Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: SIR Philbutt on 28 December 2015, 00:20:54
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Our electric went off Boxing day at about 9.00 because of the flooding in Rochdale. About 18-20,000 homes left without power. Even the mobile phone service went off for a few hours.
Came back on about 22.30 tonight 37hrs later, big generator now parked next to our substation.
There are about a dozen or so emergency ones running around the area as the main substation was overrun with water, even though in 2010 it has had £468k spent protecting it from that 1 in 200 year flooding event ::). Only took 5 :-X
Luckily daughter the other side of town still had power so all freezer stuff transported there but lost a fridge full of food stuff
Earlier on today there was a burger van touring the area giving free burgers, etc for those without power, nice touch I thought
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Living down here in Bristol we never get these dreadful problems thankfully, but my heart goes out to all that seemingly have to endure these floods year in year out now. Seeing all the news feeds makes me feel so useless hope you are able to get back to some kind of normality soon.
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Grim in a civilised country. My heart goes out to those actually flooded but even losing electric for such a long time is bad. No heating ? Lost frozen or fridge foods.
Hope it hasn't put too much of a damper on Xmas.
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Grim in a civilised country. My heart goes out to those actually flooded but even losing electric for such a long time is bad. No heating ? Lost frozen or fridge foods.
Hope it hasn't put too much of a damper on Xmas.
Can't see that it being a civilised country make that much difference really. Water is water, and it's got to go somewhere. Look at America over Christmas, utter devastation.
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Maybe, but what was the £486k spent on? One in 200 year? Methinks someone got the calculations wrong. Bit like buildings still going up elsewhere on flood plains......
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Grim in a civilised country. My heart goes out to those actually flooded but even losing electric for such a long time is bad. No heating ? Lost frozen or fridge foods.
Hope it hasn't put too much of a damper on Xmas.
Can't see that it being a civilised country make that much difference really. Water is water, and it's got to go somewhere. Look at America over Christmas, utter devastation.
...........speaking of civilisation. Has electricity and indoor toilets reached Barnsley yet? :y
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Grim in a civilised country. My heart goes out to those actually flooded but even losing electric for such a long time is bad. No heating ? Lost frozen or fridge foods.
Hope it hasn't put too much of a damper on Xmas.
Yes. I hope it all ends well, Phil.
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I bought a cheap generator 30 odd years ago, and it has more than paid for itself on the rare occasions it is required. :y
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Thanks for the thoughts but no 'leccy' and a fridge full of stuff lost is insignificant compared to what some people are having to deal with.
I bought a cheap generator 30 odd years ago, and it has more than paid for itself on the rare occasions it is required. :y
Seriously be looking into this at the mo, gave up the chance to buy one a few months ago :o wont again
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Thanks for the thoughts but no 'leccy' and a fridge full of stuff lost is insignificant compared to what some people are having to deal with.
I bought a cheap generator 30 odd years ago, and it has more than paid for itself on the rare occasions it is required. :y
Seriously be looking into this at the mo, gave up the chance to buy one a few months ago :o wont again
How do you connect it to the house electrics then? Do you use some kind of change over switch? ie you can only have the genny supplying the house or the grid ..... and not both
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Thanks for the thoughts but no 'leccy' and a fridge full of stuff lost is insignificant compared to what some people are having to deal with.
I bought a cheap generator 30 odd years ago, and it has more than paid for itself on the rare occasions it is required. :y
Seriously be looking into this at the mo, gave up the chance to buy one a few months ago :o wont again
How do you connect it to the house electrics then? Do you use some kind of change over switch? ie you can only have the genny supplying the house or the grid ..... and not both
Interested in this. I'm sure my neighbour had some sort of reverse plug that he just plugged into a 3 pin plug. But he's a complete self-abuser and probably has it wrong :-X
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Thanks for the thoughts but no 'leccy' and a fridge full of stuff lost is insignificant compared to what some people are having to deal with.
I bought a cheap generator 30 odd years ago, and it has more than paid for itself on the rare occasions it is required. :y
Seriously be looking into this at the mo, gave up the chance to buy one a few months ago :o wont again
How do you connect it to the house electrics then? Do you use some kind of change over switch? ie you can only have the genny supplying the house or the grid ..... and not both
My parents house has a generator which is wired into the ring main via a change over switch,doesn't feed the street,just there place.
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Interested in this. I'm sure my neighbour had some sort of reverse plug that he just plugged into a 3 pin plug. But he's a complete self-abuser and probably has it wrong :-X
a 13 pin plug on either end of a cable would do it! 8) ;D ;D
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Thanks for the thoughts but no 'leccy' and a fridge full of stuff lost is insignificant compared to what some people are having to deal with.
I bought a cheap generator 30 odd years ago, and it has more than paid for itself on the rare occasions it is required. :y
Seriously be looking into this at the mo, gave up the chance to buy one a few months ago :o wont again
How do you connect it to the house electrics then? Do you use some kind of change over switch? ie you can only have the genny supplying the house or the grid ..... and not both
All I've done is to put an external waterproof socket on the outside wall .... runs to a double 13 pin socket on the inside wall which is not connected to anything else .. purely the outside socket... when the power fails 2 Kw generator is run in the greenhouse with one lead to the aforementioned socket and one long lead into the garage. Garage lead runs fridge and freezer; house lead to 2 internal sockets with a 4-way in one to run a couple of lights, and radio and a 1 kw heater in the other socket. If the power is off for long or 1KW is not enough heat.. then the big gas heater gets wheeled in from the shed ...
Not an all-singing solution .. but gives light and heat in the main room, and we've never been off grid longer than 6 hours ... so far !!!
I know you can fit special switches that disconnect from the mains input and allow the genny to run everything .. but a 2 KW genny might start to struggle !!
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Interested in this. I'm sure my neighbour had some sort of reverse plug that he just plugged into a 3 pin plug. But he's a complete self-abuser and probably has it wrong :-X
a 13 pin plug on either end of a cable would do it! 8) ;D ;D
I've done that at work in an emergency but not recommended !!
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Our electric went off Boxing day at about 9.00 because of the flooding in Rochdale. About 18-20,000 homes left without power. Even the mobile phone service went off for a few hours.
Came back on about 22.30 tonight 37hrs later, big generator now parked next to our substation.
There are about a dozen or so emergency ones running around the area as the main substation was overrun with water, even though in 2010 it has had £468k spent protecting it from that 1 in 200 year flooding event ::). Only took 5 :-X
Luckily daughter the other side of town still had power so all freezer stuff transported there but lost a fridge full of food stuff
Earlier on today there was a burger van touring the area giving free burgers, etc for those without power, nice touch I thought
And yesterday water was down, hardly half pressure (must be a shortage).
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Sub-station supplying us is old and failed a few times especially at Christmas, so a few years ago I installed backup lighting and any 12v lights in the house can be switched on when required.
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Our electric went off Boxing day at about 9.00 because of the flooding in Rochdale. About 18-20,000 homes left without power. Even the mobile phone service went off for a few hours.
Came back on about 22.30 tonight 37hrs later, big generator now parked next to our substation.
There are about a dozen or so emergency ones running around the area as the main substation was overrun with water, even though in 2010 it has had £468k spent protecting it from that 1 in 200 year flooding event ::). Only took 5 :-X
Luckily daughter the other side of town still had power so all freezer stuff transported there but lost a fridge full of food stuff
Earlier on today there was a burger van touring the area giving free burgers, etc for those without power, nice touch I thought
And yesterday water was down, hardly half pressure (must be a shortage).
Heard that was a failure at one of the pumping stations, not connected to floods/power fail
Sub-station supplying us is old and failed a few times especially at Christmas, so a few years ago I installed backup lighting and any 12v lights in the house can be switched on when required.
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My dad did that during the miners strike/power cuts, 4 car batteries in the garage supplying. Even had a 12v tv and fridge
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Interested in this. I'm sure my neighbour had some sort of reverse plug that he just plugged into a 3 pin plug. But he's a complete self-abuser and probably has it wrong :-X
a 13 pin plug on either end of a cable would do it! 8) ;D ;D
ISTR he just has a 3 pin, 13A that he plugs in and it feeds back in somehow.
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Thanks for the thoughts but no 'leccy' and a fridge full of stuff lost is insignificant compared to what some people are having to deal with.
I bought a cheap generator 30 odd years ago, and it has more than paid for itself on the rare occasions it is required. :y
Seriously be looking into this at the mo, gave up the chance to buy one a few months ago :o wont again
How do you connect it to the house electrics then? Do you use some kind of change over switch? ie you can only have the genny supplying the house or the grid ..... and not both
Easy, make up a lead with a 13A plug on it from the genny, plug into a convenient socket, switch off the mains switch in the house, start the genny and switch on. I should point out that this is probably illegal, but it supplies power when required, and going by the noise in our close, everyone else does the same. It is also possible to do it correctly with a changeover switch as my daughter has done, but this requires more expense. :y
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That would only power the ring main though? Not the lights?
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That would only power the ring main though? Not the lights?
I'd imagine various lamps plugged in around the house would take care of that. :y
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That would only power the ring main though? Not the lights?
I'd imagine various lamps plugged in around the house would take care of that. :y
Of course. Just checking I wasn't going mad, which, of course, I'm not, as you know.......don't you? ::)
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That would only power the ring main though? Not the lights?
In mine power flows back up to the main bus, so we have power everywhere. Everyone else here works the same way. :y
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Wouldn't that power the whole street... ...right up to the point the genny overload trip blows.
My genny just powers fridge freezer and servers. Anything else, we can survive a few days without tizzy.
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Wouldn't that power the whole street... ...right up to the point the genny overload trip blows.
Not if you throw off the main switch
My genny just powers fridge freezer and servers. Anything else, we can survive a few days without tizzy.
What size genny have you got - i've been looking at 2.8 - 4 kVA for fridge + chest freezer + Boiler + some lights and maybe tv
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Mine is just a wee one, 1kw. Which is enough for my needs, and I just plug into it what needs powering.
I can cook on our camping stuff, light by our camping stuff, and heat a room by camping stuff. So, as said, just need to plug in fridge freezer and UPS for all servers/phones/technology stuff.
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Mine is just a wee one, 1kw. Which is enough for my needs, and I just plug into it what needs powering.
I can cook on our camping stuff, light by our camping stuff, and heat a room by camping stuff. So, as said, just need to plug in fridge freezer and UPS for all servers/phones/technology stuff.
We cooked on camping gear and had gas fire on for heat but if it had been colder would not have been enough. We went swimming so we could shower, that's why i'm including boiler.
So a 2.8 kVA would be sufficient ?
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Mine is just a wee one, 1kw. Which is enough for my needs, and I just plug into it what needs powering.
I can cook on our camping stuff, light by our camping stuff, and heat a room by camping stuff. So, as said, just need to plug in fridge freezer and UPS for all servers/phones/technology stuff.
We cooked on camping gear and had gas fire on for heat but if it had been colder would not have been enough. We went swimming so we could shower, that's why i'm including boiler.
So a 2.8 kVA would be sufficient ?
Boiler is hard to wire in, as will be hardwired. But wouldn't need much power.
Some model boilers electronics might not take too kindly to a genny output without filtering.
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Mine is 1.7 Kw, runs fridge and freezers (high starting loads), boiler, TV and a few lights. Sufficient for survival. :y
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As far as I know, if you're going to power up your house with a genny via a 3 pin socket on the ring main, you must switch off the main switch to isolate the house from the mains. ;)
Otherwise you might electrocute someone working on the system 'upstream' who thinks it's dead and safe! :o ;)
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Also worth considering the possible consequences of having a "suicide" lead lying around if it were to be accidentally plugged in. :o
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Also worth considering the possible consequences of having a "suicide" lead lying around if it were to be accidentally plugged in. :o
Precisely, and with sensible use the plug in genny works well. ie, mains swich off, lead plugged in, start genny. :y
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Also worth considering the possible consequences of having a "suicide" lead lying around if it were to be accidentally plugged in. :o
Precisely, and with sensible use the plug in genny works well. ie, mains swich off, lead plugged in, start genny. :y
I think you have missed the point - If an adult, or even a young child were to pull 'that' plug, the consequences may be unthinkable.
I do it myself, I have a bloody great big Jenny, running a 240v feed. I also (if the outage is more than a few hours) run another lead to my neighbours house.
Not sure on the power output, but it's a welder/generator, so assuming the regulators are OK, I should be looking at near 4kvA
I strongly suggest anyone looking at this as a temporary solution.....
Look at what you have plugged in to the mains - Write a list for each room. When the power fails, go and switch off EVERYTHING which is not IMPERATIVE.
Start-up power will just kill the generator.
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I can't remember the last time I had a significant power cut to be honest. :-\
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Mine is 1.7 Kw, runs fridge and freezers (high starting loads), boiler, TV and a few lights. Sufficient for survival. :y
If running modern electronics, like a new TV or PVR, ensure you have filters on the genny, and most are unfiltered and create "noisy"/"dirty" power which modern electronics can get quite upset over.
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I can't remember the last time I had a significant power cut to be honest. :-\
Ignoring those of my own making, nor can I remember one lasting more than a few hours.
But, then, when I was looking at moving, we purposely looked at a location that was less likely to be prone to flooding, as it had been problematic near where I used to live.