER 10 :
Need new glasses fast? With Stack Optical’s on-site lab, you’ll get your prescription glasses in just three to four days. No long wait times. Hey, this is Scott Whatley, and I’ve trusted my eye care to Allen Stack and Stack Optical for the last 15 years. Eye exams are only $69. and that should be a part of your physical checkups each year. For over 50 years, Denver has trusted this family-owned boutique eye care center for premium vision care, custom eyewear, and expert repairs. See the Stack Optical difference today. Call 303-321-1578. That’s 303-321-1578, and tell them Scott sent you. Stack Optical. Since 1968, at Stack Optical, you’ll see the difference.
SPEAKER 11 :
You’re driving down the road, and out of nowhere comes a bang. A huge rock just hit your windshield, and now you have a star in your windshield. Did you know that chip can be fixed? But who is the best? Who has the best resins that keep developing them to work with the newest windshields? That would be Novus Auto Glass. Novus, which is the Latin word for innovate, invented windshield repair in 1972, and it still leads the industry in cutting-edge technology, backed by more patents than any other repair and replacement company ever. While other glass repair services offer limited warranties, or worse, none at all, you can trust the original Novus pros to stand behind their work with a full refund that you can use towards a windshield replacement for the life of your windshield. Find a Novus location near you by going to any of our websites, ready-radio.com, drive-radio.com, or fixitradio.com. Just click on the Novus link. That’s Novus Auto Glass.
SPEAKER 01 :
Even in the age of AI, looking for the right insurance can be a huge hassle. Paul Leuenberger has you covered without the hassle. He works with the best in the business. Hartford, Travelers, Safeco, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Allstate, AIG, Chubb, Pure, Berkeley, Grundy, Hagerty, and more. He’s local, independent, and licensed in Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas. and he’s expanding into more states soon. Paul’s mission is simple, to find the right coverage at the best value and to treat every client like family. So whether you’re shopping for home, auto, or something more unique, don’t shop online. Call Paul at 303-662-0789 today. That’s 303-662-0789. Paul Leuenberger, insurance made easy.
SPEAKER 12 :
Okay, we are back. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560. Myself, Larry Unger. Mark and Wiggins, you’re next.
SPEAKER 13 :
Hey, good morning. Happy New Year, John.
SPEAKER 12 :
Happy New Year, Mark.
SPEAKER 13 :
So I heard you guys talking about backup generation and emergency setups and things like that. One thing that had kind of come into my mind as a question for your listeners, if anybody’s listening that may have experience with whole home backup generation is, the weakest link is going to be your battery that starts the generator. And my question to the listeners is, if anybody can call in and comment on, is there a way for the generator itself to monitor the voltage on that battery to make sure it has enough cranking amps so that when it’s negative 10 or 120 degrees that it’s actually going to fire up? And if it doesn’t, do they have the ability to send like a text message or email so that you can get that fixed prior to an emergency? That’s my question.
SPEAKER 12 :
And I will get those questions answered, Mark. I assume so. Now, I’m going to say I assume so, but I’m going to say I assume so based upon the unit you buy, how much sophistication does it have in it, what kind of cost are you spending, how big is the unit itself, and so on. And, and I just had a question, you know, am I going to go with a personally a liquid cooled or an air cooled, I think for my capacity, I’ll be in the liquid cooled, you know, end of things just because of what I’ll need to run everything I have going on. And so, At the end of the day, I do believe a lot of that’s going to come down to, Mark, the unit that you buy. And again, this is where a guy like Bill, who you hear on Ready Radio, has a lot more experience in all of this and understands that far more than I do. But I’m assuming, and I don’t know this for sure, but I’m assuming that there’s units out there that will do just what you’re talking about.
SPEAKER 13 :
That would be great because, I mean, right now I’ve got the portable generator that I keep connected in a way that, you know, all I have to do is go out there and I keep a battery, you know, everything set up. But I have to maintain it, meaning I have to go out there and make sure the voltage is good to go. You know, I test fire it, you know, once a month, which, you know, is something, unfortunately, I have to throw my town under the bus with. is that we have a backup generator for our water system that’s from 1978 and hasn’t run in quite a while. And when we had a power outage, it didn’t work because all the batteries failed. And all those systems that are supposed to, you know, send them messages to relay that those things failed didn’t work either. So people had to manually run out there and go, oh, yeah, we need to fire this up. Well, how? Well, I think I don’t even know how they had to get some, you know, maybe a pickup truck up to the building to get the thing to fire off. But it’s a weak link that, you know, if you’re going to start a system. try to think of the smallest, weakest link because that becomes your biggest barrier when you’re designing the systems.
SPEAKER 12 :
You are correct. Great, great advice. And, yeah, again, for all of you listening, we will, you know, Bill and I will be doing more discussion on this, and even as we build my system out and use it as kind of a test, if you would, on how all this works. And in my case, I don’t know. I may end up with two if I want to run my barn because it’s really separate from – My house, if I want to run the barn separately, which I haven’t made a decision whether I want to or not, you know, if I decide to, then I’m probably looking at two generators, Mark, not one.
SPEAKER 13 :
And that’s a thing where, you know, when you think about it up front, you know, like you were saying about, you know, what are you running? And when I first, years ago, started listening to this show, I may have only had our 2,000-watt generator, which still works, but to my point earlier when I sent a text, that it will not fire up the furnace. You know, I tried it. The furnace made a growling sound and said, nope. But we have one that we sized to be able to run a pump or a well pump, you know, if we were going to move to a different property, which hasn’t happened. But it’s sized big enough to run, I would say, 80% of the house. You know, I could run the furnace, the air conditioner, the oven, the dryer if I needed to. But I wouldn’t recommend all that because really, I mean, you know, If it’s a power outage, you may want to think about, you know, slimming down in your necessities of the first world. No, exactly.
SPEAKER 12 :
And really quick, Mark, somebody just texted this in. So to answer your question, can you monitor everything you just mentioned? Yes. In fact, somebody just sent me a screenshot of what their generator is sending them through their app on a routine basis. So the answer is yes, they will absolutely. And again, people… depending upon what you’re buying. But in this particular case, what this listener sent in, yes, indeed, he’s actually watching all of what you just said.
SPEAKER 13 :
Awesome. I’m so glad somebody sent that in. Do you think you could send that to me in an email? You got my email?
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, I can do that. I’ll absolutely do that, Mark. I’d be happy to.
SPEAKER 13 :
Awesome. I appreciate it. And I may call back and drive radio because I have a thought about the whole gas contamination thing.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right. Sounds great, Mark. That sounds great. We’ll be talking about that here in just a few minutes here. So, Robert in Thornton, though, you are next. Go ahead, Robert.
SPEAKER 05 :
Morning, John. How are you?
SPEAKER 12 :
Good morning, Robert.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, I’ve got a 10-year structural warranty on my house, and it’s going to be 10 years in June. And I was walking around it, and notice where the exposed foundation is above the ground. There’s some white-looking crack stuff. But when I go ahead and kind of scrape it with my fingers, it’s coming apart like it’s chalk. And so I’m wondering if I’ve got a bad foundation, and if so, if my structural warranty will cover that, if you have any experts that might be able to come take a look at it that, you know, have no way to gain any gains by selling something I don’t need.
SPEAKER 12 :
I may. What I would say first, Robert, is take some pictures and send that to me. We do in Colorado have a lot of lye that will leach up out of the soil depending upon where your house is located. And if you’re out in Thornton, there’s a lot of it out in your area. And it may simply just be lye that’s creeping up, getting on the foundation. You’re able to then flake that off with your fingernail, and that’s very normal. If that’s the case, you don’t have any issues. And I can tell by a picture if that’s the case or not.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, okay, sounds good.
SPEAKER 12 :
And if that’s the case, you don’t have anything to worry about.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, yeah. So where would I send the pictures to?
SPEAKER 12 :
Just send it to john, J-O-H-N, at fixitradio.com. Okay, great. And I’ll take a peek at it and let you know, Robert. I’d be happy to.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, thank you very much. You’re very welcome, Robert.
SPEAKER 12 :
I appreciate that. And for a lot of you, especially maybe that haven’t lived in certain parts of our area, yes, we have certain areas, especially out in that Thornton area. If you get a little further east even, yeah, lye can be a really big issue. It’ll creep up onto all sorts of different things, especially concrete. It’ll work its way into different cracks and around the edges and up on the foundation and so on. And it almost looks like you’ve got some trouble when, in fact, you really don’t have any issues going on at all. Joe, go ahead.
SPEAKER 14 :
John, in answer to Mark’s question, it does more than just monitor the battery. Your whole home generator will be programmed to come on once a week. Mine comes on 8.30 every Wednesday, runs for six minutes, and shuts off. Now, if it attempts to do the weekly, and that’s to charge and make sure the battery, if it attempts to start and doesn’t on the week, on the scheduled week, you’ll get an alarm on your phone that the maintenance start failed.
SPEAKER 12 :
Gotcha.
SPEAKER 14 :
So it’s more than just here’s this healthier battery system. I think more important than the healthy battery is once a week you get an automatic maintenance start. And if it fails the maintenance start, you’ll get an immediate alert on your phone, your maintenance start failed. So that’s, I think, to me, more important than some, well, your battery’s at, you know, 12.8 volts instead of 13.2 volts. I think the weekly, automatic weekly start is the most important insurance you have. And by the way, I have a maintenance contract, and every three years they change my battery, even though it was still… doing the regular weekly maintenance starts just fine. Okay. It’s a motorcycle battery, John. It’s not a big deal. Okay. Perfect.
SPEAKER 12 :
And, Joe, really quick, and, again, this is up your alley. You’ve done way more of this than I have. Is that on only high-end units, or is it pretty much now standard on any home generator you would buy? They’re all pretty much competitive in doing that.
SPEAKER 14 :
It’s the same. You get it. Like you, in Colorado, I had a big Kohler that had a 400. cylinder Ford engine, water-cooled Ford engine. Here I’ve got a Generac, which is air-cooled. It’s like the 22-horse. It’s the equivalent of a big lawnmower engine, John. It’s an air-cooled lawnmower engine, but it’s standard. And, you know, John, I’ve had it for going on four years now. It’s been absolutely flawless, starts every single time. Yeah, and it’s an air-cooled engine, but, you know, if I was going to be running a hospital and I needed 50K, it might go back to a water-cooled. Well, and maybe because I needed a, because of my well pump, I had a 750-foot well, John. I needed a 35 kW, and I think that was beyond the reach of most of the little air-cooled engines. But here, if you don’t need anything over 25 kW, they’re going to do that with an air-cooled engine, which is less maintenance, and it operates on a motorcycle battery, which is not an expensive battery at all. Yeah. Even if you don’t do the service contract, I would say change that motorcycle battery every three years. If it fails a weekly maintenance start, you’ll get an alert.
SPEAKER 12 :
Good to know. Joe, as always, wealth of info. Appreciate it very much.
SPEAKER 14 :
You’re welcome, John. Take care.
SPEAKER 12 :
You bet. Somebody also texted in on the – they have a Tesla Powerwall. And while it’s a lot faster switchover time than what you would get with a generator starting up and so on, it’s not instantaneous. So this goes back to Jeff from Montana’s question. So you would need some UPS backup on critical items because there’s still going to be a delay for everything to switch over, even with the Powerwall. It’s faster than what you would normally get with – you know, regular backup generation according to this particular texture. Mark, thank you, by the way. So it’s not instantaneous. It is faster. But if you’ve got, you know, computer systems, things like that, things that you feel are very critical that you want to keep up and running, you’ll need to still UPS backup those items even with a power wall because it will not be instantaneous. You will get a shutoff and a fire backup as it’s switching over from one system to to another so it’s he said there’s about a one second delay now keep in mind one second is still enough where if there’s that much down you know as far as the power coming into you know computers and things like that it’s it’s it’s going to shut that off if there’s no if there’s no ups backup or something that’s keeping that power uh you know online what i’m trying to say uninterrupted power that’s what ups means if it’s not under uninterrupted even that one second interruption is exactly that. It’s still an interruption. And it doesn’t matter, folks, whether it’s one second or 90 seconds. The reality is it’s still out for that one second, meaning you still need some sort of a UPS backup to keep those things online. And for some of you, that may be keeping your your Wi-Fi router, your modem, other things like that up and running. You may have, like I say, critical computer systems that you want to keep up and running or things like that. And yes, you’d have to put those on some sort of a UPS backup if that were the case. Otherwise, it is going to reset. You’d still have the flashing light on the microwave, for example, and things like that. Even a one-second interruption will kill all of that and the memory of those things. And You’re back to square one. So but thank you. That is great information. So, Jeff, if you’re listening, even the power walls will give you a about a one second delay before they actually fire up. So for those of you that are listening, that are thinking about doing those things. And as I said earlier, these are things that, you know, kind of combine some of the stuff probably on ready radio and fix it radio both because a huge topic, by the way. This is something that I think especially with what we’ve had happen with Xcel Energy over the past several weeks, month roughly, people are more in tune with what’s going on. They don’t want to be caught in that situation again. I know I don’t want to be caught in that situation again. And as I said with Larry earlier, is it going to happen again? Yes. When? Larry, I can’t answer that. What I can say is this isn’t a if, it is a when. Is it going to happen again? Because as you know, it’s going to happen again. There’s no doubt about it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, absolutely. It’s not an isolated incident, so…
SPEAKER 12 :
No, and I think they’ve been very clear. If we have high winds or anything along those lines, you’re going to see them be proactive along those lines and actually do some things in that manner. And, you know, high winds and so on. And, yeah, we’re going to be, you know, quote, unquote, you know, left out in the cold. And I’ll be quite honest, they don’t care. Even though you’re the customer. even though you’re paying the bill and we all do i’ll just tell you straight up at the end of the day they don’t care now that was xl energy there’s other power suppliers in our area will they follow suit with some of what xl energy is doing they didn’t during that particular time frame Does that mean they won’t moving forward? Folks, I can’t answer that. I don’t know. And for some of you, depending upon where you live, whole home generation may be a much better alternative to you, especially some of you that live in the foothills. Some of you have more power outages than others. Some of you that live in certain areas where the power hardly ever goes out. Keep in mind, I’m in a house where I’m not exaggerating. I am on a circuit that actually runs one of the elementary schools nearby. And because of that, I have not been without power up until that storm before Christmas. I had not been without power in 10 years. had not had, and I’m not exaggerating, had not had a single power outage in 10 years because they typically want to keep the schools up and running and so on. Now, in that case, what they did is they sent everybody home. The schools didn’t matter. They shut everything down. So in that case, it didn’t matter whether that circuit was on or off. So it didn’t make any difference at that point in time whether I was on a school circuit or not. And when I mean I’m on the school circuit, my line that feeds my house feeds me, then feeds the school. So if the school’s up and running, so am I. And that’s what I meant by I haven’t been without power in at least 10 years. And for some of you that are listening, you may not know that’s the way some of that works, but it is typically the way it works. They will leave schools and things like that on. when a lot of other things get shut off because of the nature of what the building is and so on. And I happen to be fortunate enough to be on the main line, literally runs right down the side of my property. It feeds me first, and then it feeds the school behind me, and I’m that fortunate to be able to do that. Not everybody has that, but even with that, Was I still down prior to Christmas with what Xcel Energy did? You guys all know the story. You were hearing me talk about it daily. Yes, I absolutely was affected by that. And I won’t be in the future because we’re going to fix that and do some things to where no matter what Xcel Energy does, you know, I’m up and running. And a lot of you give great information. So, Mark, thank you for that when it came to the power walls and so on. And as I said earlier, I will get with Bill. We will do some special shows even on that. We’ll use myself as a test as to how some of these things actually work and what the options are and so on. And believe me, we will get you all the information needed to make sure that you guys are up to speed on all of that and can make decisions on your own. So with that, guys, this is another episode of Fix It Radio. Find us at fixitradio.com. Thank you so much. Again, KLZ Radio.
SPEAKER 07 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
