House Power Generator - newbie post.

Hi

I've recently posted the below in uk.d-i-y, and someone suggested that I ask in here due to the experience of yourselves in the group.... so here goes :) (please be gentle with me!)

I live out on a remote farmhouse whose electric is supplied on overhead electricity poles.

In the two years that I have lived here, I've had about 20 power cuts. Some are only a few minutes and a nuisance, but others can last for a few hours.

I have a small UPS currently that I use for my server, CCTV etc, but I really want something that can "tap" into the main CU in the house.

I have lots of space outside, and a space ready for a power generator (petrol/deisel etc).

I have a couple of questions though.

- How do I calculate the power (watts) that an appliance requires?

- Is there a device that can measure the power requirement for an appliance, or for my entire power requirement (I have an economy 7 dual dial meter)

- When my power is initially connected after a power outage, all of the outside floodlights come on and create an initial surge. How would a generator cope with that?

I am assuming that once I have worked out my power requirement, I will need to find a generator large enough to cope with it.

I would be happy if the generator would power a lighting circuit, and maybe a few appliances (heating pump, boiler, television, radio etc).

Any experience/tips/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Charles

Reply to
charles.smithe
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I've just responed in uk.d-i-y not seen any others yet but not looked that closely. For your requirements uk.d-i-y is probably the best bet as far as power calculation and wiring is concerned.

How ever you may want to use "vintage" kit, in which case this is the place to be to get that 70 year old engine running again. There is a diesel Lister non runner (without easy start) jobbie on ebay ATM with

5kVA 110v genny. Nice little project, get the ehnine going, rewire or rewind the genny... but do you want the risk of spending two hours getting the damn thing started when the power is out.

Personally I'd like an engine to tinker with but for this application it has to start and start easily even if it's been in the garage for the last 9 months... SWMBO'd needs to be able to operate it as well.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

One could always read the labels on the appliances. This should show you the operating voltage, expected supply current and the power rating of the unit.

If you have a bill for electricity supply then that will show you your consumption in kWh. A little maths will yield an average power consumption per minute/hour/day as required. You can also use your household meter to minitor the electrical units used over a brief period of time while operating one or more appliances.

There is also a range of electrical meters that will measure voltage and current but these will take a little more skill to use and interpret.

You can remove the shock of loading the generator by phasing the re-connection of the various power circuits. This is easily done with contactors on a timer chain.

Alternatively, work out what loads you can live without for a while and leave those circuits out of the generator supply system. This is called load shedding. Again, contactors and some logic will achieve this.

So you have already been thinking of load shedding.

Your welcome.

Reply to
Paul E. Bennett

Might this be a good place to start? Might be cheap as it attracted no bids. What kind of beast is it, anyway ?

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Regards,

Kim Siddorn

If you think no one cares, try stopping a Direct Debit!

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

Looks like a Petter AV1, PH1 or similar, certainly not supercharged!

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Reply to
Prepair Ltd

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

Lots of questions there. The size of generator is decided by what you want to supply. If you use ecconomy 7 for heating you will need a very large set. I would suggest you don't go that route but buy some temporary heaters for emergencies. I had a wood burning stove when I lived in a place such as yours. I also had a gas cooker running on Propane. As for the rest of the load, the labels on appliances will tell you the wattage. Don't use them all together and you can reduce the size of the genny. The question about reducing the inrush load on startup is best addressed by only connecting the generator to supply a single circuit, eg a socket ring main. If you arrange for the whole house to change over, you won't know when the mains is back on. By only powering one circuit, this problem is removed. There are 2 ways of connecting to your generator. The easiest is to instal cables that are ONLY connected to the generator. What you connect to this is up to you. The other way is via a change over breaker. This should be installed by a certified electrician. If you get this wrong, your generator can feed into the supply and that is extemely dangerous. There used to be a ruling by the electrical supply companies that you had to inform them if you had a generator connected to their system in any way. I think this is still the case. Finally decide how you want to start the thing. Autostart is available but expensive. It is foolproof though. Can others in your house start a genny if you're not there? Unless you are technically competent, I would advise contacting a specialist contractor.

John

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Reply to
John Manders

I recall an article in SEM where the author had installed a separate generator circuit as John suggests. The sockets connected to that circuit were red plastic instead of white and this struck me as very good idea.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

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