Petrol Generator recommendations Please

whiskeygalore

Hi all looking for some advice on buying a portable generator I have looked on ebay, amazon etc and I am totally confused by all the different makes,specs and prices etc. This generator is to be used primilarly as a standby for my home, if the electricity goes off which it has over this past few winters.I think from what ive read it would need to be in access of 3kva.

Could someone recommend a good value/reliable machine

ValHaller

You need to start by listing everything you might want to run off it and then horse trade between the rating of the generator, the things which you allow to remain on the list and the things you can accept not running simultaneously.

muckybutt

If you are going to invest in a standby jenny then ideally you want something in the region of 4 - 6Kva, that will be enough to power lighting and some power for tv kettle etc.

You will need a regulator / change over unit fitting to the mains as well, this effectively monitors the mains power, in the event of a power cut it breaks a contactor inside the unit which isolates your house from the national grid, without this you could risk injury / death to persons working on the grid and I believe they can heavily fine you for not having this equipment installed.

The cheaper alternative is to have a few extension leads with lights and sockets on that you can simply unwind and use as required.

Good reliable models are Honda as you would expect, I can recommend Stephill generators as well....had both

whiskeygalore

Thankyou is there such a thing is a bad make and a good make I know some electrical appliances are made and the appropiate brand label attached is this the same with generators,

muckybutt

whiskeygalore wrote: »

is there such a thing is a bad make and a good make

Oh yes, very much so. What goes into making them has a big difference on how well they will run and perform.

Don't touch the cheap Chinese imports with a barge pole for starters ! even then having said that some of the more expensive Chinese ones can be pants too, the ones that look the same but are different names steer clear of.

Having had the cheapo one myself and run the consequences of them breaking down - not being able to get spares for and blowing up I would only go for the two mentioned above in my other post.

At the end of the day you pay for what you get, both the Stephill and Honda are very reliable engines and generator packs.

Naf

Personal enquiry;
Why petrol?
Can't you run a diesel one from used veg.oil?

ValHaller

muckybutt wrote: »

Don't touch the cheap Chinese imports with a barge pole for starters !

I had no idea you could use a barge pole to start a generator.

Naf wrote: »

Personal enquiry;
Why petrol?
Can't you run a diesel one from used veg.oil?

For the number of hours in a year that you would run a generator it probably would not be worth while. If you ran a generator for enough hours to be worthwhile, you would probably want to use red diesel anyway

marlot

If you want to run computers and other sensitive equipment then you really need to be looking at a inverter generator.

If its for things which aren't so sensitive, then a 'normal' generator is fine.

tuttifrutti1

I would recommend getting a diesel generator if you are wanting it for home standby use. If you take a look the Genpower Ltd website and go to the power calculator section it explains what size generator you need for certain jobs, there is a section about choosing a generator for home standby use, which I believe is what you want!

Also, as this is a money saving forum I found a website which has a £5 off any order offer on at the minute. The website is called ThePowerSite Ltd. They sell all the main generators such as Hyundai, Honda, Evopower, Stephill and Kipor.

Hope this helps.

whiskeygalore

Thankyou all, still a bit confused looking at Stephill although expensive, I see others which specify a honda engine does this mean that it is a genuine honda generator or fake.Lots and lots of makes like draper,boxxer,wolf,villiers,lde,clark etc

tuttifrutti1

If you are looking at a slightly cheaper machine, I would recomend you take a look at the Evopower EVO6000SELR.

thepowersite.co.uk/evopower-evo6000selr-5-5kw-6-8kva-diesel-generator/

If you click on the review tab on the page it has had really good reviews.