Generators

Horasio

Are they worth having?

We had a 26 hour power cut on new year's eve. With this constant windy weather, we worry about power cuts.

If so, what should I look for?

angchris

i personally wouldnt bother with one as you`d have to get it wired into your mains and i wouldnt of thought it would warrant the expense. nowadays leccy companies are pretty good and fix problems asap, but if you are worried id say get a gas cooker if you havent already or pick up a cheapo camping stove so at least you always have means of cooking/making a cuppa and maybe buy a few camping lights the type with the handles that you can hang high in the room and maybe a small battery ran radio for entertainment. the only thing you really need to worry with is the freezer but these normally hold temperature with the door shut for 24 hours.

Cardew

You don't need to wire it to your mains; you simply run an extension lead into the house.

Bear in mind that they only produce low power - normally 500 watts to 1000watts so you need to be careful what you connect. A couple of lights and a TV and/or PC. No heating or cooking devices.

Above all make sure that it is run outside or somewhere very well ventilated as the exaust fumes can kill.

Snow_Dog

We had a power cut with most of Poole and the surrounding area down for about 3 days last year.

Also when you think that we are becoming more power greedy and there are more and more houses being squeezed in all the time with very little new money being spent on increasing the supply infrastructure the likelyhood of power outages in the future is more likely.

Witness North America a couple of years ago, and parts of western europe (germany, etc) late last year, which was triggered by one single transmission line being shutdown which caused a snowball effect cutting power to a significant part of europe.

Most of the transformer substations you see were designed and installed many years ago, we are slowly using more and more of the overhead in these and at some point things are going to break down, and we know from history energy companies will only act and spend money when the brown stuff starts flying.

Watch out with the jenny selection, cheap ones dont produce clean supply due to the design which means try not to use them on sensitive electrical equipment, running lights OK, rig up a system to keep the pump and boiler running (though most boilers now have PCBs etc), but I wouldn't run a PC off a cheap jenny.

Also if you want a quiet one it will cost more (4-stroke).

Horasio

Snow_Dog wrote:

We had a power cut with most of Poole and the surrounding area down for about 3 days last year.

Also when you think that we are becoming more power greedy and there are more and more houses being squeezed in all the time with very little new money being spent on increasing the supply infrastructure the likelyhood of power outages in the future is more likely.

Witness North America a couple of years ago, and parts of western europe (germany, etc) late last year, which was triggered by one single transmission line being shutdown which caused a snowball effect cutting power to a significant part of europe.

Most of the transformer substations you see were designed and installed many years ago, we are slowly using more and more of the overhead in these and at some point things are going to break down, and we know from history energy companies will only act and spend money when the brown stuff starts flying.

Watch out with the jenny selection, cheap ones dont produce clean supply due to the design which means try not to use them on sensitive electrical equipment, running lights OK, rig up a system to keep the pump and boiler running (though most boilers now have PCBs etc), but I wouldn't run a PC off a cheap jenny.

Also if you want a quiet one it will cost more (4-stroke).

Thank you for your reply

My mother also had the power cut you had last year which was caused by a local factory fire.

We bought a 2.3KW one today which should be OK in the short term should we have a power cut.

Our recent power cut was caused by a fallen overhead wire caused by bad weather. We discovered it by accident when taking a back road and saw the wire dangling in a deep puddle. We turned around pretty quick sharp:eek:

Snow_Dog

2.3KW thats a hefty jenny. Should power most things.

There are a couple of ways to integrate the unit into the house mains, the most sensible one is to wire up a changeover isolator by the fusebox, so that you can switch from leccy board power to the jenny with no chance of having both on at the same time.

The second is very naughty, contravenes wiring regs and I would not advocate doing this at all, honest, (though its the easiest way), pull the ring main fuse or flick the trip, length of flex plug each end one into jenny the other into wall socket.

The Bournemouth power cut was caused by a fire at Nelson Stanley scrap yard, conveniently placed right below the EHV transmission lines. The fire (mostly cars I think) was so hot it melted the overhead cables.

Over the next 3 days (I think it was longer for some areas), the power available through the network was limited so different areas were getting power for 8 hours then losing it while it was switched on elsewhere. This just goes to show how one single transmission line failure can affect many thousands of households for days blowing away anyones theory that a jenny is not worth the expense.

Troubleatmill_2

Get one with a digital sine wave generator. (DSG)
Much better to power electronic equipment with, TV etc.

I have a Kipor generator ( the yellow ones ). the red ones don't have the DSG.


They are fairly cheap, commonplace on Ebay - and are quiet.


If money is no object....then the Honda ones are excellent...but way way pricey.


Best
Troubleatmill