What Generator To Buy

[niall Y]

Having been without electricity for 2 1/2 days directly after Storm Darragh ( and for a further day after that). We have finally decided to invest in a generator of sorts. The minimum it will need to do is protect the contents of the freezers,. and allow us to charge up the phones, without which we would be stymied Nothing as high usage as a washing machine or electric kettle.

I'm wondering which models and makes have proved most useful and reliable for other members of this forum. And which ones they would recommend.

 

[Bingy man]

You c a n spend anything from a couple of hundred to a few thousand. The more expensive ones will run continuously while the cheaper ones are for intermittent use. As well as the output you will need to consider noise levels as several days without electricity is bad news but a neighbour’s loud generator on top of no electricity may add further discomfort unless you live on a farm . With that said if I was in your position I’d buy ghe biggest and best that I could afford . Protection for freezers is important but so is boiling a kettle or even a temporary water heater ( baby burco ) or similar and then there is your heating concerns .. imo ..

 

[Jameshow]

I have an sgs one which has proved useful over he past 10 years!

3kw I think.

Honda are good.

A diesel would be more economical if used for any length of time.

 

[niemeyjt]

Sound - as already said - and also the way it makes A.C. I think some are safer than others with electronics if that's likely to be an issue

Length of tank lasting (assuming you do not want to get up every 2 hours for a top-up)

Ease of maintenance?

Fuel storage - especially the modern contaminated stuff that goes off or worse very quickly.

Honda would be my go-to for smaller stuff, maybe Hyundai for larger. But one other question - how often do you think you'll need it?

 

[Sachakins]

One extra to consider is how, when, where and for how long will it be left stored. Whether cheap or expensive, keeping it maintained when not used is crucial.

 

[Katomi woodsmith]

I have a 3kw wolf gen, petrol a tank will last 6 to 8 hours
I have to have mains power, used to live really close to the sea. In storms we would get flooding the sub station is still less than 50 mtrs from the sea
I invested in the gen set and later self fix solar panels

 

[Cozzer]

I have a crappy Wolf 1200.
Can run a few lamps off it, but it struggles to boil a kettle...

However, I now power it with Aspen rather than petrol, after great success running my Webb mower on it.
Pricey, true, but invariably starts first time...

 

[robgul]

How are you going to use the generator to power freezers etc ? - with extension leads or getting its feed connected into your consumer unit with isolating switches to change from mains to generator?

I managed to blow up a television with a generator some years ago . . .

 

[niall Y]

Thanks, one and all for your replies.

As we have bottled gas, then boiling a kettle isn't a problem. We also have an oil fired Rayburn. So we do have a few other options when the power goes off. And, as far as noise levels go, we are a field away from our nearest neighbours.

I am thinking that 3kw output would be about right for our needs. This, with a Hyundai, would be in the region of £500. Anything at the next higher output, seems to be weighing in at about £750,
,
A friend and neighbour has also recommended a Honda but to obtain the 3KW output seems, on first investigation, to be costing £1,000. So, there is going to have to be a real balancing act between output, cost and reliability.

At the current rate of power cuts, we are going to be using it about 4 times a year, concentrated, mainly, over the winter period. And, if these bad storms are our new reality, then this rate can only increase. ( I believe another one is forecast the week before Christmas )

I take on board what has been said about running a petrol generator on something like Aspen which should minimise running problems , due to the generator only being used intermittently. Problems, I already experience with getting the lawn mower running again, after the winter months.

Niall

 

[bourbon]

put a good quality extension lead on the Gennie and plug whatever you need into that. Pop down to your local Machine Mart and tell then what you need to power and they will suggest the best one for your needs. Pity, you have just missed a price crash as well.

 

[Chubber]

Having lived 14 years in rural SW France, I found a 2.5Kw 4-stroke rotary invertor answered well for the 5-6 longer , say 24 hour cuts each year. It ran for about 8 hours on a tank full if we kept it going for any length of time i.e. to run the central heating pump.We covered the two garage freezers with blankets etc to keep the cold in having quickly got out some grub, and after 12 hours gave them an hour or so. The kitchen 'fridge got some too. It ran all the lights and would run my table saw and big disc cutter. We had oil lamps and rechargeable lamps kept on trickle.

I had no problems with fuel going off as I regularly bought an additive for lead free petrol which I used for motor mowers and for making 2 stroke mix for chainsaws, hedge cutters etc.

Noise not a problem, I had a flexible length of exhaust which I ran through a hole in the garage door to a small matrix of hollow concrete blocks, the local garage made me up an adaptor.

Oh yes, meant to say, like Bob101, I ran it dry after each use.

 

[Stuart Moffat]

We have ropey overhead supply that is not reliable, and because we grow a lot of food, have 3 freezers. We have a Hyundai 3800 I think, which easily takes care of the freezers, some lighting, and we made the power to the oil central heating system powered by a 13 amp plug. So it can also be run off the extension leads from the generator. Powering the boiler and the water pump etc is a real bonus if it’s cold outside. It will boil a kettle but if we do that we unplug everything else. I used a clamp meter on a multimeter the first few times to make sure we never overloaded it.

 

[pgrbff]

We regularly have power cuts and running a wood fired boiler means we need to be able to back up the supply. I believe the most important thing is the quality of the output. More and more white goods have electronics/computers, my boiler does, and a dirty supply could damage circuit boards. We have a small 2kw Honda. It was expensive but is quiet and is an inverter? model which wont damage any electronics.

 

[Bob101]

We have had a Hyundai HY9000 for the last 7-8 years, it has powered the house inc. freezers but not our heat pumps (starting currents are too much). We need a generator as with no mains water, we have our own water supply and electric pumps.

https://hyundaipowerequipment.co.uk...a-recoil-electric-start-site-petrol-generator

I trial it every winter and we have used it in for 2-3 day periods several times (as last weekend). Always started without any difficulty. I always run it to dry before storing and might use Aspen fuel for trial running.

Noise has never been a problem, well the neighbouring sheep haven't complained yet!

 

[MikeJhn]

Anyone with a diesel generator used their 28sec heating oil to run it on?

 

[Blister]

I have one of these

CLARKE IG1700F 1.7KVA PETROL INVERTER GENERATOR​

It is good with good fuel economy, two 3 pin plug sockets , starts easy .

 

[ChaiLatte]

As we have bottled gas...

...consider a propane-powered generator.

You will cry a little on initial purchase but you can shut it off tomorrow and start it up in three years time with no maintenance. No messing with petrol, no Aspen.

...is an inverter? model which won't damage any electronics.

Your mains power is an analogue sine wave because the big generator at the power station is a large three phase alternator. An inverter as such will not be a true sine wave - it is a digital approximation of a sine wave. The better the approximation, the more the electronics cost.

The thing to take away from this is that 'inverter' does not automatically mean 'better' or 'non-damaging'. You have to read the fine print a little deeper. The same argument and same reasoning applies to solar inverters - they are all inverters but not all are true sine wave inverters.

 

[Katomi woodsmith]

Some of the Honda gen sets will convert to lpg with min problems

 

[Beau]

Some of the Honda gen sets will convert to lpg with min problems

Yep, I have a machine I bought an LPG conversion for and it worked fine for a while but then had starting problems. Never worked out if the LPG caused the problems though

 

[Cozzer]

Petrol lawnmowers using "genuine" Honda engines are worth seeking out.
When I write "genuine", I mean the units that were manufactured in Japan, as opposed to newer, less reliable units stemming out of other plants in Europe.