Still here!!!

Don't forget to enquire about compensation though "acts of God" might be excluded. If you don't ask you won't get...

So get some portable gas or better still install a gas hob running of propane (red) much better for cooking on amd a 47kg cylinder running a hob will last for ages (months/years) and costs about =A330 for the gas.=

We have a calor fire and two ring plus grill camping stove that run of butane (blue) cylinders along with a cartridge based gas lantern. Keeps us warm and fed when the power goes, as it did for Saturday morning. Runtimes are very acceptable, the camping stove has a 7kg cylinder that'll probably drive the stove flat out for days non stop. The fire has a 15kg cylinder, on one burner (1.5kW) that will last over 6 days *nonstop*. Full whack is over 4kW so only 2 days nonstop but that would roast us even in out large and drafty living room. The lantern, just nicely ticking over, will do about 9 hours on a small (300g) clickon cylinder. First time we've used the lantern in anger, excellent, knocks spots off any electric lamp both for light level and more importantly runtime. We'll be getting another one...

No Startomatic I'm afraid but I would look carefully at what you need to become self sufficient for a few days. If the house is ALL electric, ie heating as well, you could have a problem relying on a generator for backup. I lived in Wales for 9 years and with a small ish generator, oil fired central heating, bottled gas cooker and a wood burning stove, I managed quite nicely when the power went off. Remember that even gas central heating needs electricity to run the boiler and pump. My neighbour was quite the opposite. When we had a big power cut, he didn't even have a torch that worked and his house was totally reliant on mains electricity. A modern alternative to a generator is an inverter that will convert 12 volt DC to 240 volt AC. These are becomming quite cheap and can be run from the car with the engine ticking over to power the alternator. Before anyone suggests sustituting a Lister D for the car engine, I did that with my Briggs and Stratton. It was then that I learned just how inefficient car alternators are. Work on about 25% and you may be close.

John

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Well you could use a genny for your stotage heaters but think of 10kVA or more...

But not very much for gas, maybe 50W, oil is a bit greedier with the blower for the boiler. I reckon our CH/HW would need about 250W.

Oh dear, reminds me of a comment some tart said in Radio Cumbria this afternoon, power off for 36hrs, got a bit smelly (eh, thats not

*really* smelly, try a week living rough with the Army) no bath or shower. When it comes down to it whats wrong with cold water and a flannel FFS!

I have a 150W invertor that I did half think about pressing into service on Saturday morning but what really demands mains are the freezers. However they are rated just under 150W so I suspect the start up surge would kill the invertor. B-( Might be useful for charging the UPS back up to keep the ISDN PABX running or a bit of light.

This cut made me think a bit harder about the required rating of a generator. To keep the CH/HW and freezers running, on a round robin basis, one of those cheap 2 stroke 750W jobbies would do. Rather than my previous thoughts of 2 to 3kVA and a changeover switch to run the entire house. We don't really need to do that, just the essentials. So a small genny and several extension leads will do...

Oddly enough I'm told some of these cheap modified square wave inverters can cope with a large peak demand. I'd worry more about the battery and cables.

Yes, I keep one in the van to power my angle grinder. I doubt it's particularly fuel efficient but it's a zero maintenance, quiet and light power source and at 70quid I can soon write the cost off.

AJH

I bought one of those last year, and it was small, quiet, and not very fantastic :-( Nicknamed 'little stinky', when we did have a power cut it had trouble coping with any form of inductive load, and the 'fridge or freezer really made it cough when the compressors started. I reckon about 600 watts continuous was nearer the mark I now have a 2.2kW Honda engined set which I bought on ebay, and it is a much better machine, if a bit noisier. It runs the house with ease. The little 2 stroke jobs are fine for camping but thats about all IMHO

Regards

Philip T-E

I have a 800W genny (BSA) that will comfortably exceed 600W on 2 halogen lights. It struggles to start my fridge. The start surge to get the compressor to run is quite high.

John

In message , Dave Liquorice writes

As you can see from the sig I actually live on a boat so use Inverters/generators all the time when away from the moorings. One thing to beware when using inverters is that most small (less than

1kw) ones will not start the compressor a fridge or if they do will only do it a few times before they burn out! Here I use a 2.5kw inverter/65amp charger to power the boat when off line. with 400ah of batteries at 24v I end up having to run the genny for about an hour a day to keep the batteries fully charged mainly because I run a full domestic fridge freezer. Oh and as for gennies I went cheap and cheerful it for over year now and it has been abused by the wife (washing machine, tumble dryer, 1kw immersion heater, bread maker and battery charger all at the same time) and still keeps coming back for more. We now have a rule no more than 3 things on at once.........

How does she manage the immersion heater bit? 1KW is well over a horsepower, must be quite a woman

Cheers Tim

In message , Tim Leech writes

It wasn't me abusing the wife..........:-)

I mentioned the 1kw because the genny is only 5.75kva and someone might have thought she was really overloading it.

Caro isn't here tonight so it doesn't matter how big a hole I dig myself into.......:-)

=A3617.02 + VAT cheap and cheerful? I was thinking sub hundred quid cheap and cheerful...

Compared to the £5-6K that you would normally expect to pay for a generator of this size that is usable on a boat. It is also my primary source of 230v when away from the moorings (6 months a year) most houses have a piece of cable connected to the national grid for that.

Six hundred quid for a 5K+ genny doesn't seem out of the way to me.

But when I clicked on

It promptly started to download 2.7 mg of cookie - cheeky ba**ards! I got out and choked it off unfinished - mutter, mutter.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Sorry about that, hasnt as far as I know happened to me but then being on broadband I might not have noticed!

Julian

I may be teaching my grandmother to suck eggs but it's worth reminding folks not to leave portable gas powered room heaters on when you're asleep. The fumes may mean a VERY good sleep - possibly for ever. These days, CO monitors are cheap enough and I would consider one essential for this application.

John

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The also have a piece of wire for their telephone. How do you manage that?

John

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AJH

Thank you, can I have it boiled with soldiers?

You don't know our house, when the winds up it is really rather drafty. It would have to be really cold (bedrooms below 10C) for me to lug the thing upstairs. Thicker duvet and more blankets are lighter and easier to handle...

I'm from Birmingham, via Bristol and St Albans. Should be a POP to find out where I am.

Martin Hirst? Rings a tiddly bell but may be from other newsgroups.