Back-up generator

[mlynnf50]

Generator/Solar Panels

Hello All
Thanks for your help re. generators/solar, I price the solar panels and invertor and the cost to run what we wanted would be £1500, the genny would be £800 and will be del. to France for us as well, this is a Kipor genny, so sorry to all the green people I think it will have to be a genny, I know you are all going to say I have to buy petrol but I dont think I will use £700 on fuel!! Just hope I am doing the right thing, any more advice would be appreciated, should I change the light bulbs to low wattage? and anything else anyone can suggest would be great.
Thanks again for all your advice.

 

[Trevor]

Hello All
Thanks for your help re. generators/solar, I price the solar panels and invertor and the cost to run what we wanted would be £1500, the genny would be £800 and will be del. to France for us as well, this is a Kipor genny, so sorry to all the green people I think it will have to be a genny, I know you are all going to say I have to buy petrol but I dont think I will use £700 on fuel!! Just hope I am doing the right thing, any more advice would be appreciated,

should I change the light bulbs to low wattage?

Why do that if you have a genny i dont see the point

 

[shortcircuit]

I have carried a £60, 750W generator for some time now and used it on odd occassions. We follow Karting and this weekend were down at Rowrah in Cumbria, where there are no hook-ups. A fault developed between the leisure batteries and the charger unit resulting in low voltage with heating not working. As the generator fed straight into the charger unit we were able to have heating supported by the generator. Solar power would not have been able to overcome this problem.

Hopefully I have resolved the connection problem, however I will not be without my generator in the future.

As previously stated, I let the generator settle down before connecting and have a surge protector at the generator.

 

[tresrikay]

I have carried a £60, 750W generator for some time now and used it on odd occassions. We follow Karting and this weekend were down at Rowrah in Cumbria, where there are no hook-ups. A fault developed between the leisure batteries and the charger unit resulting in low voltage with heating not working. As the generator fed straight into the charger unit we were able to have heating supported by the generator. Solar power would not have been able to overcome this problem.

Hopefully I have resolved the connection problem, however I will not be without my generator in the future.

As previously stated, I let the generator settle down before connecting and have a surge protector at the generator.

You usually need heating when snug late at night, I would not be too happy if my nieghbour started using a 2 stroke genny next to me during evening hours. However Genny's are a boon to people like yourself at a meet of ( well lets face it after listening to karting all day , your ears will be a little on the numb side) like minded enthusiasts.

 

[JOHN WEST]

hi all/ i think u will need a good surge protector,my 800w genny,was going from 220vlt to 270 vlts, and the amps which do the damage were just as bad,it was a cheepy and never run that well, there designed for power tools, not heating and micro waves and teles and electronics

 

[Nosha]

Has anyone actually suffered a flat leisure battery?? We've just got back from 3 day Bank hol' weekend - typical bank hol 1 day sun & 2 days wet!! So after 15hrs of TV, 10 hrs radio and about 5hrs of blown air heating the engine battery was 100% (radio) and the leisure battery was 70% (lights,TV,Heating) then we came home - no prob's.

I think Trotsky Rick is right, if after another couple of days you still don't need to drive to the shops/pub/garage/ etc then simply run the engine for a while and charge both batteries - simple! And the £60+ you'll be paying for a genny will buy a lot of diesel even at todays rip-off prices!!

He's right, buy a genny and fall out with your neighbours... if you still have any!!!

 

[borerider]

OH,I'd hate to be parked nexed to tresrikay i bet he'd moan if my dog barked,I'v solar panels they work good WHEN the sun is out not so good in the rain, so thats why i carry a genorator to charge my bats up when it rains, as to running engin for 2or3 hours on tick over, you just soot it up and stink every one close to you out , every one to there own Bob

 

[messenger 2.5td]

backup generator

hi new member to the site,been following this thread for a while considered buying a second lesuire battery all ready had a small 2 stroke generator a 650 watt model but not really up to the job so after reading some of the replies decided to buy a kipor digital model ig2000.used it for the first time this weekend been up to dumfries and galloway area for 3 days a very quiet generator compared to the 2 stroke and no mixing oil and petrol,generator ran on full tank for 7 hours before running out.tank capacity 3.5l so all in all very happy with it.cheers andy.

 

[marrwyck]

Hi everyone.
We have a Kipor 3000w genny & we only use it if required & if no ones around or if nobody else minds us running it for a few hours during the day. We always ask others parked near us if they mind us using it.

As we are going off on a tour & will mainly wild camp the genny seems the ideal way for us. Solar panels didn't seem to get too many votes & if someone was in trouble we could charge their van, get their engine battery charged & run our van at the same time, lol

 

[wildman]

hi new member to the site,been following this thread for a while considered buying a second lesuire battery all ready had a small 2 stroke generator a 650 watt model but not really up to the job so after reading some of the replies decided to buy a kipor digital model ig2000.used it for the first time this weekend been up to dumfries and galloway area for 3 days a very quiet generator compared to the 2 stroke and no mixing oil and petrol,generator ran on full tank for 7 hours before running out.tank capacity 3.5l so all in all very happy with it.cheers andy.

Welcome to the site, a genny is usefull if you get stuck, but then thats what recovery services are for, I guess I've been lucky with two 110amp/hr batts plus a seperate 85amp/hr all of which are kept topped up by solar panels. Not had a problem yet even running TV 5hrs a day . We do however move every day even is only a few miles. Now a solar still to keep the water topped up and we are all set. Winter project this year will be a wind generator so that I can use my 100W radio transmitter next year.

 

[shortcircuit]

Are recovery services going to attend due to a leisure battery being flat?

As indicated in my previous posting, I had a problem between leisure battery and charger and in respect of solar power, the sun don't shine at night.

There is a place for a generator