Powering Static Caravans - Generators etc????

[Guest Guest]

Im looking into how to provide electricity to a static caravan. The caravan will be to live in so we'd need power for maybe a maximum of 20 continuous hours.

 

Do you have 2 generators. 1 for backup. Or do you alternate between them.

 

If a generator is rated at 4kw for example. If i am only drawing 2kw does it only run at half tilt, therefore your petrol will last trice as long give or take?

 

What about equipment like computers and TVs, are they ok to run off a generator?

 

How much petrol do they normally drink per hour?

 

 

Any gen at all? I have really no idea what the done way is, what options there are, what considerations?

[Martin]

There was a big (well, a full page) article in last week's Daily Mail about generators (from a couple of hundred quid to over 16K!

 

Have a browse of Just Generators (one of the links in the article) for some info (and prices).

 

If you are powering Pooters, you really need one with "inverter technology" to smooth out the lecky (i do like the look of the Honda EU10i and EU20i - and you can run them in parallel to give you some backup/redundancy).

 

mb

[Andrew_C]

If a generator is rated at 4kw for example. If i am only drawing 2kw does it only run at half tilt, therefore your petrol will last trice as long give or take?

Unfortunately no. I've been working with a friend on a problem, and eventually, after much head-scratching we tied it down to just this thinking. He needed to charge batteries in a roadside enclosure, and the generator was running out of fuel long before the battery was charged even though the load was only a few amps on a 4.5kW genni.

 

There is possibly some reduction in juice use, but the engine seems to run at a fixed speed, unless very heavily loaded.

[Martin]

It all depends on the Genny - from the link above the Honda Portable Silent Generator EU20i says:

 

And although the EU20i has enough capacity to power a microwave oven or several appliances simultaneously, its unique Eco Throttle means the EU20 is frugal too.

 

At the flick of a switch this feature only runs the engine as fast as the load demands, enabling the EU20i to run for over ten hours on a single tank of fuel ( @ 1/4 load , with minimal noise and fuel cost and maximum engine life.

 

...but you get what you pay for, as the EU20i is several hundred quid

 

mb

[p858snake]

Is there any power on the site? because most caravans can be pluged into a power point to power them.