Emergency generator for home

[nzbred]

Im looking into buying an emergency generator for our home.I know virtually nothing about generators,just need something to power some home appliances,lamps etc...Please,what would people recommend? Nothing too expensive and please be gentle with me if explaining anything technical i need to know about them. Thanks

[preparedsurrey]

What appliances are you wanting to run? Do you have a budget and do you want something that is semi portable?
What sort of run time do you need and what fuel? Petrol/ diesel/ gas

[nzbred]

Ive seen a couple that are around the £100-£200 price mark,just wondered the reliability and quality of them? Would want one to keep the fridge ticking over, and for things like a kettle,lamps etc. Petrol if preferable.Again,im a total newbie when it comes to these,is there anyway i can check what the power consumption on the fridge/appliances are to see what wattage output generator would be best for me?

[preparedsurrey]

Fridge will be ok at the top of that price range I would guess it would be about 2 or 3 kW. Should run most household appliances but not all at once. If you are running for any length of time with a significant load it will chew through a lot of petrol. Quality control on the cheap Chinese ones can be variable. Also you may find the output will not be clean enough to run sensitive electronics ie computers. Try and get one with a low oil shut down - so if the engine oil level falls the engine will be turned off rather than suffer damage.

[preparedsurrey]

Also if you are going to power up the house you need to disconnect the incoming mains so you don't back feed the main supply, or just use trailing leads to power up what you need

[Yorkshire Andy]

your going to be looking at a 2kw to run a big fridge freezer due to the motor start up


as for a kettle you'd find a petrol camping stove much more fuel efficient

remember domestically you can only legally store 30l in approved cans...


as above many modern devices including fridges are electronic controlled these do not like unstable voltages so look for one with a AVR (auto voltage regulator) or an inverter based gen set...

[Kris369]

Could i suggest a battery bank, or a converted ups battery bank as an alternative. Electricity is easier to store long term, and silent in use. Plus no noise or smoke to attract attention.
The main reason i avoided generators is they make you a target in times of blackout, even if its just a neighbor asking for some of your power.

Money wise you could buy a small solar panel, batteries, charger and inverter for the same price as a ok generator. I convert old UPS's, which include every conmponent but the panel to make solar set ups at a fraction of the cost of new systems.

Best thing about solar is that it is renewable and you can always find a little sun without moving, unlike fuel which you have to source at the same time everyone else is looking for the same thing.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Could i suggest a battery bank, or a converted ups battery bank as an alternative. Electricity is easier to store long term, and silent in use. Plus no noise or smoke to attract attention.
The main reason i avoided generators is they make you a target in times of blackout, even if its just a neighbor asking for some of your power.

Money wise you could buy a small solar panel, batteries, charger and inverter for the same price as a ok generator. I convert old UPS's, which include every conmponent but the panel to make solar set ups at a fraction of the cost of new systems.

Best thing about solar is that it is renewable and you can always find a little sun without moving, unlike fuel which you have to source at the same time everyone else is looking for the same thing.

This^ and a small generator for a top up charge

Try and find 12v substitute s or adaptors rather than step up the voltage to step down to save on the massive losses associated with inverters

[sniper 55]

I've got a mate that lives off grid, she prefers a diesel generator running on cheap red diesel. The trouble with the cheap ones is they don't last long, they seem mostly made for short term back up, just running them a few hours a day kills them in no time. She's gone through dozens of different models over the last few years, she's now got a decent expensive model.... Job done.
I don't know the make she's using now but I'll ask her.

[xplosiv1]

Could i suggest a battery bank, or a converted ups battery bank as an alternative. Electricity is easier to store long term, and silent in use. Plus no noise or smoke to attract attention.
The main reason i avoided generators is they make you a target in times of blackout, even if its just a neighbor asking for some of your power.

Money wise you could buy a small solar panel, batteries, charger and inverter for the same price as a ok generator. I convert old UPS's, which include every conmponent but the panel to make solar set ups at a fraction of the cost of new systems.

Best thing about solar is that it is renewable and you can always find a little sun without moving, unlike fuel which you have to source at the same time everyone else is looking for the same thing.

batteries are not really the way forward for a quick home option, if you want any kind of decent power the battery bank starts to get pretty big (unless you have about £10K to £20k for a Lithium ion system.

The last UPS system I designed was two 500kVA 3ph 415V online systems (695A) with 12 hour autonomy each + 2x 1MVA backup gen set (weird client, wanted to run on battery instead of running the generator through the UPS which would have massively minimized the battery requirement and probably saved them £500K, they just wanted the generator in case they came close to the 12 autonomy which we risk assessed as once in 10,000 year chance.... anyway its their money)....... the battery bank took up the same footprint as an average house. obviously that would be over kill for any domestic purposes but even still a semi large battery bank in your house may invalidate your insurance as it would be a self build so not certified by anyone but yourself, some batteries under discharge vent hydrogen gas, which is an obvious fire hazard coupled with the heat gain from the UPS under discharge. (the two units above were putting out 30kW of heat each on full discharge load bank test) you could go with gel filled sealed batteries but there not cheap.

If your just looking to run a computer or a few lights then a small desktop UPS would be fine for 30 mins or so of power but not much use for anything else, for heavy duty appliances or long duration discharge then something a little more industrial is required.

Using solar as your charging method also limits the size of your UPS, maximum legal capacity of solar generation in the UK is 4kW from what I can remember so either you run down your batteries and recharge offline or decrease the size of your UPS in order to allow for the recharge current (online UPS), I wouldn't mind having solar or wind generator as a back up recharge method but it would be a lot quicker and more convenient recharging with a small generator, although if your located in a city or town not the best option in a long term blackout scenario.

personally I have generator connection hardwired to my consumer unit from my shed, I just hook up the generator when needed in the shed and lights, sockets, oven, fridge , freezer and most importantly heating all operational. I was thinking of building a phase failure detection circuit , auto changeover and generator auto start but it's overkill and I dont have the time right now, anyway best to keep these things simple as over complicating any system normally compounds any problems that arise