Generator back up anyone?

[Oscar300]

So after years spending my hard earned on my beloved plecs I decided it would be a good plan to have a back up. I have been told to many stories of people loosing fish due to outages so I needed a plan.


After working out the size I needed, 2.8kva whistle::wb, I set about ebay. After talking with my mates who are in the know Honda was the way forward. Took best part of a year to find a good one, local and cheap but I finaly won one @ an amazing £125 . Got it home last night and struck it up first thing this morning in -2c outside, started first pull:woohoo:

Just need to get back to work now so I can sort all the associated leads to get my tanks going, im proper chuffed:woohoo:

Older version of this one, same specs but a smaller tank, http://www.justgenerators.co.uk/pages/HondaECM2800.htm

 

[matubula]

Very safe and sound idea. Whats kva? Do you work out what size generator you need (watts wise) by adding up all the watts used by your stuff?

 

[macvsog23]

I just run a lead from next door LOL

No honest sounds a good idea

 

[thegeeman]

Very wise move Oscar. I am also thinking about back up power but edging towards inverters and hoping the outage doesnt last for more than a 3 or 4 hours.

Cheers

thegeeman

 

[Oscar300]

Yeah I figure it's a safe bet. Yeah Basicaly it's add up all your watts and it's a 1 for one to kva, Killervoltamps. So a 500w heater is 0.5kva. Easy peasy

 

[Irene0100]

I keep a small cheap Genny in the garden for emegencies.
It was about £50 from diy shop in sale, not as good as honda, but works, designed to power small caravan or similar.
it wont power all my tanks but will run several, so when we have a cut i have to swop the plugs every hour or so so they each get a turn. have only had to use twice in 2 years - but saved all the fish, so worth it.

 

[chinaman]

bought a generator couple of years ago, but didn't need to use it for the fish. However, there were couple of occasion where we had power cut while I was at work, luckly didn't loss any fish though.

I just realised if i had a power cut and its raining, i can't use it!!!! :wb:

 

[Oscar300]

Well bugger me, we had our first power cut in 6ish years on new years day a midnight! Theres me, not got the right plug for it so started to take it to bits so I could wire in an extension lead, popd up as I had been out 'socializing' lol.

Got it going and worked a treat though, was a 3.5hr cut and my tanks didnt misss a beat, I was a happy bunny ;-).

@ China man, Why cant you use it in the rain??



Why cant you use it in the rain?

 

[thegeeman]

Glad it worked for you Oscar:clap::clap:. I would cack my pants if we got a power cut even though I have back up


Cheers

thegeeman

 

[chinaman]

@ China man, Why cant you use it in the rain??



Why cant you use it in the rain?

Oscar300,

I haven't got any where to cover it outside. I don't think they are waterproof..

cheers

 

[Akraziatic]

Far out what a fluke Oscar300.

They should be waterproof. Whats the point of a generator if it's not waterproof? If it's not just set up a couple of sawhorses and a tarp and sit the generator on a couple of bits of timber to keep it out of the running water. Should be right unless it flouds. But with the UK's whether who'd know what will happen next. lol.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
The little 4 stroke Honda generators are much better than the 2 stroke type, but cost loads of money.
cheers Darrel

 

[Irene0100]

I keep mine outside under an old garden table with a tarmac over it.
so far this winter we have not had a bad power cut but many nearby places have!
so keeping fingers crossed in this bad winter!

 

[Oscar300]

Fingers crossed for you, im heading out today to fill my gerry can just in case, due -14c tonight!!!

 

[Irene0100]

yes its ice on overhead power lines that can bring the power down for a large area.
high winds tend to knock trees on local smaller supply lines too and most of our power is supplied from above ground here.
bad weather due tomorrow so lets hope all is ok.

 

[bre]

Good on you Oscar! Generators are always good to have on hand even if you don't need them.
Some of you may remember the big floods that went through the hunter valley/ central coast area 2.5 years ago. A fair whack of the area went without power for days some even up to 8 days before they had power back. We were lucky, we never lost power even for a minute, but the lfs where my husband worked at the time was out of power for 4 days. So our generator ended up out there to power the shop until the power went on then went out to my brother's house for another couple of days until his power was restored.
Since then it's been used numerous times by family when there have been power outages. It was definately one worth buying.

fingers crossed for all of you in the UK with the weather, and hopefully you wont need to use the generator.