What Generator?

[les]

I'm looking into generators and don't know a lot about them, can anyone give me some guidance on what spec to look for please, and any other things I might need it to feature. If I do get one it will be used to supply 250v for general equipment at a garage that, at this time, has no power available. I want one as quiet as possible. Honda eu10i looks a nice unit, quite expensive but guess that's to be expected it's rated at 900watts output, with noise levels at 52dB at 7 mtrs. Is this the sort of thing that would be satisfactory? Thanks.

[bmcecosse]

That's quite noisy - but I guess you can sit it 'round the corner' . What do you expect the genny to do? At 900 I doubt it would run a Mig Welder - but it will provide light galore - and recharge electric drills -= that sort of thing.. Not sure if it would run an angle grinder...and certainly not a compressor.

[les]

Oh that's not good news then, presume I need more wattage?

[SUE482]

Look at this way, for 240 volts, a good MIG requires a 20 amp socket so that's 4.8kw and if your compressor has a 3hp motor then that's 2.2kw, and that ignores the start up surge which could be many times more than that. As you can see 900 watts doesn't go anywhere, except as bmc says for lighting and charging your drills.

[alexmcguffie]

900w will keep you out of the dark when we start having black-outs in the winter. Honda generators are very good (I know!) but very expensive. Having a quick look at Machine Mart you could get something with much more grunt for half the price. For your needs, I would have thought 13 - 16A would be sensible (3 - 3.6kva)

Also the UK voltage rating is now 230v not 240v or 250v.

[les]

Thanks for that guide Alex, and yes I did notice that 230v was in the specification.

[bmcecosse]

Aldi quite often sell 'good deal' gennies... worth keeping an eye open.

[les]

Yes, thanks Roy, I need to check those places out.

[Trickydicky]

Les,

Dont forget to factor in enough capacity to boil a kettle for the all important tea breaks

[SUE482]

Oh dear, when you've been an electrical engineer as long as I have, you use 240 volt and HP and KVA and miles and inches and lbs and all the others because they have always been like that. For those who wish to know the supply voltage in the UK is 230 V +10% -6%, i.e. 253 volts to 216.2 volts, so it could be 220, 230, 240 or 250, so that these is no misunderstanding.