Utterpower is all about discovering the realities of Alternative energy. We understand that popular causes are soon taken up by those who seek money, power, and influence. This fact has been consistent as recorded in history for the past 2000 years of more.
About Utterpower’s Host, George Breckenridge
George Breckenridge of UtterPower.com
How do you write such a page without boring your audience to tears? How do you capture who you are in 100 words or less?
I remember first grade, I was devoted to my teacher Mrs. Dunlop, I wanted to please her in every way, and my parents were delighted with my progress reports! A bright and shining star.
It may have all started in second grade when I discovered that there were far more interesting things happening beyond the window pane. That earned me a minus grade in effort . Of course Mrs. Hays was a bore, and keeping your letters between the lines was all about her score.
I’m fully ashamed to say that my life experience started to come together at about 45 years of age. Perhaps circumstances had forced me awake so late in life to discover what really makes the world go round?
In the next five years I managed to retire early, and rid myself of the security of a management job in digital switching with Telco. After that I developed several ideas into marketable products that have allowed me to live a most modest life and pursue my interests. It was an extreme effort, and a great learning experience, but that learning continues.
I now have had twelve plus years to study topics I find of great interest full time. It is a great gift, and afforded to all too few of us. Time to study the gearworks is far more enjoyable than racing around acquiring things I don’t need and spending time caring for them. My desire to own grand things was lost somewhere lower on the hill, and I plan to climb higher as long as I have the health to do so.
What I’ve learned is just how many people go to their graves with no knowledge of what lies adjacent to the well traveled pathways, they are often cocksure they understood the inter-workings of the Galaxy, but yet…they didn’t take a moment to remove the mystery of a single cancer cell and tell us of the easy cure before they departed.
The better observations come when you make the time to pick up a pencil or piece of chalk and do the work yourself. It is a lot of effort to learn what to measure, and you’ll note that all too many who write about alternative energy topics deceive even themselves when they work the middle and ignore both ends. As a friend often says…. “reality is often disappointing, but it sure is durable”.
Most of us go through life fully focused on raising our children and funding ‘things’ we find important. At the end of the day, we lay down exhausted, never having the time to think.
If you climb high enough up the hill, the view improves, from here you can analyze the insanity that lies below. If only you knew enough to hike higher in your younger years, and if only you knew all those ‘things’ were heavy and hard to carry.
My tribe is ‘Do it Yourselfers’, we learn with our hands on, we are from all walks of life, rich and poor, from PHDs to Farmers. We question nearly everything, and somehow we always knew there are always things more important to spend our money on than things we can do quickly and perhaps more correctly for ourselves. We are different, and we do not expect ‘normal’ people to see the world as we do.
If, you think Al Gore’s cry “The Debate is Over” embraces the basic teachings of Science, if you believe that all things touted as GREEN are good, then my pages are NOT for you. From up here on the mountain, we can plainly see, so many causes are quickly adopted by those who seek money, power, and influence. You may think they’re part of ‘your tribe’, but perhaps you are only ‘useful’.
Our goal is to discover the real alternatives, and to recognize that the more independent we are, the better our view of reality. What has changed in the last 6000 or more years? What is the opposite of skeptical? I’ll let you decide, but the gift of time has proven to me that you think best when you are least depending on others, and with chalk or pencil in hand.
George B.
Utterpower
I am taking this opportunity to tell you I do appreciate yuor your technical talents, your deep interest for knowledge and your generosity to share the same. I am a middle-aged Nigerian and member of the same tribe as you are–DIYERS. I hahe acquired skills in computer and printer engineering, electricity and house wiring, plumbing, power bill auditing ann lately overhaul and assembly of Lister CS Engine. I admire your write-ups.
Akinola,
Thanks for the kind words, I’ve kept this site up mostly to share some of the old information. Our tribe wraps around the world.
All the best, I hope the last 14 years have been kind to you.
MH,
We Diyers are scattered across the globe, I hear from quite a few people in Africa, mostly missionaries, and those conducting research.. welcome, and do consider sending us a picture of a working lister type there!
George
Thanks for your help on my lister,I will send pics when done ,Keep up the great work your website is helpful,entertaining and my personal favorite!
Just come across your site and LMAO at your Epson printer tirade. Nice to come across someone who on initial viewing has some similar ideas (and a sense of humour) to myself.
Dave,
Some Visitors aren’t so sure I’m funny.
I tell my wife I am all the time.. but she’s not so sure either 🙂
All the best, drop in again..
George
Hi, George ~
Thanks for all you do. As a fellow “DIYer” (somehow, that term feels overly simplistic to explain folks like us), I find your site informative and inspiring.
Reading this page, in particular, helped lift me as well as provided a . . . breath of fresh air . . . to know there are others out there with whom I share much in common. I spent plenty of time among the “underbrush” of knee-jerk reaction and conspiracy theories, unable to see the forest for all the trees and, at the gentle young age of 42, have [also] finally “climbed the mountain” to a point where life feels much more peaceful and clear than ever.
I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but I know it will involve applying more and more of the self sufficiency skills I’ve had all my life. What you have written here rings true to my core.
I just wanted to say, “Thank you.”
Be well.
~PH
PH,
What we know is there’s always more of the mountain left to climb. It seems that it’s only those who have never left the side walk that profess to know what is at the top. We’ll trudge upwards, but I think you and I will always know there’s more to see, learn, and do.
George,
Thank you for maintaining the only website of its kind on the planet. There is so much good info here that cannot be found elsewhere. My wife and I are currently building our retirement home on 60 acres in beautiful southeastern Oklahoma. We are totally off grid. No electricity,phone water, sewage internet, etc are available. We have installed 6 KW of solar panels connected to a medium forklift battery, then thru inverters for domestic electric. I have a listeroid 20/2 and a changfa 1115, both connected to 15KW chinese gen heads. I have also built 3 DC generators using a changfa type 6hp, and 2 10hp air cooled Yanmar clones. All three are driving heavy duty truck alternators with external marine regulators. The regulators are set to provide the forklift battery what it wants. 4 stage charging well calibrated to match the battery’s chemistry. As a concession to wife and family we have sattellite TV and internet. Cell phone service became a reality when I installed an AC powered signal amplifier. We are building an 1800 sqft house. Solar headed in the winter with a small soapstone woodstove to help out if needed. Superinsulated R-32 walls and basement below grade with 8 in concrete walls for thermal mass. We are currently living in the basement, which we cooled last summer with 1 8000btu window AC. Temps over 100 for most of july and august. No groundwater here on our mountaintop, so I have 13,000 galloons rainwater storage collected from 3 large buildgs. WE could last for 6 mos without rain. All the power equipment we hand assembled, and all the serpentine pulleys came from you. In fact, I need a 7in bushed serpentine pulley for another 10hp air cooled diesel that was delivered today.I love your site, keep up the good work.
Okiezeke
Okie, it sounds like a piece of heaven you made.. you are an example of the ADVANTAGE Hands On DIY gives us. There are folks down town that think you’re nuts for living so far from a Coke machine. It’s best for us that they keep thinking that. Not all folks know how deep utterpower runs, if you use google and prefix a search with utterpower you can find stuff we wrote about years back.
Congratulations on picking a fork lift battery, there are now a few different types, but I reckon, the old designs are still best, and if you don’t discharge too deep, you might get 20 years of service. Consider writing about your place, I bet folks who haunt this place would love to see it… BTW, me and Joel Koch delivered a 4325 pound fork lift battery to a remote off grid site, a 100 acre private parcel inside the national forrest. The owners commute to work via their dish.. they’re both code warriors, and they come down off their mountain only when they need supplies.
Expect some mail soon, and all the best!
GB
about 30 years ago, i looked at some property over on the eastern border of oklahoma , just outside a town called salisaw, just across the boarder from littlerock arkansas.
wow, what a remote piece of property it was too! one would need a 1 ton 4×4 with a rock climbing kit just to commute in and out to town!
i remember it being so pretty down in the scrub oaks, so quiet and no one around for miles. which even if they were only a few hundred yards it would have been too difficult to come bother you much anyway.
that part of the world left a lasting impression on me. i remember thinking if WW3 ever broke out, being there would mean being about as safe as one could be right in the middle of the USA. i couldn’t imagine an army risking its tanks to the roads around there let alone the cross country terrain.
yes Zeke, it would be nice to hear more of your life living offgrid down in oklahoma!
Bob,
We’re quite a ways south of sallisaw. There is no real wilderness left in Oklahoma, but it’s still possible to get fairly remote. When we bought our land 5 years ago the road in was just a trail. Part of the trip in was up a dry creek bed. Since we’ve been here the county has agreed to maintain the road and its as nice as any other gravel road. Our driveway in is 1/4 mile and we keep the gate locked. It’s not that we’re unfriendly, we just would rather not have traffic on the place. Our nearest neighbor is a mile and a half up the road and all the local folks we have met are wonderful. Good fences do make good neighbors. We have lots of wildlife, deer, raccoons, possum, coyote, bobcat and occasionally wild hogs, bear, and even a very shy mountain lion. There is also some kind of dog-coyote-wolf- or some combination of all three that we hear howling way up the valley just after sunset. Neighbors all agree that it’s something strange. Maybe we’ll get to see it someday.
Okiezeke
Hi George;
Just a bump to let you know that not ALL DIY folks are in the BOONDOCKS. I am smack dab in the middle of (ALLEGED) CIVILISATION. I am 80 years of age and still DOING IT MYSELF…….this way I know that anything I want done is done MY WAY. Sent you a email regarding availability of a 4 pole 20KW ST. I believe that the 4 pole generators are designed for 1800 RPM. I need to know up front what the generator shaft OD is so that I can plan the correct sort of coupling. Have a great day!
George, I appreciate your ‘bump’ I hope you’re not on the 4th floor of an apartment building 🙂
all the best,
George
Hey George
Just wanted to say hi. I bought a pulley set and a bunch of Lister parts from you way back when… oh let’s see, just before the commies took over complete control, oops I’m a New Yorker… we just got hit again. Anyway, I just want to thank you for all the help you provided me when I was seeking assistance for my Jackson Listeroid. A thousand years from now, when all our high tech stuff has crumbled into nonexistence, and the ‘USA’ is recognized to be a strange religious symbol found on corroded shell casings, my old listeroid might be found by some archeologist and revered as the highest level of technology reached by our distant past civilization.
Thanks for putting me on to the listeroids. Fortunately our current day politicians will not be worth remembering, so maybe the future inhabitants’ will be blissfully ignorant regarding them, and will respect some of the good things the people of our age built.
Wish you the best.
Ray
George, as usual am fascinated by your insights.. we are all prone to generalise and implying the human condition ranges from the lowly farmer to the heady PhD professor is too much. Robert Frost wrote ” Everyone has their own story”. That story on it’s own can cover the whole human condition.
My father’s technical expertise was limited to driving a 6″ nail into a railroad tie but his artistic talent was amusing and entertaining, especially at 90 years of age he captivated the nurses.
I have mixed with most types and farmers are way, way above the dregs, conversely some on a pedestal should not be there. The PhD’s I know have earned their dues but not all could aspire to practical farming. Some have and enjoy getting their hands dirty and some farmers could be PhD’s if it mattered to them.
I think reality is beginning to show itself and recognition that ‘book learning’ is not for everyone is emerging. The notion that everyone should have a University education is crazy and a wanton waste of resources. Similarly, being designated a ‘Drop-out’ if you quit high school early is social discrimination. Lots of kids have fantastic abilities at an early age and should be encouraged to exercise them. Molly-coddling them until age 18 then suddenly expecting instant adulthood is ridiculous. Kids should also be required to obey rules of the road when leaving school busses. Not to do so creates disregard for road hazards.
Richard Barber
Hi Richard,
I greatly appreciate your post. I know from experience, if one man finds my words less than clear others are missing the point I attempted to make as well.
My remarks are not about the human condition at all.. but rather about a special breed of men who really do see the world different. The ‘DIYer’, as I’ve written, we are driven to do for ourselves for various reasons, sometimes we are frugal, almost always knowing we have a better purpose for our money than hiring another man to fix what we can do for ourselves.
Utterpower.com is about the DIYer. Although I may comment on the human condition, most of what I write about is through the eyes of a DIYer. I often say.. from the Farmer to the PHD. I say this because of the many contacts I have with people. I agree, the Farmer IS way above the dredges, in fact their ideas and ingenuity are amongst the best ever, and some of man’s hallmark designs came right off the Farm. We need note that Farming and Ranching is not done long by fools, It’s a very competitive business, and requires some insight to stay in business.
“From Farmer to PHD”.. I remember that assistant professor who told me of his life in academics where he never had money to hire any man to fix a thing that broke in his household or driveway. How his wife learned to fix meals from scratch, because much of what was in the store was not affordable on their income. I remember Father and Son, the Father a retired Chief Scientist employed in DC, and his Son a real Rocket Scientist for NASA. Both of these men are DIYers who build a good many things with their hands, and no doubt in my mind, neither man hires another man to fix a thing in his own home.
In contrast, I know a man who sells tools for a living, I can’t remember him EVER making a home repair, closet doors can be off their rails and ignored for years, and he hires others to mow his lawn, and any repair his vehicles have ever needed were done by other men. He’s not a DIYer, and lacks that gene that caused the DIYer to investigate the failure and fix it on his own. In some DIYers, this urge is so strong, he’ll miss a meal or two in order to take it apart and look inside. It’s the way his mind is wired regardless of his station in life.
Within the “Hands on DIYer group”.. you’ll also find a higher percentage of Skeptics. Perhaps I use the example of a conversation I had with DIYer Brian Ward just hours ago.. His wife took her Toyota to the dealer for service, she called him from the dealership and said the service department said the car had unusually dark lube in both differentials, they asked her if it had been in 4WD a lot? They advised her it should be changed, and she was worried because it’s never left the paved road. Brian said, bring it home. I’ll check it out. For many of us, there’s only two groups of people.. Skeptics, and the Gullible. Without the skeptic.. there is no science, and for the gullible… far more expense on average.
Hello George;
After purchasing a 6/1 from Joel in portland in 2008, I purchased a pulley and a few other items from you and have used my gen set in rural Oregon since for backup power. I can’t find any info on Joel and hope he is ok. Please inform. I am sure he is into interesting stuff.
Also, I have started using Rotella 15-40 multigrade in my engine. Could never find any info one way or the other so gave up and began using. Now I can turn over for starting with one arm in all but very cold weather. Let me know if it is not a good idea. Also, what about an after market fuel filter that will bolt up to engine? Any ideas? Thank for any input.
Hi George, im simon from the uk, ive got a lister cs 3/1 and i want to connect a 24 v 55amp alternator to it to recharge my off gird batteries.
But i have searched high and low for the answers and i feel im being very thinck here.
Thanks for any help at all
Simon
Hello,
I happened on your site when looking for some info on portable generator wiring, your diagrams and explanations are spot on as is your sense of humour. A bit out of the way but i’m writing this from N.Ireland, just to say thanks for sharing your expertise,
regards tony.
Tony, great to hear from you, there’s no shortage of DIYers in Ireland!
All the best to you… G
Hello George,
I came across your website while searching for info.on frozen racks on diesel injector pumps.Can you help me please ?.I have the Lister/Petter AC2W engine installed on an equally old sailing boat.!.It wont run, diesel is coming into the pump,but not pumping out.I tried to remove the pump,but the ball or peg on the rack wont line up with cut out in crankcase. Took the gear cover off,and as you have described,looks like plungers (duel element pump,twin cylinder engine) seized in barrels.Great job explaining repair procedure, BUT I can’t line up the rack,to get the pump out to repair it. There isn’t much access,gear wheels in the way, but have squirted WD40 over rack,hoping it might soak in, though I’m dubious it will reach the plungers inside. Do you have a magical cure for this,as I know I must have patience and NOT whack it one.!!. The pump, as far as I can tell, is a Bryce series E, with two elements in one body. It will pull out about half an inch, then catches on the end of the rack..
Here’s hoping you can help. I live in north Lincolnshire, England, and am really impressed with your knowledge and expertise. .I try to do all my own repairs, but getting the knowledge is sometimes very difficult, as in this one, to remove without breaking.
Ok then George, will await to hear from you.
Best Regards
Chris.
Hi George,
Just wanted to say a quick hello, after getting my 115 / ST7.5KW prepped for winter. She’s collected some surface rust, but nothing to cause a problem.
Was delighted to find it start on the first try, warmed up, ran the thermosiphon / aux fan cooled radiator system that uses the block off plate you sold me years ago.
Also want to express my thanks and mention my son is joining us in the DIY world. Hope we can actually cross paths sometime. If you are still in touch with Joel S (he sold me the kit) please say a hello and thanks from me as well.
Best,
Bryan B in VT
Wow! this is an old post, there’s reasons I was so uninspired and did not answer email, we never know if we make the right decisions. Thanks for writing, the 1115s can be a lot of fun. Joel is still out there, but I haven’t talked to him in a while as my own plate was a bit full for a while.
Hi George,
I occasionally search to see where my videos have ended up and was pleased to see one here, on your DIY site. What’s more important to do yourself, than protecting your individuality and freedom? And, hey, when did that become a conservative point of view? Freedom is non-partisan, what a concept! I spend my time bringing awareness to the world about this totalitarian mega-corporatocracy that is being constructed around us. I invite you to take a look at my websites and my book, Behind The Green Mask: UN Agenda 21. I’ll be happy to send you a copy if you haven’t read it yet.
Awareness is the first step in the Resistance. Action is the second step.
Rosa
Hello Rosa, my apologies for the slow response.
I think my generation had no idea what our kids were being fed. I guess the lesson is if you don’t feed them others will. Of course, it is our job to share our values and experience with our children. We can’t force them to recognize the road to hell always takes you to hell, nor can we stop them if they choose to put their own children on that road.
Rosa, I am happy to hear that there are Democrats against the agenda21 plan, and it does cause me to ask, who will you be voting for in the next presidential election?
Rosa, after watching the Democrats running for presidential office, I wonder how many Democrats would hesitate to hand over our sovereignty? I hope your numbers are great, but it looks like the promise of utopia buys a lot of votes.
I’m interested in the topic but don’t see any specifics on projects, work or break thrus. I’d be interested in what you have been doing.
Hello from Zambia
Interested in trying a TR1 type engine in remote area on raw vegetable oil
Multiple applications: oil press, water pump, genset
Interested in a discussion?
Thanks!!
Trevor Robson
We certainly can have that discussion, I think vegetable oil can be run, but you need to start on another oil and run veggie only when it’s up to temp. Expect more engine wear, when the Indian Listers were cheap, parts were cheap to replace.