Re: My UN-automated Home :-(

["Mike Huggins" <mikeh@xxxxxxx>]

Came into this thread a bit late...

I run a UPS at home. I have to because of all the PCs (there's now 6 in a
19" rack, plus 2 others elsewhere). I have all the PCs UPS'ed up, plus
lighting in certain rooms, and of course the TV/DVD/VCR ! I can run for
about 8 hours.

Obviously in the event of a power cut I would turn off non essential items.
So I imagine we could probably run for about 24 hours total.

The setup is a APC 5000VA Matrix UPS with 2 x Extended Run Batteries (each
one contains 4 car batteries). I think cost was about £2000. What I'm
saying
is this probably a cheaper and better solution to a generator (for short
term power cuts)

This is all well and good but I don't think I'd be happy without Tea/kettle
!

The day I got the UPS the lec'y board were turning my power off as we are a
spur off a large industrial area. They lent me a 100kw generator (which
they
described as "a bit crap"). It worked well funnily enough, but I
can't
imagine that it would be worth a fortune...

Mike



----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark McCall" <mark@xxxxxxx>
To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 2:34 PM
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] My UN-automated Home :-(


We have an oil fired range in the kitchen so at least there's some heat in
there and you can cook/boil a kettle etc.  It also provides hot water.

M.


----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Griffiths
To: 'ukha_d@xxxxxxx'
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 11:49 AM
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] My UN-automated Home :-(


Apparently you can also toast bread on a burning fuel tank as well, it
works, but how many slices would you get to eat.



Mike Griffiths



-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Harris [mailto:phillip.harris1@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Wed 28 February 2001 11:41
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] My UN-automated Home :-(



Not that I'm recommending this as a course of action or even saying that
it's safe or legal but a friend of mine when I was at university lived in
an
area that was always suffering power cuts. They had several small UPS to
stop the heating dying on a power out and keep stuff like the VCR and
mains
powered clocks / lamps alive and which betwen then would give them enough
time to get the gennie up.

They had a little Honda which was rated at (about) 3Kw and they would
connect it to the mains supply of their house by a cable which had 13amp
mains plugs on both ends. To avoid powering outside the house then they
would pull the main fuses from the incoming mains to the distribution box.

It worked...

Phil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Keith Doxey [mailto:ukha.diyha@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 28 February 2001 11:31
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] My UN-automated Home :-(
>
>
> When Mark wired the house I believe he had a separate
> consumer unit for
> "essential" services wired via a changeover switch with a
> socket to plug the
> generator in. He  just neglected to get the gennie!!
>
> If anyone is considering fitting a generator, A CHANGEOVER SWITCH IS
> ESSENTIAL.
> You cannot simple connect the generator to your mains supply
> for a number of
> reasons.
>
> 1. Your self generated electricity will feed out of the house.
> At best - you will light up your neighbours houses.
> Slightly worse - your generator will be overloaded and
> possibly blow up.
> Worst Case - YOU WILL KILL THE ELECTRICITY BOARD ENGINEER WHO
> IS TRYING TO
> RESTORE POWER
>
> 2. There will be an enormous bang and lots of smoke from your
> generator when
> the mains is restored.
>
> PLEASE CONSULT A QUALIFIED ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR IF YOU WANT
> A GENERATOR
> HOOKUP.
>
> Sorry for the shouting but this is Life Threatening stuff and
> should not be
> taken lightly.
>
> Even BT dont try to run everything in a building despite
> having huge engine
> sets in the power rooms. Stuff like electric heating and cooking is
> disabled. Some of the lights are also not operational. If you
> have gas or
> oil central heating you only need a small amount of
> electricity to drive the
> boiler and pump etc.
>
> If you want to run EVERYTHING you are talking serious money
> in the 10K+
> range. Even Autostart does not come cheap as you not only
> have to start the
> generator, you also have to have contactor controlled changeover and
> restoration of power.
>
> Be safe
>
> Keith
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: andy.powell@xxxxxxx
> [mailto:andy.powell@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 28 February 2001 10:28
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] My UN-automated Home :-(
>
>
> Is that  his car or generator?? ;-)
>
> It really depends upon the size of the house and
> consequentially the load.A
>  n 'average' sized house with all it's 'stuff' going is
> probably going ton
>  eed about a a 20kw generator ...smaller houses can probably
> get away witha
>   8kw unit.....
>
> Like I said it depends upon how much electricity you are
> using - normal
> procedure would be that the installer would monitor your
> supply for a weeko
>  r so to get an average power figure, and of course peak requirement -
> i.e. everything is turned off, and then turned on again to
> see the peak
> requirement...
>
>
> If you use a genset (Generator and UPS) there should be no
> need for the
> surge supressor - if there is then the installation is
> faulty. The idea
> behind the genset is that there is *no* difference in the
> supply at all.
>
> If you are just running a generator then you could (as
> someone's already
> commented - seriously or not) just buy small UPS(s) for the
> PCs - which
> are more likely to notice any power fluctuations - it/they
> wouldn't have
> to be that expensive/big - just enough to keep the PC's
> running for a fewm
>  inutes while your generator got up to speed. You don't have to worry
> about the lighting on a ups if you don't want to  - but I'm thinking
> 'ideal'  situation here.. Personally I'd love to have a genset for my
> house (just to see the look on the nieghbours faces when they
> are in the
> dark and we're still watching TV ;-)  ) bu it can get into
> silly money...o
>  f course when I will the lottery and build my own place it will be a
> standard feature.... with a secondary fuel tank to keep it going for
> around a week... but then I've got more chance of
> spontaneously combustingt
>  han winning the lottery!
>
> A.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "Mark McCall" <mark@xxxxxxx>
> 28/02/2001 10:55
> Please respond to ukha_d
>
>
>         To:     <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
>         cc:
>         Subject:        Re: [ukha_d] My UN-automated Home :-(
>
> >Are you sure that a £350 generator is going to be able to
> supply enoughj
> > uice to you house??? or are you just thinking of emergency
lighting?
>
> My father-in-law has a Honda at that price.  A 2.2 or 2.3 Kv
> or something
> like that??
>
> It was running his lights, heating, fridge/freezer, even a microwave.
> That's all I need really (and one PC).  I presume running a PC off a
> generator I should use some sort of surge suppressor or something??
>
> M.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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