Generators?

[Bailes1992]

Had anyone got any recommendations for a small generator? Something about 2-2.5KW to run a 2kw heater, some lights and a TV.

Thought about this...
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... petrol-eng

You buy the engine then you can buy different attachments for it. They do a dirty water pump, a 2.4kw generator and a pressure washer!
The only thing is I would like something fairly quiet and that engine I assume would run at a constant 3000rpm.

The other option would be a small inverter generator. An inverter generator generates DC and then converts it to AC. That means that when you aren't using much power than engine can just idle so should in theory be quieter.
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... -generator

Any of you guys got any suggestions?

Bailes.

[lozz]

Err,not sure on generato'rs but when iused to buy,engined power'd stuff,
when iwas into landscaping, best stuff out there was Honda'. Quality,

iknow the gennys are quiet,and theyve the option to run two if need be in parallel, ( is that speld right,sorry if not,)

expensive new,so ebay route might be best,

[markw]

I had one of those gennys in the second link.
It was very quiet and would last for hours on a tank full. However, it did cough and splutter a bit when asked to provide anywhere near it's maximum rated output.

General rule of thumb tends to be to choose a genny with a rating twice as big as you actually need......although this then takes you closer to the noisier end of the market.

[steve_earwig]

Not necessarily, that big Honda of mine is encased to keep it quiet.Remote electric start too, lovely. Shame it's over there

I've not long bought a little genny, it was 200 quid (or thereabouts) for 2Kw, 2.2 peak, which is cheap for over here so I thought it was worth a punt. Most of the power cuts here don't last long enough to warrant one but we have the occasional one that lasts a few hours (last time it lasted from 3am to 1pm), plus I thought it would be handy for running tools away from the mains. Trouble is I'm not supposed to run it indoors because of the fumes, nor in the boiler house unless I make some changes, plus it's just at the limit of what I can carry about, and what if it's raining? So I'll be building a shelter for it outside with tails run into the kitchen and boiler house ready.

And next I'll be investigating solar power...

[Doggy]

And next I'll be investigating solar power...

We've just installed 150kW worth, for £££££
I estimate we'll start to make a profit early in the 23rd century.
Should be a bit more viable in your neck of the woods tho.

[steve_earwig]

150Kw? Are you running just your house there or a whole village?

I'm having trouble finding anything out here, looks like Germany is the place but they're not keen on having English versions of their websites

Yep, I'd expect it to work very well here as it gets rather sunny. My original idea was to buy an UPS capable of running more than just the pc for more than a couple of minutes but that was looking prohibitive, then I thought of that youtube link Frank posted a while back of the guy with a couple of batteries charged up with the mains, and then I thought I could add some solar panels to that here...

[Doggy]

The 150 kW installation is where I work - needs about 5000 m2 of roof space.

[steve_earwig]

Ah When you said "we" I thought you meant you and t'wife and you'd gone for the mother and father of all long-term plans

[Welly]

Steve can't you train a Hamster to run an alternator via some pulleys to charge those UPS batteries? think how cheap and quiet that'd be! you could even get two Hamsters working shifts?

[steve_earwig]

I've not long bought a little genny, it was 200 quid (or thereabouts) for 2Kw, 2.2 peak, which is cheap for over here so I thought it was worth a punt. Most of the power cuts here don't last long enough to warrant one but we have the occasional one that lasts a few hours (last time it lasted from 3am to 1pm), plus I thought it would be handy for running tools away from the mains. Trouble is I'm not supposed to run it indoors because of the fumes, nor in the boiler house unless I make some changes, plus it's just at the limit of what I can carry about, and what if it's raining? So I'll be building a shelter for it outside with tails run into the kitchen and boiler house ready.

And next I'll be investigating solar power...

Gah! We were at my bro-in-law's in Zagreb yesterday afternoon, got home at 7.30 pm and just as we pulled up the street light went out (not that it means much as for some stupid reason it's got a motion detector on it and a sodium bulb so if you walk under it the bulb gradually warms up and reaches full power when you don't need it any more ) and when I got indoors, shock horror, no power (again). So I broke out the torch collection (again). I was thinking about the genny but you never know how long the power cut will last, I didn't want to go through all the bother of lugging it outside for the power to come back again but at around 8.30 I thought we could do with some hot water. We're using the wood burner for that, which is easy enough, but if I'm not careful the boiler will overheat without the c/h pump running, and it was starting to get a bit chilly. So out came the genny It was running the c/h pump and a light in here for an hour or so, I did try to run my old UPS off of it (the one I cooked by overloading it) just to see what would happen. It was ok running just the phone and modem as it normally does but when I plugged the tv in too it died and behaved as if there was no power, just clicking and beeping. Not sure why, even when I pulled the tv out again it just wouldn't hold. Maybe it's because it's cooked, don't know. I even gave the genny an earth to see if that's what it was missing but nada.

This morning I woke up at about 7, still no power So we fed the dogs and went into the town here to do a few small errands and get some shopping in. Got back about 10, still no power. By this time I was starting to worry about the freezers, the chest in the boiler house is stuffed full and still had some ice inside but the fridge-freezer in the kitchen was looking a bit dicey. I was just unscrewing from the kitchen units when bing! - back came the power.

7.30pm to 10.50am, that's 15 hours and 20 minutes, absofuckinglutely brilliant I'm sure they must buy their plant second-hand from Namibia or something.

Solar power, here we come!

[gumby6371]

No idea how much these things are to buy for the general public but its one of the items I manage at work;

http://www.hgigenerators.com/resources/ ... 04_LFG.pdf

Quiet and when fitted with the exhaust extension can be used indoors.

I even have the parts lists and servicing manuals if needed.

The engine is built by HATZ but I've not heard of this particular German diesel engine attempting to eat itself, probably down to the lack of swirl flaps and turbo

[Welly]

We get one or two power cuts in Welly Village per year, usually to do with the local tranny (not big Dave, that's another story) but the last one took out the transformer properly and we had no electrickery for about 6 hrs.

Now I found the peacefulness and the cooking-by-candlelight strangely alluring (the kids would beg to differ, as the interweb was down). I still had cold beer and warm food and it was alright, I even had conversations with her indoors

I can appreciate though if this happened a lot it would become a pain in the harris, especially with a fridge full of (rather expensive) food.

[markw]

Now I found the peacefulness and the cooking-by-candlelight strangely alluring

Can concur with that Welly.
During my days with the Electricity Board, I used to be on night time standby duty. The number of times I 'd get called to a 'No Supply' call, fix it, put the power back on and be greeted by groans and moans from the household as they'd got rather used to the nice cosy little candles by then!
One place I left, I even saw the guy reach up to the consumer unit and switch it off again while they finished their candlelit meal.....

[steve_earwig]

No idea how much these things are to buy for the general public but its one of the items I manage at work;

http://www.hgigenerators.com/resources/ ... 04_LFG.pdf

Quiet and when fitted with the exhaust extension can be used indoors.

I even have the parts lists and servicing manuals if needed.

The engine is built by HATZ but I've not heard of this particular German diesel engine attempting to eat itself, probably down to the lack of swirl flaps and turbo

I can't actually find a price on that, looks well trick though so I expect they cost thousands

cooking-by-candlelight strangely alluring

But what if your cooker is electric? I don't think cooking with candlelight would be so very alluring

[D4B]

My mate has the Machine Mart Inverter generator for using to boil the kettle etc when he's away Kart Racing

This one:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... -generator

He is very pleased with it....

Years ago I bought a Honda generator 1.9Kva if memory serves correctly....
think it was like this one but I bought mine brand new:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Honda-EB1900- ... 5662aa937a

used it to power a Sealey mini mig welder to weld many many bits on my VW camper project at the time... it did splutter a bit as you struck mig arc to weld tho

Fantastic little generator well worth the xtra money....