no electric.

[Homesafe]

i'v just asked this on combustion chamber, but was told you chaps might have better ideas.
apparently the generator's produce squre waves which boiler's don't like .
well,here goes.

--RE;posted------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I heard somewhere in London there was no electricity throughout the night.

It got me thinking, if the unthinkable happened and we had a major blackout boiler's wouldn't work and we would be in the dark.

What would happen.

I started to thinking about generator's and connection's to the boiler. for a minimum supply so as to keep the boiler on.

would that work or is it a crazy thought?

Is it worthwhile putting in for a dragon's den bid?
__________________

 

[ericmark]

Modified sine wave

Modified Sine Wave

• ericmark
• 8 Dec 2009
• 3

is a problem for items using thyristor control however most switch mode systems turn the wave form into DC first and have no real problems. The peak voltage is lower than with a proper sine wave to get same RMS value so some equipment which uses just the peaks also has problems.

However these units are used in boats quite a lot and it seems Microwaves are only real problem with some not working.

Most engine driven generators have true sine wave although some still use the inverter technology to allow them to run at variable speed so saving fuel.

There are of course 12VDC systems these

Untitled

• ericmark
• 22 Sep 2009
• 3

run on 35sec gas oil or even petrol and work well but of course it does not help running fridge freezer the French semiconductor unit does work but only ever seen one with freezing capability back in 1980 used to keep snake bite serum originally but we used it to keep bacon in.

But so much depends on where you live my first house was always losing power so with second I made sure I had an independent heater which did not require electric. However in last 30 years I can still use fingers to count the power cuts of over 1/2 hour. About 2.

Most UPS units are sine wave and boiler should run fine on one but battery size is limited. I have a 150W inverter in car never thought of running boiler so it's fit the energy meter first and see what boiler uses I would expect under 150W although pump may take it over. But do you really want car batteries around?

 

[ColJack]

the future is CHP "boilers".. a boiler that uses the gas to run an engine of some kind to generate the electricity for the house, and uses the heat produced for heating and hot water..

 

[Spark123]

Bog standard alternators as found in small generators produce a sine wave as they are just basically a magnet (or electromagnet) spinning inside a coil, I suppose the generator being earth free (aka electrically separate) instead of an earth neutral could upset the boiler circuitry.

 

[TicklyT]

As the voltage generated in the secondary winding of a wire wound transformer is proportional to the rate of change of the primary current, if you feed ericmark's modified sine wave form into one, the output is more likely to look like this:-

Untitled

• TicklyT
• 12 Jan 2010
• 1

Even further removed from a sine wave.

....No great surprises that some kit would have problems working with it....

 

[NotHimAgain]

Not if you pass it through high and low pass filters first .

Mind you its probably cheaper to buy a 'proper' sinewave inverter in the first place.

http://www.thepowerstore.co.uk/sinewaveinvertersvolts.asp?Volt=12

 

[OilLecky]

Sorry, don't bother with The Dragon's Den. People in the sticks have been using generators for standby (and main!) power supplies for donkeys years.
The use of batteries, charged by either a mains battery charger or lately solar power and then changed back into ac by a sine wave inverter (either a rotary machine or solid state one are a little newer but probably have been in use, in the case of rotary machines, since before you were born. ( I'm guessing your age here.)
Lots of things are available.......just not fitted in the normal home!

 

[LiamPope]

I should imagine that in the major disaster/zombie outbreak that causes a prolonged electrical blackout in this country, your gas supply stopping wont be far behind . Better to stock up on fire wood, canned food and ammo.

Liam

 

[Homesafe]

I should imagine that in the major disaster/zombie outbreak that causes a prolonged electrical blackout in this country, your gas supply stopping wont be far behind . Better to stock up on fire wood, canned food and ammo.

Liam

I never thought of it like that, good point fella.

i liked the description

 

[ColJack]

this is where recycling comes in..

lash the generator to an exercise bike for power, and bottle and store "waste" for methane...

 

[Homesafe]

this is where recycling comes in..

lash the generator to an exercise bike for power, and bottle and store "waste" for methane...

And get the missus on it,colj. your a genius