Increased utility bills

[British Red]

However, I have dusted down my WTSHTF plan

The power outages this year made me realise my water resourcing is not good enough - we're on a borehole and my small generator (inverter type) won't drive my water pump. I have a new generator arriving tomorrow.

Good plan, are you happy to share what model you went with

 

[Broch]

Good plan, are you happy to share what model you went with

Head took over heart I was tempted to buy a 1,500 RPM back up gen but when I really did the use analysis I just don't need continuous running (at over twice the cost) so a 3,000 RPM unit will be fine. I was going to buy the Hyundai 5.2kw diesel unit (DHY6000SE) then I realised the Black and Decker one is a badged Hyundai and comes with an added 1 year warranty (2 yrs), free delivery, and £100 cheaper

It produces about 2.5kwh per litre of diesel so is reasonably efficient. It's far from silent at 70db but I don't have neighbours.

 

[nigelp]

It produces about 2.5kwh per litre of diesel so is reasonably efficient.

Is that to run just incase of power failure? - is that sufficient to keep fridges and freezers etc going?

 

[British Red]

Head took over heart I was tempted to buy a 1,500 RPM back up gen but when I really did the use analysis I just don't need continuous running (at over twice the cost) so a 3,000 RPM unit will be fine. I was going to buy the Hyundai 5.2kw diesel unit (DHY6000SE) then I realised the Black and Decker one is a badged Hyundai and comes with an added 1 year warranty (2 yrs), free delivery, and £100 cheaper

It produces about 2.5kwh per litre of diesel so is reasonably efficient. It's far from silent at 70db but I don't have neighbours.

Sounds like a good unit - diesel is certainly preferable to petrol! 5.2kwh is a very good size. We went in a different direction but it's i

Is that to run just incase of power failure? - is that sufficient to keep fridges and freezers etc going?

That beast will run a whole house!

 

[Broch]

The original plan, first put together years ago, and just for a thought exercise, was split into a 3 day, 3 week, 3 month and long-term plan. The three month and long-term plan assume that diesel is not generally available so generator running will be for emergency only. Water in the long term plan is from a spring/well up the hill, gravity fed (I haven't put the pipe in yet).

The three day plan does not require power to the freezers. The 3 week plan requires occasional cooling of the freezer to maintain low but not necessarily frozen temps; the food will be consumed.

The max output is a little over 5 kw - more than enough to run the freezer and fridge as well as power the heating and water - but I'd soon run out of diesel if I was trying to run it as a mains replacement.

P.S. we seem to have morphed this thread into a different topic and have two threads going down similar rabbit holes - sorry

 

[British Red]

Fuel is the constraint right enough, that's why we diversified into propane

And yes...sorry about the thread drift

 

[Broch]

As we're down the hole, I may as well relay my thinking. I am putting an additional 200L water tank in the garage loft (there is not room in the house loft as it's a converted barn with virtually no space above). If fuel is not available for long periods, I would run the generator once a week to fill the tanks, heat water, have showers and wash clothes etc. That will use 2 - 4 L/wk of 28s paraffin (with added lubricant for the generator). My relatively small oil tank (1,200L) would last 300 weeks if full! - OK, unlikely I'd have a full tank when this plan goes into motion but even 250L will last more than a year.

 

[British Red]

As we're down the hole, I may as well relay my thinking. I am putting an additional 200L water tank in the garage loft (there is not room in the house loft as it's a converted barn with virtually no space above). If fuel is not available for long periods, I would run the generator once a week to fill the tanks, heat water, have showers and wash clothes etc. That will use 2 - 4 L/wk of 28s paraffin (with added lubricant for the generator). My relatively small oil tank (1,200L) would last 300 weeks if full! - OK, unlikely I'd have a full tank when this plan goes into motion but even 250L will last more than a year.

Outstanding . Our plan is similar but involves a spur from our 1,500 litre propane tank a Honda 2.2i and a propane conversion kit

Honda Generator with Propane kit by English Countrylife, on Flickr.

Thankfully our well and rainwater cistern don't need pumping

 

[MrEd]

Outstanding . Our plan is similar but involves a spur from our 1,500 litre propane tank a Honda 2.2i and a propane conversion kit

Honda Generator with Propane kit by English Countrylife, on Flickr.

Thankfully our well and rainwater cistern don't need pumping

Ooh i have an eu20i and didn’t know you could propane them - how hard is it to do?

I had a letter from EDF saying my electric bill is going to increase by 54% from April due to the price rise of oil.

I thought EDF were predominantly nuclear so I am missing something here. I don’t know.

Also I don’t mind fuel costing more at the pump etc if that’s the price of freedom in Europe but BP turned a record profit of 9.5 BILLION in 2021 so I suspect some of it is the consumer being used as a cash cow (again).

Thankfully i have a wood burner and the recent storm provided me with a huge chunk of wood and I have a huge chunk I haven’t processed yet!

I feel it will get worse before it gets better, might get a stick off paraffin in for my couple of paraffin lanterns

 

[Tony]

Not the same issue Tone but.... similar

Calor are actually turning business away. If you are not an existing customer for bottle gas, you can jog on. Even as an existing customer they will only sell a full cylinder if you have an empty one. Fills for bulk containers are on a three to four week wait. Flogas are the same.

In farming terms, wheat futures are up 40% and it's believed lack of fertiliser will result in significant reductions in harvests.

I could go on

Yeah, we're running about 2 weeks over on when they were due to deliver, we're on LPG for heating (other than the log burner)/hot water and most cooking. Chasing them today to see if we can get a full tank before prices go up further.

 

[British Red]

Yeah, we're running about 2 weeks over on when they were due to deliver, we're on LPG for heating (other than the log burner)/hot water and most cooking. Chasing them today to see if we can get a full tank before prices go up further.

Ours is booked but not delivered yet - fingers crossed!

 

[British Red]

Ooh i have an eu20i and didn’t know you could propane them - how hard is it to do?

The dealer installed mine for me, but not at all complicated I believe. Once installed, you can remove all the large components in 15s and run on petrol, reinstall in 15s, turn off the petrol, run the carbs dry and fire up on propane. It's a good system. Here's where I got mine. They do good instructions and support.

LPG Kits | Honda Engines and Generators | Gear GB

LPG Kits | Honda Engines and Generators | Gear GB

www.geargb.co.uk

 

[TLM]

That sound s like a good idea. With a small genset portability is one of the main points so the two fuel solution sounds good.

 

[British Red]

That sound s like a good idea. With a small genset portability is one of the main points so the two fuel solution sounds good.

I like the Honda set up. As well as using propane ( which stores so well) you can couple two of the generators together to produce 4kVA output if 2 is insufficient. I think that having two sets provides redundancy and flexibility. They are also the gold standard for quietness. Compared to my frame mounted 2.5kVA petrol they are worlds apart, but, as always, you get what you pay for!

 

[Broch]

Well, it arrived (but that's a whole other story ).

It's a bit of a beast ! (wellies for scale)

 

[British Red]

That's a beast!

 

[Broch]

OK, have I got this wrong?
I can run my new generator on 28s paraffin or red diesel at 67p/L
1L of fuel will give me 2.5kwh so 1kwh = 26.8p
E-On are going to charge me 29.58p/kwh from 1st April + the standing charge.

So I can generate electricity cheaper than E-on are going to supply it at - have I miscalculated?

 

[British Red]

Probably not, but you need to factor in the cost of the generator ( depreciation), oil etc. Local generation has always made more sense from a cost perspective.

 

[Broch]

Probably not, but you need to factor in the cost of the generator ( depreciation), oil etc. Local generation has always made more sense from a cost perspective.

True, I suppose I was expecting economies of scale - but, of course, there's infrastructure maintenance and replacement costs that they must pass on and I don't have to pay a profit to the shareholders (well, she hasn't asked for any ).

 

[British Red]

Also you don't have to pay for the national grid distribution, the billing system, collecting the fuel, bad debts, electricity meters ( and more). I do wonder whether your emissions meet power station standards

All that aside, it does show that small is beautiful. Micro generation works, so does CHP.