Theres alot of cheap genny bashing going on but I have a cheap gen with a Lifan honda-copy motor. I have other equipment running honda copy motors - none of it ever gives me trouble. Cost me c. £200 and while its not quiet, it ran 9 days solid not missing a beat after Arwen running what seemed like my whole house by the end. Yes I have the room to park it away from house & neighbours, but that £200 gen was all I needed to stop an annoyance turning into an epic PITA. A few weeks later when desmond(?) rolled in I was ok but some friends lost power so it did another 4 day shift there too.
Im planning on getting a wind turbine with a backup perma-genny so I can get away from crazy pricing and be a bit more self sufficient!
"Yes there are issues with stale fuel and servicing but I’m sure I can cope."
If leaving it unused, but needing it ready to go, use Aspen fuel (alkylate petrol - see aspenfuel.co.uk). It doesn't go off, and is environmentally cleaner too. It's expensive compared to petrol, but you only need to keep some in the tank to start it, you can top up with petrol if you're running for a while.
I second what benpinnick says about Honda-copy gensets; I've had one for years, it's never given any trouble. We have fewer powercuts now than ten years ago, but they still happen. I've extended the exhaust through a water bath, cools and quietens it. Runs inside the garage, exhausts outside.
Generators need loading up otherwise you get glazed bores/knackered engines
I thought bore glazing was only an issue on diesels?
^ no it's any ICE - I can't remember the terminology for it but it occurs when a piston is under light loads the piston rings don't scrape the oil from the bore honing/hatching which then glazes over and doesn't allow to oio to be retained in the honing. The piston rings then prematurely wear.
What size inverter could a car run with the engine on and not discharge/destroy the battery?
I can’t remember the terminology for it but it occurs when a piston is under light loads the piston rings don’t scrape the oil from the bore honing/hatching which then glazes over and doesn’t allow to oio to be retained in the honing.
AFAIA the problem usually develops when the engine is new.
The hatching is there to create friction with the piston rings during the engines first 'few' hours - this friction beds the rings in properly resulting in a good gas/oil seal.
If a new engine is run continuously at low revs the rings don't bed properly resulting in higher oil use.
There is still an issue with new Yamaha outboard engines. Proud owners would treat their [very expensive] new engines with kid gloves and not run them hard - this resulted in the rings not bedding in properly and unburnt fuel making its way past the rings and into the oil thus diluting it - it's called 'making oil' because the oil level in the sump actually rises due to the addition of the fuel.
Yamaha never acknowledged this issue and didn't modify their break-in instructions. The only possible solution to this is to take your boat out and run it at max revs as much as possible, but sometimes the rings have hardened and the damage is done with no going back.
Does anyone do this?
I do (sort of). I have solar and 5kWh of battery storage. The inverter will drop offline when the grid disconnects but can drive up to 6kW through an emergency power supply connector. Mine just goes through a garage consumer unit and out via RCBOs to a couple of sockets and independent lighting circuit, put in by the installers.
If there’s a big power cut then I’ll just unplug the freezer etc and plug it into the socket along with the broadband router and a USB charger. The earthing arrangement means that anything in that socket is isolated electrically from the rest of the house anyway.
Personally I don’t think it’s worth trying to protect the entire house given that long power cuts are pretty rare and you’ll want to preserve the batteries as much as possible. The inverter wastes close to 100W by itself.
