OZ ATV :: The Australian ATV Forum

[fossil800R]

This may be one out of left field, but you outdoorsy blokes and blokettes amongst us may be able to help here. I'm looking to purchase a portable 5KVA diesel generator to run general power at the shed on my block. With a 13HP motor, will this be big enough to run a couple of lights constantly and the odd electrical appliance or should I be thinking larger. Any advice will be appreciated.
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[vjcrose]

what would be the odd electrical appliance?

goat said you'd be fine unless the odd electrical appliance was a 3hp air compressor - then she might struggle.
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[fossil800R]

vjcrose wrote:

what would be the odd electrical appliance? goat said you'd be fine unless the odd electrical appliance was a 3hp air compressor - then she might struggle.

bar fridge, microwave, that kind of stuff.
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[vjcrose]

he can't see any problem - have you got a track? can we come visit?
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[Noy Q75]

what you can do is call a company that sells them like Allight and speak to a sales guy on the gensets and tell him what you want to run and he should be able to tell you what size you need Allight 08 9302 7000 and if you want to see how much there worth there tell them that i told you to call them and give a good price
Barry
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[truant]

I use a Yamaha 2400i petrol generator at my property running fridge, lights, tv - it begs for more to throw at it!.
Dont know if you want to run more stuff but we wont need anything bigger!
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[froggy]

5kva should eat it. We have a few 7kva generators which each run a coffee machine, hot water service, a coolroom, a freezer, cream machine, another small cool room and lights.

[Ozzy84]

5kva should give you roughly 20amps to play with reliably, that will be more than enough for lights (get fluro's/ more energy efficient and give out way more light), fridge, microwave radio etc

I would normally put around 15 power points on a single 20A circuit in a shed

[fossil800R]

Thanks for the great info guys, will pick one up next week now. Sorry Barry, didn't think to PM you.

VJ, I have 430 acres in Melbourne, check out the Vic section. You can come visit anytime, but no facilities there yet.
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[yogie]

vjcrose wrote:

he can't see any problem - have you got a track? can we come visit?

http://www.ozatv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4869&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=25
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[gammie61]

when you run a generator you are best to run one that is suited to your demands.
Normal generators, from what i remember, should run at greater than 60% of their constant output capacity. This is to prevent rapid wear from lack of load. Inverter generators have a wider range of power supply. I think they can go down to 30%.
So what you have to do is work out what your power demands are. The peaks, constants & troughs & work out how you are going to even it out. The peaks & troughs are what cause the problems.
We looked into one for power failures after cyclones. To run the lights & fridges was easy to work out. The problem was the washing machine. It only used 350 watts untill the heater kicked in & it jumped to 3400 watts.
The dryer was 2400 watts on heat cycle.
To get a generator that would run the washing machine or drier it would not have enough load when they were not being used even with all of our 25 flouros & 6 flood lights & fridges & freezers on. The fridges cycle so that can complicate it as well.
Generators are not like mains suply. To do it properly you have to ballance the supply & load.
I have seen a website where there is a calculator to work out demands & suitable generator sizes. Might have been on Kipor generators site.
Personaly I would run a small inverter generator via a good battery charger to a bank of batteries for lights & 12 volt fridges & run the generator direct to washing machines & other big apliances when required.
By running batteries for the lights & fridges you only have to run the generator while charging. Get a charger that is suited to both your generator & batteries.
Good luck.
Most people only have experience with 240 volt mains supply & don't understand how to propperly use generators. They are quite different.
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[wa5]

be very careful when running electronic gadgets through a genny. pretty sure inverter models a suited to this purpose.

I have a GMC $98 750watt thing. so far it has started every time I have needed it. but it is only used to run lights and an old TV during blackouts.