- Joined
- 27 Jan 2008
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- 24,924
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- Location
- Llanfair Caereinion, Nr Welshpool
- Country
In the main the concern is when some thing de-frosts and you are unaware this has happened as the power has returned and all has frozen again.
But as you say in the main we can go for quite some time without power, the first problem is normally heating, as even a gas or oil boiler needs electric to run.
In the winter of discontent we has hot air gas heating, so our concern was how to heat the house, two options, a generator to power the central heating, or a flue-less gas fire, we went for the latter, it was very small, but enough to take chill off main room.
After that, when we moved house we wanted some non electric form of heating, last house has a flue brick and a gas fire, this house an open grate, it has a board coving it, which normally connects the AC vent in summer to it, and can be removed in an emergency, as yet never lit a fire in the grate, I do have a small stock of wood.
But as found when the high winds took out the EE mast and my Nest Gen 3 thermostat thought I was not home so turned off the central heating, it was some 8 hours before we realised we had a problem, homes don't cool that fast.
So in the main the emergency is when power is lost for 24 hours or more, which is rare, I have just been on holiday for 4 days to Blackpool in a rented caravan, which for 3 of us was under £70, clearly not so easy when one is not retired, but for the odd time when you do loose power for an extended time, it seems it does not cost as much as one thinks to move into a mobile home, B&B, etc.
So to spend even £500 on an emergency power supply when not lost power once in last 3 years (total time I have lived in this house) when the roads in out of the town have never been impassable, seems about the limit one would want to spend as insurance alone.
If however it has a secondary use, a small generator used when we have BBQ's or go camping, would maybe make some sense, since we don't have many out door events, maybe better idea to running a SWA supply to bottom of garden?
So between £300 - £500 I can get an inverter generator, only alteration I would need to do to the house is turn the FCU for the central heating into a plug and socket. My 150 watt inverter with a 12 volt 12 Ah battery will keep us with enough light, OK it may mean extension leads out of cat flap, and no internet or TV.
But looking at a rare occurrence. It was 1978 the last time I had problems with electric power, not as if it happens often, and as said then
But as you say in the main we can go for quite some time without power, the first problem is normally heating, as even a gas or oil boiler needs electric to run.
In the winter of discontent we has hot air gas heating, so our concern was how to heat the house, two options, a generator to power the central heating, or a flue-less gas fire, we went for the latter, it was very small, but enough to take chill off main room.
After that, when we moved house we wanted some non electric form of heating, last house has a flue brick and a gas fire, this house an open grate, it has a board coving it, which normally connects the AC vent in summer to it, and can be removed in an emergency, as yet never lit a fire in the grate, I do have a small stock of wood.
But as found when the high winds took out the EE mast and my Nest Gen 3 thermostat thought I was not home so turned off the central heating, it was some 8 hours before we realised we had a problem, homes don't cool that fast.
So in the main the emergency is when power is lost for 24 hours or more, which is rare, I have just been on holiday for 4 days to Blackpool in a rented caravan, which for 3 of us was under £70, clearly not so easy when one is not retired, but for the odd time when you do loose power for an extended time, it seems it does not cost as much as one thinks to move into a mobile home, B&B, etc.
So to spend even £500 on an emergency power supply when not lost power once in last 3 years (total time I have lived in this house) when the roads in out of the town have never been impassable, seems about the limit one would want to spend as insurance alone.
If however it has a secondary use, a small generator used when we have BBQ's or go camping, would maybe make some sense, since we don't have many out door events, maybe better idea to running a SWA supply to bottom of garden?
So between £300 - £500 I can get an inverter generator, only alteration I would need to do to the house is turn the FCU for the central heating into a plug and socket. My 150 watt inverter with a 12 volt 12 Ah battery will keep us with enough light, OK it may mean extension leads out of cat flap, and no internet or TV.
But looking at a rare occurrence. It was 1978 the last time I had problems with electric power, not as if it happens often, and as said then
