Generator advice needed - thinking of buying one for a small bungalow

[morqthana]

You could always just buy a shedload of 18650s or 21700s on AliExpress and DIY....

 

[SimonH2]

For those of us old enough to remember when surplus dealers had to do little printed booklets, I once recall seeing Bull Electrical offering submarine battery cells !
I know the spec (but can't say) and have sometimes thought that a few of those plus a devent charger & inverter would make an awesome UPS. Doubt if they could be sold on the civvie market these days.
But fork lifts use a smaller version so I suspect "used but functional" cells in the hundred AHr range rather than thousands will be available.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Using rebated fuels in vehicles and machines (Excise Notice 75)

Find out when you can use rebated diesel, biodiesel or kerosene in vehicles and other machinery.

www.gov.uk

2.4 Machines and appliances for heating and electricity​

Machines and appliances being used primarily to generate heat and electricity for premises that are not used for commercial purposes can use red diesel.

Trouble is, finding it, and finding it at a sensible price. I spent weeks in a determined effort to find a source, at a price I would expect to pay, for my new diesel heater. Many who used to stock it, have simply stopped bothering to stock it, because the cost margin is small. I found a local one in the next village, but the price difference between their red and the white from my village, made it not worth my while.

My diesel heater, which I use to heat my workshop - can use either type of diesel, kerosene, or heating oil. I tracked down heating oil, from a pump, but that wasn't much cheaper than white, despite it being 60p delivered in bulk, and even further away. My eventual, cheapest source of fuel, was a local aero club, which sold Jet A1, at 94p per litre. Heating oil, Jet A1, are all kerosene. Diesel heaters are suggested to burn even cleaner on kero, and this is also my findings..

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I once recall seeing Bull Electrical offering submarine battery cells !

Me too! The story of Bull's demise was quite an interesting read..

 

[ericmark]

Did it on the Falklands on a farm, an old bus was bought, the Bus became a green house, and the batteries Ni-iron were used for the house lighting, which was done with the bus fluorescent fittings. But still the same question as last post on this thread, what size inverter needed to start a freezer?

 

[SimonH2]

But still the same question as last post on this thread, what size inverter needed to start a freezer?

Ah, that's a piece of string question.

Go back a while and you'd need an oversized inverter to handle the startup current of the compressor - so perhaps a surge rating of 10x the running current. These days inverter drives are common and the startup requirements are less.

Then you need to look at the inverter. Some will crap out at the mere hint of overload. Others have a surge rating well above their steady state rating - specifically for starting difficult loads.

 

[SimonH2]

Me too! The story of Bull's demise was quite an interesting read..

So what was the story there ?
I think I was just into my teens when I recall looking at the lists from Bull and wondering what my pocket money might buy.

 

[ericmark]

These days inverter drives are common and the startup requirements are less.

My upright has an inverter drive, not seen it with chest freezers, and the upright uses around 180 watt for the defrost cycle, so needs around 200 watt inverter to supply it even when run is around 60 watt. And upright use around a 1/3 more to same size chest freezer. So if worried about power cuts would what a chest freezer, a chest freezer will last around 24 hours, but upright depends when the last de-frost cycle was, could be down to an hour if only just finished defrost cycle.

 

[JohnW2]

..... a chest freezer will last around 24 hours, but upright depends when the last de-frost cycle was, could be down to an hour if only just finished defrost cycle.

... which is presumably a good reason for not getting an upright freezer which has 'auto de-front'. After all, we managed without such a facility for decades, didn't we?

As always, the fact that something becomes technologically possible does not mean that it suddenly becomes 'necessary', nor necessarily even desirable.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

So what was the story there ?
I think I was just into my teens when I recall looking at the lists from Bull and wondering what my pocket money might buy.

They seem to be back - https://www.bullybeef.co.uk/ With a website just as bad to navigate, as it always was...

I cannot remember the exact details, and I cannot find the post which mentioned it, long ago, but...

I seem to remember, that the owner just walked away from the place, and left it, fully stocked. It was packed with rotting, unsold stock going all the way back to WWII.