CotswoldDoItUpper Posted December 11, 2022 Share Posted December 11, 2022 Hello clever people, We have a large supply of LPG and a relatively inconsistent mains power supply. lightbulb moment - get an LPG generator to keep the lights/heating going when the power dies go down. Any recommendations to size/brand or how to calculate efficiency etc? Thinking about spending £500-800ish. Is this way under what’s needed budget wise? Can it easily enough be wired into the house circuit? We’ll be having a new ‘fuse board’ (or whatever they’re called) so hopefully this can be done at the same time? thanks for any tips or tricks!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted December 11, 2022 Share Posted December 11, 2022 So you will be looking at essentially a petrol generator with an LPG conversion. You will need a proper generator changeover switch, not difficult. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 9 hours ago, CotswoldDoItUpper said: Thinking about spending £500-800ish I would think again, maybe add another 0 on, unless you want something very noisy and unreliable, or very small, like a not enough to run a kettle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markc Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 +1 a cheap generator will be noisy and likely to play havoc with any tech you have in your home. a decent silenced stable output gen is definitely £5K+ and add another £1k for the lpg version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 11 hours ago, CotswoldDoItUpper said: get an LPG generator to keep the lights/heating going when the power dies go down. A while ago I was thinking about an LPG generator, for heating and lighting only, for when we have power cuts. Honda make small dual fuel generators that would be suitable. I was going to have a seperate circuit just for the heating. https://www.geargb.co.uk/search/LPG-Dual-Fuel-Generator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMo Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 Trouble with small you can't put the kettle on. We got one of these for £800 (now £1000) P1PE 7.9kW / 9.8kVA* Recoil and Electric Start Site Petrol Generator (Powered by Hyundai). One these to switch mains over to generator £38. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/r.html?C=2X8R0PK3LTH9J&K=34MIE1U6GOBVK&M=urn:rtn:msg:20220215092805432dc27e9784454aaa817bf54550p0eu&R=3L1EKYM8H7V8M&T=C&U=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2Fdp%2FB079Y3PJN8%2Fref%3Dpe_27063361_487055811_TE_3p_dp_1&H=F0W7TJ2VHJTNC41TRU0YCSGUQ4SA&ref_=pe_27063361_487055811_TE_3p_dp_1 You would just need an LPG conversation kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 (edited) 16 minutes ago, JohnMo said: You would just need an LPG conversation kit. Not always as simple as that. LPG (and combustion bi products) is very corrosive. So care has to be taken with choice of which motor, induction and exhaust, is used. Edited December 12, 2022 by SteamyTea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 13 hours ago, CotswoldDoItUpper said: We have a large supply of LPG and a relatively inconsistent mains power supply. So what is your heating? LPG? If so you will only need a generator to run that and some lighting etc I guess. If your heating is electric then £££££. You need to calculate what you want powered and the kW you need during power outages and get your fuse board wired so only “required during power outage” is connected to the genny via change over devise. I did consider it for my build to run lighting only but never got round to it (and frankly our supply is pretty good). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CotswoldDoItUpper Posted December 12, 2022 Author Share Posted December 12, 2022 (edited) @joe90 yup, heating LPG. So enough power for the boiler (guess 110w) UFH pump (60w). Plus a few lights totalling 150w max I guess. If we could also run Wi-Fi (6w per node, 30w total) and a TV (350w) that’d be awesome but only a nice to have. On that note, does fibre to the property work in power cuts? We have a 4G backup dongle just in case, but be good to know! Does a total of 700w sound about right or have I missed something major?!? Seems a little low to me…? *apologies if I’ve got my units wrong. Not sure if it should be w or W! Edited December 12, 2022 by CotswoldDoItUpper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 47 minutes ago, CotswoldDoItUpper said: have I missed something major Do you cook on LPG? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CotswoldDoItUpper Posted December 12, 2022 Author Share Posted December 12, 2022 2 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: Do you cook on LPG? No, but for a 3-5hr power cut the aga holds enough heat. Longer and we fire up the bbq or get a takeaway!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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