That was me and somebody in an earlier thread pointed me at the regulations which allow up to 4 breaks of less than 4 hours per annum without compensation. Guess what - last year I had four breaks, each of about 3 to
3.5 hours.
I think at £10 per battery, capacity is roughly proportional to how much space one has spare.
And I've got a lot of barn free :-)
It's brand new but I only run it at a few degrees below zero. Have turned it down further for now but don't like doing this.
Yes. Somebody else mentioned this problem. I am beginning to think a large invertor and a couple of car batteries as suggested by Ian Stirling.
I don't think I'd want this coming on automatically, and the wiring would need major alterations. Original idea was for individual UPSes between the mains socket and key appliances but this idea doesn't seem practical apart from for the heating.
consequence
And the load keeps changing unlike the amplifier. But I've already sketched out what I think I'm going to build. Next stop the scrappy for some batteries.
Yes, but as these are from the "scrappie" won't they be shagged out anyway?. Now your asking them to supply around 100-300 odd watts to keep a freezer going?. Thats some 10 amps or so continuous load or thereabouts?....
Most people scrap the car, without removing the battery. So, many of these batteries are in fact fairly new.
I don't run the freezer off them.
It's used for critical devices - the server, sky digibox, TV, a few lights, ADSL modem, security cameras.
After about half an hour, I tend to start shedding load, and turning stuff off unless it's really needed, which might include the video if I was watching something, as the power cut is fairly likely to persist. Eventually, from about half battery, I've got about 20-40 hours of couple of lights+ internet (on the laptop).
If the fridge/freezer needs to be run, then the generator will get plugged in to charge the batteries at the same time, as the UPS isn't really up to starting the motors.
A car 'immersion heater' in a jamjar of water can make a usefull load to test batteries with.
Food will spoil fairly rapidly at this temperature. -5C and -20C are rather different.
My freezer has grown a couple of slabs of 4" insulation on each side, which does a fair bit for the insulation. (do make sure that you don't cover any heat exchange surfaces)
It may be fairly minor. If the lighting ring is adequate for the loads you want to use, and you are confident that your system is reliable enough to run 24*7. Doing it ideally is more complex.
I was going to use some of those gold coloured power resistors. Any idea what voltage drop at what current shows a car battery is or isn't worth using ?
Freezing some foods that deeply spoils them. I tend to try to keep food in there only for a week or so.
It's the top rated Electrolux integrated unit and as far as I can tell it's mostly insulation anyway. A little disappointed at how much less space there is inside compared with my last model.
Food safety wise a freezer should be below -16C. There is a reasonable probablity that some organisiums can still reproduce at warmer temps. We run ours at -24C.
No major changes to the wiring just a fail safe change over contactor in the meter tails and installation of a good local earth. The complex bit is the auto start/stop logic. You don't want the genney firing up for a 1s cut unless you have say 2 or 3 such outages in a couple of mins say. How ever if the outage lasts >30s the chances are the power has really gone so start up, then when it comes back how long to wait before switching back and stoping the genny...
The only things that we have here that really object to haveing the power removed without warning are the computers, they are on a UPS. Everything else can take outages without agro and essential things like cooking, light and heat have alternatives that don't require power. A generator is on the shopping list to run the freezers and CH system and maybe a few lights but that will (initially) be connected in with extension leads rather than a change over switch.
Lighting ring? Most houses don't have a lighting ring it's just a long spur looping in/out from each fitting.
Not so much "ideally" as safely. Once you connect a generator to any, normal, permenant wiring you need a fail safe change over method and a good local earth.
The colour isn't important but their wattage rating is...
Take a look through
I think it has to be more than that. Circuits like cooker, immersion heater, computers and so on would all need to be excluded from the generator feed. Essentially one would need two consumer units - backed up and not backed up.
Yes :-) Just gave the colour so that people would recognise them. The green ones cannot take such a high load and are slightly inductive.
Just what I was after. I'll wire this lot up into a small box with two leads. Just hope our local scappy doesn't mind a few sparks while I test what he's got.
I know, I was more meaning 'any low-power circuit', I don't do house electrics often enough.
You don't need a complex automated one though, with a UPS (the UPS ground must of course be earthed, and preferably have a RCD on the output), a socket for the generator output, and one for the mains will work, with plug being moved manually.
I've got a 500W green one.
Good luck. That's why I like the immersion heater, it's about the right rating, and very cheap.
Why? Pull to much for the gnerator and its protection trips. To avoid such "accidents" trip the MCBs or pull the fuses for the heavy loads. Computers are via a UPS anyway...
That would be nice but is not essential. Of course the maintained circuits would use "chinese" 13A plugs/sockets so that normal devices couldn't be plugged in.
Add a heftly rated switch so you don't run the risk of splating molten lead over yourself as you connect disconnect the load.
Just turning off the inverter first should work.
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