Generators....

Quick. Buy fuel, buy fuel!
Good idea while the price is low, but one starts to wonder if a boiler needs an earth to work, then the boiler must be leaking to earth, I would be testing the boiler.

I have lived where only power was from local generators many times, from 3.5 KVA to 1500 kVA and in some cases running generators in parallel, and the main problem with freezers was in rush, I have actually run the shears sharpening disc to allow other motors to start, the rotating mass of the disc pumped power back in to system when motors tried to start.

The more motors that are running the easier to start the next, but today with inverters everywhere not sure what will run and what will not, I think my fridge/freezer and freezer could run on AC or DC with its inverter drive, the motor is three phase, even when supply is single phase, but suspect the wave form would be very odd with so many switch mode devices in the house, and type AC RCD's may not work.
 
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I have lived where only power was from local generators many times, from 3.5 KVA to 1500 kVA and in some cases running generators in parallel, and the main problem with freezers was in rush, I have actually run the shears sharpening disc to allow other motors to start, the rotating mass of the disc pumped power back in to system when motors tried to start.

The more motors that are running the easier to start the next,

We had a problem with big PA amplifiers not starting up on a generatordue to inrush. The others laughed when I borrowed a 9" angle grinder from a contractor...
 
Other than the auto changeover, no-one has mentioned how the OP will get power to "things".
I think we can all agree that a widowmaker is a bad idea - so that leaves :
Extension leads and plug things in as needed. Assuming the boiler is connected with an FCU, it'll need replacing with a plug & socket.
Or fit a changeover switch at the mains inlet. That's the most convenient option as it allows you to "carry on as normal" with conveniences such as lights available at the flick of a switch.
 
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In what context ?
For an average homeowner doing their own backup plan, 10kVA is going to be a bit overkill - a large, heavy, and expensive machine that's going to get little (if any) use. On the other hand, I know a few farmers who have something like 25kVA generators (especially the ones in the middle of nowhere with lots of overhead lines) - but they have the advantage of not needing to buy the engine part as they can drive it from a tractor.

Where I worked a good few years ago now, we went through a phase of having a lot of power cuts - being on the end of a very long string of overhead lines etc. Incidentally I noted that they tended to be of 3 distinct durations - a few seconds (auto-reclose), a few minutes (manual remote reclose), or 90 minutes. It was notable that we had several outages of 90 minutes - not 85 or 95, but 90. I speculated that the engineers were given a target time of 90 minutes, and having a relative in the industry knew that there was "some friction" between manglement and engineers over working practices - so suspected that even if thy were able to turn out, get to the substation, and reclose the breaker in (say) 80 minutes, they'd leave it till 90 minutes so as not to give manglement an excuse to demand 80 minutes next time. But I digress ...
Every time the lights went out, our manglement would ask "how much for a generator ?" - to which we (myself on the IT and tech services side, the maintenance manager from the production side) would ask "to run what ?" We never really got an answer to that, or to how they'd determine what were "critical" loads - the whole site had it's own 500kVA transformer, so they definitely didn't want to pay for a genny that size even though it would have been by far the easiest and simplest option to install - these days I'd be pushing for that, with paralleling capability, and earn some income for STOR :whistle: Needless to say, once the power was back on, manglement would forget about it. The maintenance manager got to the point of just keeping the last quote (for a small one, just to run key IT stuff) handy so he could just copy it and drop it on the directors desk each time he was asked :rolleyes:

At one point someone asked the DNO about a second feed form the village - quite literally we'd be in the dark but could see the lights on just 50m down the road. The quote was "significant" - but what killed it was the realisation that if we were off, the DNO engineers would only get round to coming and switching us over after they'd been to sort out the fault that took us (and a few other villages) off in the first place.
 
2 or 3KVA is usually plenty to keep a household running as long as they are not trying to have a shower just before Christmas dinner:cautious:
 
2 or 3KVA is usually plenty to keep a household running as long as they are not trying to have a shower just before Christmas dinner:cautious:
For 'survival', yes, but in terms of 'normal use', although the medium-/long-term average will probably be in that ballpark, the short-term peak load would undoubtedly often be greater than 3kW - after all, that would only take "a kettle plus something else" - and generators are generally not very sympathetic to high peak loads, even if short-lived.

I also doubt whether, in the situation I mentioned, a DNO would use one generator to supply only one household - they'd then need a lot of (noisy!) generators to supply a street of houses!

Kind Regards, John
 
And "premises" covers a lot of possibilities - as I mentioned earlier, we had a 500kVA transformer to ourselves at a previous job !
If it was an individual house, I'd more expect them to run a cable from next door - like they did maaaany years ago at a previous house when a phase went down in the street. Come to think about it, I vaguely recall reading about someone making purpose made assemblies complete with protection for doing just that.

As it happens, some friends had power cuts a week ago (Sunday before last) - the village is still being run from generators connected to the local substations.
 
As it happens, some friends had power cuts a week ago (Sunday before last) - the village is still being run from generators connected to the local substations.
... and I would imagine not "2 or 3 kVA" ones!

Kind Regards, John
 
I may well be wrong, but I took the context to be that of DNOs providing a temporary emergency supply to premises during a prolonged supply failure.

Kind Regards, John


This.
We have a few 6kva’s but found they don’t run a house with more than 1 thing running at a time so don’t take them out anymore. I only ever take a 10 or even a 30 for single premises.
Looping supplies is no longer allowed.
 
I've thought about a generator but instead have a calor gas fire and full cylinder in my loft. It will be a right ba*tard to get it down in the dark but we will have heat. Our camping stove will give is cooking and I suppose I could run a long cable from my car to the house to supply 12v to a small TV which lurks unused in a cupboard. I am only posting this to suggest there are many options for surviving a power cut.
 
Yes, there are many options.
BTW, storing a gas fire & cylinder in the house is not the best idea - just think what it'll do if there's a fire :eek:

BTW, one of the funniest stories I remember was from DNO engineer many years ago. We had a scheduled power cut while they did some tree trimming along the lines. This was as the site I've mentioned where we had our own 500kVA transformer. Said engineer had been sent to our substation to switchbus off and make sure we couldn't back feed the line. Had a good craic with him, and he showed me on his maps how our supply seemed to come via every small village in the peninsular.
But the story he told me ...
A while before that, he'd been involved with some work that involved a local town being switched to a couple of generators to allow works on the supply lines. A manager approached him, wearing hi-vis, but completely covered in black bits (smuts as some folk call 'em).
The container sized gennys has been running for a while under no load. Diesels run under no load run cold, and they build up oily crap in the cylinders. As they went under load, all this crap went out the exhaust ... just as the manager was passing :LOL: I suspect the victim wasn't too happy - it's really horrible stuff that sticks worse than the proverbial manure on a blanket :mad:
 
Other than the auto changeover, no-one has mentioned how the OP will get power to "things".
I think we can all agree that a widowmaker is a bad idea - so that leaves :
Extension leads and plug things in as needed. Assuming the boiler is connected with an FCU, it'll need replacing with a plug & socket.
Well, my plan was to run an extension lead into the house, fit a plug and socket for the boiler to run the boiler plus the odd lamp/tv from that. However, it’s summer now so I probably won’t think of it again now until autumn!
 
Well, my plan was to run an extension lead into the house, fit a plug and socket for the boiler to run the boiler plus the odd lamp/tv from that. However, it’s summer now so I probably won’t think of it again now until autumn!
That is what I used to do, power cuts during stormy weather was a regular occurrence here, have a cheap 750w 2 stroke generator and used to run a cable up to the boiler and a light in the kitchen.

Used to love the power cuts on a wild night, big open fire going, few candles, may be the radio on. just sit and watch the fire and drink beer.
 

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