cheapest generator to keep the home fires burning...

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

You won't be saying that when you're hooked up to a heart/lung machine, boyo.

[Steve Firth]

No he'd be saying

[Dave Plowman (News)]

There were multiple reasons for the power failure at TVC in '64 - and even if it had had a standby generator, it wouldn't have managed to run everything. The power input to TC was of the order of 11 MegaWatt.

Different matter to provide a standby system for essential needs in a hospital, etc.

[charles]

Not at that time. Only about 3MW, then Once colour appeared, the lighting load suddenly trippled. There was an emergency generator, but commissioning date was a few weeks off.

However, there was only one real reason for the failure: the Grid substation at Iver, feeding the west London 33KV ring main failed. This threw the full load onto the switcboard at Battersea, which couldn't handle it and there was a catastrophic burn out. This meant that the TC reserve feeder also failed since it was fed directly from that board at Battersea.

[Andy Champ]

What does "live and neutral are the right way around" mean that isn't "neutral is close to earth potential"?

Andy

[Fred]

What's the grill like? I was thinking of buying one of these as a back-up for when the electricity fails (we have no mains gas) but I was talked out of it by reading all the reviews, which said the grill was useless. TIA

[Fred]

Does your boiler use red diesel or kerosene? It would be great if you could have one tank to supply the boiler and the generator but when I looked at new oil boilers, they all seemed to be kerosene.

BTW how do red diesel and kerosene compare in price per litre? In another thread it said that oil was 10kW/L. Is red diesel about the same?

May I ask why you have four pumps?

Thanks.

[Dave Liquorice]

Small, you can get two slices of bread on the pan but it does the job. I wouldn't be surprised if people are disappointed by the grill as they expect it to be the full width of the stove and it isn't, it's only about half the width.

Ours is looks to be discontinued now but is similar to the current Camping Chef model. Except ours has solid hinged sides and gas entry is at the rear left corner pointing to the left. I prefer it to a single burner above a bottle type stove as it's far more stable when actually cooking something rather than just boiling a kettle. Also being much lower it's easier to use when on a worktop.

We run it from a standard 7kg butane bottle (blue) you will probably have to buy a regulator/bottle connector, possibly a length of low pressure hose and a couple fo jubille clips. I know the regulator and clips weren't supplied not sure about the hose.

[Dave Liquorice]

Kerosene, most if not all modern boilers will be kerosene. It might be possible to change the jet to use red but you wouldn't want to. See below.

The local Spar currently has red advertised at 94p/l. The garage across the road sold me a drum of red (25l) for 90p/l in Dec 2011.

Red should always be 20 to 30p p/l higher than kerosene as it attracts something around 13p/l duty and you will almost certainly pay VAT at 20% as well (on top of the duty). Kerosene for domestic heating has no duty and VAT at 5%.

With kerosene at about 60p/l ex VAT ATM I'd expect red to be 60 + 13 duty + 15 VAT = 88p/l ish.

Diesel is slightly above 10kwHr/l, kerosene slightly below.

Solar thermal, wood burner (but will gravity circulate), central heating and oil boiler.

[Fred]

Thanks. I wouldn't mind if it was only half the width, as long as it works.

The reviews seems to suggest that corners have been cut and the newer camping chef ones are made of thinner metal.

I think that was another reason I never got around to it: having to buy the gas bottle and pay the deposit made the gas more expensive than the stove!

[Fred]

Perhaps it would be better to modify the generator to use kerosene?! Would that be possible?

That's getting on for twice the price of kerosene, which is another reason not to do it.

Ah, one for each system.

Thanks.

[Dave Liquorice]

It works, two slices at a time, I think it's reasonably even as well.

Well that wouldn't surpise me this one is quite solid but is 10 years or more old. Can only suggest you try and find one to look at in the flesh. I must admit the wire supports don't look very sturdy/stable to me.

Try freecycle/freegle for a gas bottle. Got a 1/2 full 15 kg one that way... B-) If/when it's empty you'll still have to buy the gas but at least you have avoided the deposit. I have heard that HWRC's sometimes have cylinders but getting one from there may or may not be easy depending on the staff. A stove/grill will use very little gas, so a small cylinder will last a very long time.

[Dave Liquorice]

I've not heard of it being done. Kerosene is some what more volatile than diesel, it will go BANG a lot easier. I suspect the compression in a normal diesel will be too high. Vague thoughts that a highish compression petrol engines can be persuaded to run on kerosene once warmed up on petrol and possibly the fuel warmed as well?

Where can you get kerosene for 45p/l?

[Frank Erskine]

The last time I bought paraffin it cost 2/- a gallon, from a machine in a petrol station.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Only if it's an old POS you don't really care about. Caterpillar (and various military) say you can do it, by adding oil to the kero, but they say it's only for certain limited run-time hours.