September 22, 20215 yr Morning (middle of the night), I need to move onto site with the family as our place is sold. U.K. power are taking forever to get us connected- has anybody ran their van for a couple of months by generator?
September 22, 20215 yr How much power do you need? Typically a static caravan will have a gas fire, a gas water heater and a gas cooker. So your electricity usage in the short term will be pretty low. I would be looking at a few rechargable LED camping lights and then run the generator for only a couple of hours at a time condensing all your "needs electricity" activity into one time slot.
September 22, 20215 yr I bought a genny for my site but was lucky that it was connected to the grid “in time”. My plan was gas heating/water as @ProDave says above and charging a large caravan 12volt battery by genny for a while then 12volt lights etc the rest of the time. Most towable caravans have a 12volt cct fir when on a non power site.
September 22, 20215 yr Author Morning, it’s a static so probably tv, lighting that sort of thing nothing major- the heat, water and cooking is gas. Complicated by needing to run the Graf sewage plant as well. I’m thinking probably a silent diesel one from the hire company?
September 22, 20215 yr Re the Graff. I would probably buy a free standing caravan porta poti and use that with the appropriate chemicals and take it to a public toilet to empty it until you get power. The cost and noise of running a generator 24/7 would drive me insane.
September 22, 20215 yr Do you have a friendly neighbour that you can run an extension cable from, make it worth their while and give them a few quid, generators are a last resort.
September 22, 20215 yr On the friendly neighbour front, our electrician has offered to put a meter on for us if we need to tap into neighbour's supply. Haven't asked them yet though. Farmer neighbour has offered us a silent generator too.
September 22, 20215 yr 13 hours ago, ProDave said: How much power do you need? Typically a static caravan will have a gas fire, a gas water heater and a gas cooker. So your electricity usage in the short term will be pretty low. I would be looking at a few rechargable LED camping lights and then run the generator for only a couple of hours at a time condensing all your "needs electricity" activity into one time slot. Laundry needs a mention in this discussion. I physically burnt out a 13amp plug that supplied the shed housing a washing machine and tumble dryer. Edited September 22, 20215 yr by epsilonGreedy Meant to say 13amp plug that had a 16amp draw at times.
September 22, 20215 yr 6 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said: Laundry needs a mention in this discussion. I physically burnt out a 16amp plug that supplied the shed housing a washing machine and tumble dryer. Yep, never run both together off such an arrangement.
September 22, 20215 yr Doh this was meant to be an edit to my previous post. Where is the delete button? Edited September 22, 20215 yr by epsilonGreedy
September 23, 20215 yr Author 22 hours ago, Roys said: Do you have a friendly neighbour that you can run an extension cable from, make it worth their while and give them a few quid, generators are a last resort. i haven’t met them yet- but oddly, I’m not getting that ‘neighbourly vibe’. Could be wrong!
September 23, 20215 yr I would buy an inverter generator, generally quoted and better AC output and couple that with Pro Dave’s suggestion of gas fire, water heater etc.
September 23, 20215 yr 3 hours ago, DragsterDriver said: - but oddly, I’m not getting that ‘neighbourly vibe’. Could be wrong! Welcome to the countryside, nothing odd about it ? Relocating a family to a static without mains power just as winter approaches will be very stressful, be prepared to rig up outside lighting and lay down temporary gravel paths. Many find an extra home built porch helps. Offer the neighbour a no nonsense metered hook-up with a large margin of +£0.10 per kwh and you will be better off then spending money on your own offgrid generator/battery/low voltage setup. How long before the house is finished? Edited September 23, 20215 yr by epsilonGreedy
September 23, 20215 yr If running off the neighbours supply, beware that this will need to be a significant size cable ( 6mm2 minimum ) fed off a 32a supply, so not just a case of running a B&Q extension lead as it just will not have the capacity to deal with laundry after voltage drop. The circuit would need to be able to cope with what is onm it already, plus whatever you draw. If they have an external meter and there are Henley blocks there, and you get on with them like bests-of-mates-ever, then chopping in a temporary 2 way CU and a landlord meter, then running 2 cables between to share the loads, would realistically be your only robust option there I'm afraid. Plus, if you plug into the neighbours with a 13a plug from an extension lead you'll deffo need to put a 10a fuse in it to be sure you do not set fire to the neighbours house!! Just hire a silent genny, if it's only for a couple of months, and be self sufficient ( also without the risk of pissing the neighbours off ) Requests for...."can you reset your trip-switch AGAIN please......" ever other day never goes down well.
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