We will never be without power

[djrichie_t]

Ive heard of that one too, people just switch the mains off at the CU and it backfeeds through the ring main into the CU. I would not recommend it to anyone, having worked on the network side of things i know what can happen!

 

[kkynaston]

Worked at a rural petrol station once, we had a big ex-army genny. The boss was a tight fisted bu**er and used some old 1.5t+e and back fed into the ring main via a socket. Switch off the main at the CU and ran 6 pumps, freezers and kettle. Had to keep away from the melting link lead tho

 

[JohnD]

I understand you can convert a petrol engine to run on (mains) gas

Don't know if you could run a diesel generator on gas

would be more convenient than lugging cans of fuel around.

 

[Lectrician]

Many mobile phone transmitters run permenently on small gas generators - LPG cylinders or bulk tanks outside. Obviously because many of these transmitters are on the tops of hills in the middle of know where.

 

[JohnD]

are they commonly available? i don't think I've seen them on sale.

 

[djrichie_t]

You can get conversion kits to let you run a petrol genny on gas, only problem is that petrol generators are much less stable. I would always recommend diesel as these never rev up/down un-necessary.

Surge protectors and even some fitted avr's wont protect you from a petrol generator glitch as the volt change is still a sine wave, just with bigger amplitude!

Only problem with diesel is that they are heavier to move about but they do last for ages. And they run on used cooking oil (providing you filter it)

Theres loads of generators (gas powered kits) on ebay - but take my advice if its made in china DONT BUY IT!!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Hopefully this rod is permentantly installed, and permenantly connected to the earthing of the building, and not just connected when the gen is plugged in?

Well it's either that, or he's using a 3P c/o switch, with the supply earth going through one pole, and I really can't believe he'd have done that....