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Generator Hell! by Andros SturgeonI |
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Generator Hell! by Andros SturgeonI |
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I'll tell you a story about a burn a few years ago. It was my second and I was going to do it to the hilt. My friend and I had decided that we would put up a lounge for people to relax and enjoy whatever substance was floating around their system. We had more PVC than we needed, snacks, a parachute, 10 inflatable mattresses, a Hanson poster and about a thousand Christmas lights. We also had a generator. This was no ordinary generator; this was king-nasty-let-Y2K-come-and-get-me-if-it-wants generator that packed a 5000-watt punch. We had bought it at Costco in Reno so we wouldn't have to haul it up from Los Angeles. We didn't even test it out first.
In Costco, there were about 3 generators of various strengths, and although the neat little Coleman, which was about the size of two toasters would have worked fine for our needs, we let human greed and excess rule our better judgments and we bought the biggest damn generator in the place. The Coleman was only about 2500 watts, and although we were only powering Christmas lights, a fog machine and a stereo, we figured 'what the heck you - never know' and we chose the monster and took this thing out to the playa.
At the time we had visions of this thing quietly humming away while we occasionally fed it fuel and oil to keep it happy. But the difference between what one expects and reality at Burning Man is equidistant to that of what politicians say and what they do. No sir, that generator became the very bane of my existence and like any Monday quarterback, we could have, should have seen it coming.
First of all, the damn thing was loud! I don't mean 'kinda noisy' or 'fairly loud', I mean the goddamn thing sounded like a Howlitzer at full throttle. We didn't know it would be because as I said before we never tested it. It wasn't a big deal when we first started to put up camp. We had no neighbours and we were isolated. We had the coolest new electronica straight from England blasting away to keep us in the groove and drown out the noise. It was still the first day. We also had a very LONG extension cord that allowed us to put the generator as far from us as possible. By doing this, the generator was as loud as being in your backyard while you listened to your neighbour mow his lawn. It worked fine for us. That's until the people who camped next to us showed up.
The generator had been doing exactly what we wanted it to do right in the middle of what was soon to be their camp. So we moved it back into our camp. That is when we discovered the second little problem.
The thing spat carbon monoxide out like it was a '57 Gremlin that hadn't bothered to be smogged since '58. It was pretty amazing. And to make matters worse, the only place to really put the generator due to the layout of our site was at the edge of our camp that bordered our neighbours. Needless to say, a high decibel noise and noxious fumes chugging away next to our new neighbours did not motivate them to have us roll out the welcome wagon.
The good people of GigsVille were kind enough to lend us 4 hay-bails to surround it to help keep the noise down and we moved the generator again, away from our neighbour's camp. This meant that our neighbour didn't hear it as bad and got less of the fumes because my tent broke up most of the noise and gases. By the end of the event, my sleeping bag was almost flammable with fuel vapours.
Meanwhile, across the way, the people putting up their camp had a similar problem. They solved it by digging a 6-foot trench into the playa, putting the generator in it, a board over it and letting it go. Well of course the dirt they piled up next to the trench was blown away by the prevailing winds, and not having enough dirt to fill the hole, it left a nice groove for future generations and definitely went against the LNT principles.
We tolerated the monster the rest of the week but then still had to deal with the clean up. The four hay bails, which we were now responsible for, were not going to go away on their own. This meant that we either had to haul them out or burn them. If we burned them we had to wait until the bails were burned out, the ash was cool and we would still need to put the ash into trash bags.
We should have stuck with the Coleman.
So my point to all this is that I have learned some valuable lessons from this nightmare. Chiefly, if you absolutely have to bring a generator, do the following:
Test it out first in real conditions.
Be realistic about the noise and the air pollution. There is a lot of space on the playa, but we are all packed in. If you have to shout over the noise of the generator, most likely it's too loud.
Go for a smaller generator if possible.
Like I said, a 2500-watt generator would have been fine for us. Think of all the things you will power and count the watts. A stereo and lights don't take up that much juice, so add up the watts and bring along the appropriate gear. You will be surprised at how much power you WON'T need.
Build a soundproof structure for the generator, no matter what the size.
More on that later.
Be courteous to the people next to you.
Know that there will be people who will be camping in the immediate area. Know that and be ready for that. We all want to have a good time. Take the fumes into consideration as well as noise. Every smart Black Rock citizen will have a pair of earplugs, but we all have to breath.
Get an alternate power source.
Had I to do it over again, I would have gone electric, solar, Christ I would have gone hamster driven if I could. There are some suggested sites in the Power Links part of this website to help you out with some alternative powersource ideas. Feel free to communicate any ideas you may come up with to the Burning Man community by using the email link at the bottom of these pages.
I know this sounds a bit like a lecture, but take it from me, I've been there.
So I had this mammoth generator out in the desert. I hauled it back to Hollywood where it sits to this very day. There was no way on God's green earth I was ever going to bring it back out to the playa. No way. By the time the event was over that year, I was ready to soak the bails and the generator in the leftover fuel I had and light the fucker on fire. I didn't because I didn't want to haul a blackened generator carcass back to Reno and ditch it in a casino dumpster. I think I just held onto it just in case the press was right about the Y2K thing. But even if the apocalypse had happened, I would have been reluctant to run the thing. It just wouldn't be polite for the future generations.
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