Generators? Anyone?

[Whealie]

Any experts here? At the Bikesafe day on Saturday and bike club next to me had a generator running and allowed me to pop the kettle on a brew up - very kind of them. I started thinking maybe I should get a generator. So a quick bit of research led to lost of confusing and confliciting facts. Here's what I think I know (and the known unknowns, as Donald Rumsfeld might have said).

To boil a kettle on its own the small generators won't do - need more than 1Kva
To boil a kettle and run a fridge and charge a few appliances I need at least 3Kva, possibly more.
To power a laptop and charge mobile phones I need a sine wave generator to smooth out the surges, otherwise the batteries will be damaged.
If it going to be running near me, I need it to be quiet.

That seems to make the generator options very expensive.

Anybody know anything about this at all?

 

[Lutin]

To power a laptop and charge mobile phones I need a sine wave generator to smooth out the surges, otherwise the batteries will be damaged.

This is complete rubbish. The batteries are charged by DC current, so it makes no odds what-so-ever what shape the waveform is - within reason, of course. The first thing any laptop charger does is to rectify the incoming mains to a high voltage DC supply which is then, by the power of black magic and witchcraft, tuned into the correct DC voltage that is required to charge your batteries.

Any decent generator will produce as close to a proper sinewave as possible if for no other reason than to reduce any transmitted noise.

The Honda "brief case" generators are real class - nice and quiet - but are probably the most expensive.

Not much help to you, I'm afraid.

 

[Boris]

for all intents and purposes treat 1KVA as the same thing as 1KW so if you can find a kettle rated at less that 1KW then that will be fine. The fridge and the laptop will be rated much less. Any half decent charger (re something made in the last years that isn't just a simple transformer) will auto select the input voltage and should regulate just fine.

 

[soho]

I was looking last year at a gen to power my 600watt speakers,mac and mixer. If I remember it was about £450 for a Honda giving the minimum power requirement, up to around £700 for a bit more power and less (Db) noise.

Honda EU10i Petrol Driven Generator ( gone up a bit now but I did shop around and found a couple of hundred difference in pricing at the time)

 

[Traveller]

My two penyworth. I have a couple of generators. One is a two stroke with 230v output of about 800 watts and a 12v 8.5 amp output! About £80 from CostCo. The other is a four stroke with 1.6 kva output, a bit noiser but a bigger fuel tank and probably more economical on fuel. It will power hand tools like a drill or saw no problem.
I have a set up that allows me to feed the central heating boiler gas valve and pump at home. That means in the event of a power cut we can still have heating.
There is enough capacity to run some low energy lights and a TV, you can charge and run a laptop easily.
The 1.6 kva fourstroke is a better device and there is no faffing with mixing the petrol and oil. There is spare capacity so its more a more stable output.

When it comes to kettles, they require a fair amount of power so in my opinion it would be better to use a gas stove or jet boil instead (lower total outlay as well). Otherwise you need a much bigger, heavier, more expensive unit.

 

[Dee Dub]

A couple of years ago my laptop battery got fried when running off a generator. I believe the problem was that OTHER items were cycling on and off, causing momentary dips and spikes. I guess it takes a moment fir voltage regulators to respond. Repeated spikes fried the battery after a few days.

Personally I'd recharge mobiles/smartphones from a solar charger. Self-contained and safe.

 

[Whealie]

Thanks for the replies. Scary stuff.

At events where I can pay for electricity I currently do and I then offer to charge mobile phones for free. There are lots of events where there is no mains electricity so I was thinking that a generator would enable me to still offer this service.

Me being able to boil a kettle was a bonus. At present we use a stove or boil up enough in the morning to make flasks of tea. But it sounds like the kettle boiling might bugger the output for everything else.

 

[Lutin]

Me being able to boil a kettle was a bonus. At present we use a stove or boil up enough in the morning to make flasks of tea. But it sounds like the kettle boiling might bugger the output for everything else.

It wouldn't be too much of a bother to disconnect everything else whilst you boil the kettle, would it?

Bit of a faff maybe, but it is one solution.

 

[Ian Porter]

And getting a low wattage kettle from a camping shop would help, takes longer to boil but what does that matter?

 

[Lutin]

And getting a low wattage kettle from a camping shop would help, takes longer to boil but what does that matter?

Can you buy patience at the same time?

 

[Ian Porter]

And getting a low wattage kettle from a camping shop would help, takes longer to boil but what does that matter?

Can you buy patience at the same time?

In Chris' case, probably not

 

[dodursley]

When I jumble I use gas to boil the kettle and heat food on a simple 2 ring camping set with a small gas bottle. For electrics I use a charged battery (out of my Harley) and recharge it with a solar panel.
Although your electrical requirements are much higher than mine the use of gas for heating would mean you could get by with a much smaller/cheaper generator.
You had a fruitful day at Bikesafe, you seemed busy when I passed your tent.

 

[Ysbytymike]

Bought this in error a while back (Looked smaller in the advert) doh.
Since bought a suitcase model, so this is brand new if anybody is looking for a new unit.
Its the type you see running burger stands, with the 10hr fuel tank.

 

[Ysbytymike]

My apologies if this should have gone in the for sale section. Was not planning on selling, just seem a waste of a brand new unit and it's possibly relevant to the enquiry.
Please feel free to move the image if its causing a problem.
Cheers

 

[Whealie]

I think I probably need the suitcase version too. But thanks

 

[Ysbytymike]

Would it help if I made the picture smaller???

 

[Traveller]

Would it help if I made the picture smaller???

Might help if you painted it with black and white stripes.