Question POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

[Scouse]

I've a power cut coming on Monday (9am-4pm) and my chicks *must* have heat or they'll die. I've a 12 watt heater in the brooder but no means of powering it.

I intend to get some electrical work done, including the ability to plug a generator in and run the house off (even more) horrible carbon emissions, but until then I need a solution.

Ideally I also need something robust enough to run my laptop for the duration so I can work.

Anyone with any experience here got ideas? I know fuck all about battery solutions.

 

[caLLous]

I had the wiring set up in my old place so that, in the event of a power cut, I could just plug the generator in (via 240v plug/socket) and flip a big switch to cross over to it. There was even a little light that lit up when power was coming in from the mains so I knew when to switch back.

As for battery solutions... 12w isn't much but for 7 hours plus a laptop (and other things that you haven't thought of but you'll inadvertently try to use during the outage) I don't think you'll find anything. You could just hire a generator for the day and plug whatever you need into it...

 

[Tom]

Buy/rent a Japanese portable generator and have a few litres of petrol set by. Easy.

 

[Raven]

What tom said, 600w should do you easy.

 

[Scouse]

I had the wiring set up in my old place so that, in the event of a power cut, I could just plug the generator in (via 240v plug/socket) and flip a big switch to cross over to it. There was even a little light that lit up when power was coming in from the mains so I knew when to switch back.

This is what I want tbh - but need an electrician to do this work (and a shitload of other stuff).

I think I need to buy a generator for this purpose anyway - I suspect a sensibly beefy one. But I need one that I can just string a few plugs off in the meantime - but don't want to have to buy twice.

Anyone got suggestions for a portable whole-house generator?

 

[Gray]

I'm sure some on here would volunteer to tar and feather you in the name of chick survivability?

 

[Hawkwind]

IMPAX IM1800IFG 2000W Inverter Frame Generator 240V - Screwfix

Order online at Screwfix.com. Frame generator with inverter module to ensure pure sine wave output meaning its safe for use with sensitive electronic equipment. Perfect for use on-site due to lower noise, high run-time and rugged design. FREE next day delivery available, free collection in 1 minute.

www.screwfix.com

Decent enough review and has the run time needed.

 

[Scouse]

Thanks @Hawkwind, but I've rented a gen for tomorrow and I've got an electrician coming out this week (hopefully) to quote on a load of stuff and one of them bits will be ensuring we've got a backup possibility.

I'm going to get enough of a gen to run the whole house. If we have a power outage at winter time we're going to have zero heating (we've a coal fire that runs a back boiler as our only source of heating but if we don't have electricity to run the pump then there's no method of forcing hot water into the radiators, and if we can't do that then the back boiler will overheat our cylinder, with possibly explosive results - so we can't even light a fire to keep warm).

Didn't want to do any of this work but we're a long way from building fixes. But we'll get there.

 

[Hawkwind]

Good luck! Hope it all goes to plan.