Backup generators

Brentor

Brentor

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Anybody have/use one?

My knowledge of these items is very limited but it appears there are the old style ones and newer inverter ones, which are a must for not frying mobile phones and other such similar items. There are also battery packs which can be charged from the mains or solar panels, which we do not have. These are a lot more expensive.

My wife thinks we should have one given the warnings about power cuts due to predicted storms etc. I am not convinced as we haven’t had a power cut of any length for years, but what do I know.
 
Had one for 20+ years - after the local DNO managed to completely annihilate the feed in to the street on the day I returned to work from paternity leave. Was quite the brown trouser moment for the digger driver (the arc took a lump out of the shovel about the size of a dinner plate)

Took them 4 days to repair it - during which time ours was the only house with lights on at night.
 
I'll be interested in what anyone has for this, as we have regular cuts albeit usually brief; during winter we do usually have at least one that lasts between a few hours and a couple of days. It's because we are on the end of a spur overhead cable which only feeds our house, that runs across a couple of fields from the nearest transformer.
Our solar installation feeds batteries but they can only be used with a couple of associated dedicated sockets that keep a fridge g=freezer running, probably for a day or so if we've got full batteries. The solar can't really be used to feed the house if the grid goes down, without installing a secondary box of circuit breakers and a switch between them. I've been investigating a small windmill solution to supplement our system though, but it would likely not be cost effective without the extra circuit box too. For a once a year, maybe twice, convenience, not really worthwhile at this stage.
I do though have a chunky UPS unit to keep the router and modem running, which just cost a couple of hundred pounds, so that we maintain contact with the outside world. We keep lots of rechargeable batteries too, as we can recharge them off the solar batteries or the UPS in extremis for a while. Camping lamps and a camping stove are also handy, although we have Calor gas for the cooker hob and the gas fire in the living room.

In other words, there are many complementary solutions available.
 
I had a petrol inverter generator, but it was very noisy despite being called 'silent'. :rolleyes:

It was also smelly and heavy and you had to keep petrol to feed it.

I now have a Jackery Explorer and a couple of 200W solar panels. No noise, no smell and free to run. (y)

All my lights are LED, so hardly any energy usage. I have a gas camping stove for hot food.
 
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lindsay said:
I'll be interested in what anyone has for this, as we have regular cuts albeit usually brief; during winter we do usually have at least one that lasts between a few hours and a couple of days. It's because we are on the end of a spur overhead cable which only feeds our house, that runs across a couple of fields from the nearest transformer.
Our solar installation feeds batteries but they can only be used with a couple of associated dedicated sockets that keep a fridge g=freezer running, probably for a day or so if we've got full batteries. The solar can't really be used to feed the house if the grid goes down, without installing a secondary box of circuit breakers and a switch between them. I've been investigating a small windmill solution to supplement our system though, but it would likely not be cost effective without the extra circuit box too. For a once a year, maybe twice, convenience, not really worthwhile at this stage.
I do though have a chunky UPS unit to keep the router and modem running, which just cost a couple of hundred pounds, so that we maintain contact with the outside world. We keep lots of rechargeable batteries too, as we can recharge them off the solar batteries or the UPS in extremis for a while. Camping lamps and a camping stove are also handy, although we have Calor gas for the cooker hob and the gas fire in the living room.

In other words, there are many complementary solutions available.
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In a previous house, I used a 2.2kW Honda Petrol Generator with a long running tank (10 hours at full chat) - This was kept in the garage and pulled out when use was required. I had an external 32A plug (commando) on the outside of the garage to plug it into, and this fed directly back to a 3 way switch which was installed in teh house before the fuseboard.

The 3 way switch positions were - normal grid mains, off and generator - this is important as it stops you providing power back into teh grid which may cause harm to someone working on the network!!!

Generators by thier nature are quite surgey, so I had UPS's on all important electronics, my work computers and the family TV!!

We wuse to lose power regularly (remote location) and once for 4 days, the generator was invaluable. the long running tank would usually last about 15 hours, so I would top up in mornings and evenings.
 
Sky said:
I had a petrol inverter generator, but it was very noisy despite being called 'silent'. :rolleyes:

It was also smelly and heavy and you had to keep petrol to feed it.

I now have a Jackery Explorer and a couple of 200W solar panels. No noise, no smell and free to run. (y)

All my lights are LED, so hardly any energy usage. I have a gas camping stove for hot food.
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The Jackery’s look good and receive good reviews. Are you using Jackery solar panels?
 
No, they were more than double the price, so I got these ones plus a couple of adaptor cables.

I take it on road trips too - it works a treat. If I'm stopping for a while I take the solar panels, but mostly I'm driving a lot so I just plug it in to the car with this.
 
Brentor said:
The Jackery’s look good and receive good reviews. Are you using Jackery solar panels?
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You would probably be happy with a Jackery but the company are kind of like Bose, extremely good at self promotion. For long life and quality, better to go with Ecoflow if you can.
 
Steep said:
You would probably be happy with a Jackery but the company are kind of like Bose, extremely good at self promotion. For long life and quality, better to go with Ecoflow if you can.
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Do you have an Ecoflow?
 
I have an Anker c1000 and 600w of solar panels to form an off grid solution for my garage so could use this in a pinch but am looking at the Anker solar bank which has a 5kw battery (expandable) and more solar panels so I can hook it all up to the house.
 
Brentor said:
Do you have an Ecoflow?
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I have an Ecoflow Delta 2 (new model out now) a small one mainly for using out in the field to keep the laptop running. Also a smaller Anker one which is much the same as the Jackery in that they give the impression that they are more powerful than they actually are, which you don't find out properly until you have to rely on it.

Bought the Ecoflow as an Amazon return so it was a good bit cheaper than new. Suits my needs fine.
 
There are many other Chinese 'boxes' around which may save you a little money upon purchase. However, IME these sellers often just vanish and you're left with a broken unit if it fails.

After MUCH deliberation, I opted for the Jackery because of their good reputation, standing and after sales service. 'You pays your money . . . '

Oh! I've also been using Bose headphones for fifty years without issue.
 
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Never even considered it, I live fairly rurally and we do get power cuts but I just use the camping stove if I need to and if there is an outage of more than about 4 hours the electric company bring in generators.
 
Sky said:
There are many other Chinese 'boxes' around which may save you a little money upon purchase. However, IME these sellers often just vanish and you're left with a broken unit if it fails.

After MUCH deliberation, I opted for the Jackery because of their good reputation, standing and after sales service. 'You pays your money . . . '

Oh! I've also been using Bose headphones for fifty years without issue.
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Never said they weren't ok, just very good at self promotion and charging for the name. Many folk very happy with their purchases.
 
Interesting reading the comments on here. I've got a UPS on my router which is good for 4 hours & a calor gas camping stove but (& forgive me if this is a dumb question) would a Jackery or similar allow me to run a 1.2kw portable heater and a TV consuming about 100w for a decent period of time. I'm thinking worse case scenario in winter so at least one room could be kept light & warm etc.
 
PeteInDorset said:
Interesting reading the comments on here. I've got a UPS on my router which is good for 4 hours & a calor gas camping stove but (& forgive me if this is a dumb question) would a Jackery or similar allow me to run a 1.2kw portable heater and a TV consuming about 100w for a decent period of time. I'm thinking worse case scenario in winter so at least one room could be kept light & warm etc.
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Its the portable heater that would drain the Jackery, A bottled gas heater would give you the heat, and use a jackery for the light/low power requirements
 
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As a starting point, dividing the Wh rating of the storage by the W consumption of your appliance(s) will give you the time (hours) it will last. So a Jackery 2000 quotes 2042Wh, a 1200W heater will last roughly 1.7 hours. Other factors will affect (reduce!) this though - battery age, temperature etc.
 
From a search on the Jackery website:

Running a 1,000W–1,500W heater for 3–5 hours requires between 3,000Wh and 7,500Wh of energy. Here are our top recommendations:
• Jackery Explorer 3000 v2 Portable Power Station – Features a 3,072Wh capacity and 3,600W output, powering a 1,000W heater for up to 3 hours. Currently £1,499.00 (was £2,299.00).
• Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus Portable Power Station– Offers 3,000W output and expands from 2,042.8Wh up to 12kWh with add-on battery packs to easily support 5+ hours. Price: £1,999.00
 
Thank you for the replies. Once you start digging into it there's a lot to consider (I'd forgotten I've got a vivarium that would need keeping warm as well). As regards the Jackery, I'm not sure how much the solar panel would help on an overcast winter's day, but I'm guessing the 3000 would be the sensible option and rely on warm clothing rather than just keeping the heater on all the time. It's one of those things you might never need but you'll be really glad you have got one if the worst happens.
 
The Anker c2000 and additional backup battery can be had on sale for around £1500 and this will give 4kw of stored power which is decent enough for short periods. It can output 2400w max via the inverter with a surge of 3000w. The trick with solar panels is to over panel I.e more than you need so you get something on overcast days but using my setup as an example the battery will keep itself topped up when you don’t need it and be available for when you do. Assuming power outages are reasonably short then you should be ok.
 
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The Anker & Jackery brands look very similar in performance although there's a suggestion that Anker is perhaps better in the home whereas Jackery excels outside. At the end of the day there's probably not much to choose between them. Does anyone have real world experience of using both/either?
 
The important point is to first decide what you want it for, back up power while out camping for a day or two? then the smaller packs will be fine to run the phones lights maybe a hotplate for a few minutes.
If you want some real power to run a pc, charge devices, maybe cook for possibly days then go for the biggest strongest one you can afford.
Also read up on what to look for in the specs, many cheaper brands are less than honest in the claimed capacity.

 
Brentor said:
Anybody have/use one?

My knowledge of these items is very limited but it appears there are the old style ones and newer inverter ones, which are a must for not frying mobile phones and other such similar items. There are also battery packs which can be charged from the mains or solar panels, which we do not have. These are a lot more expensive.

My wife thinks we should have one given the warnings about power cuts due to predicted storms etc. I am not convinced as we haven’t had a power cut of any length for years, but what do I know.
Click to expand...

There's a proper installed solar and battery storage system with something like a 5kWh battery that should run your central heating for a couple of days along with low power devices, so that would be your heating taken care of and in the whole house (unless you don't have gas CH). It's a fairly expensive install just as a backup, but you would be getting savings all year round. It would also be integrated with your house electrics, so you could use any wall socket as normal.

A portable power station is obviously a far cheaper solution and unless you get it professionally connected to your mains then you will be restricted to using the sockets on just the unit (and extension cables). You'll have less capacity, although there's a 4kWh one at £1,600. It won't really address heating though.

If doable, a wood burning stove provides both heat and a hot surface for cooking, so that's two big power hungry things taken care of. It's only heat in one room initially and takes a while to spread, but it's long term heat, light and cooking if you have a decent wood pile. This would compliment a portable power station nicely and mean you could look at a smaller cheaper power station to offset the install cost of the woodburner.
 
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