hi can anyone help me with some info on generators,we have purchased a house in santa barbara and doesnt look like our mains electric will be switched on in time as we are coming over in three weeks kids and all.we have bought a 5.5 kva generator and the house has been rewired for mains electric with fuse box.we want to know will this be powerfull enough to supply the necessaties like electric shower,large fridge freezer and water pump.and is it easy enough to wire up. :-/

Hi,

it will be enough to run your fridge/freezer and water pump. You've no chance with an electric shower though!
Even with mains electric you'll be pushing to run an electric shower.  In the UK every house gets a 12KW supply.  Here the norm is 5.5KW with some contracting 10KW - do you know what yours will be?

You'll need to check the power rewuirements of your shower - most are 8 or 10KW.

They are easy enough to wire up - you'll have a socket on the generator - you need to run a wire from the input side of your differential on your power board to the generator plug.

Hope this helps


Nigel

thanks nigel
                cant find out my kw but found out my shower is not electric,will there be enough to power my lights,the aircon im not bothered about.also we have been told by fexa that the electric could be on in about a month would it be cost effective to purchase inverters and batteries or just run the generator constantly as it is petrol.do i wire it up at the fuse board or my post fexa have put on my land.
  sorry but havent got a clue about running the house off a generator as did think elec would be on.
         thanks again for your help

Hi Paulab.

No offence but if you are asking these questions about elctricity then it is probably better not to attempt this yourself!!!  If you have such a short time to wait for electricity to be connected , then it is not wortwhile looking at batteries or inverters (they will cost near enough £1500-00-depending on what you want) Nigel is right, you have to look at what you are running, fridge-ok, freezer-ok - hairdrier-(NOTE:NOT PLURAL ) -OK Air-Con - OK . Try and run alll these items together , probably not. Having been in you position it is the most cost effective and easiest to have the generator run a few hours during the evening  just possibly for a bit of light and maybe the aircon and water pump. You will struggle with the fridge as that needs to really run  full days to compensate for opening and closing unless you have a chest freezer, that could survive on probably 4 hours of running, besides the weather is good and one doesn't really need electric so badly this time of year!!

Good luck

thanks for the advice,i wont atempt it myself,i just wanted to know the jist of it so when someone tried to charge me the earth to wire it up i knew what work was involved or at least it looked like i new what i was talking about.the only thing i was stressing about was the fridge/freezer as we will have 4 kids running round and we need ice lols plenty of them and some where for the beer of course.i like the idea of the chest freezer and running the generator for 4 hours a day.do you know where we can get a cheap one for the summer as we will be bringing ours from the uk in january.

                            thanks again
                                             paul

Have you thougt of a gas fridge/freezer,a lot more economical and you don't need a genny banging away all day.Ours lasts about 6 weeks on a bottle of gas and bottles of gas are about 12 euros.
Speaking from experience an electric fridge/freezer will be working flat out with overtime in the heat of the summer,the fridge motor will get dangerously hot and will use gallons of electickery.

Gas fridges are economical but they tend to have a very small freezer compartment. Also they cost substantially more than an electric one - the economy would come if you were going to be on solar - the cost of the extra kit to power an electric fridge would add a large chunk to your solar costs.

True, they do work hard in the summer - also you'll need a constant power supply - a generator isn't really a good option.

If you're due power in a month I would be inclined to muddle by somehow - get a big ice box and some packs of ice to keep things cool and persuade the kids they don't need a constant supply of ice lollies!

Nigel

We have a gas fridge as well, but a gas bottle only lasts 4 weeks in the summer, longer in the winter. You must have a very efficient gas fridge nobrot for a bottle to last that long. We rely on solar and have a good system and we run a fridge from this as well. We only really use the gas fridge now in the summer to put the drinks in.
We had our solar system put in by llatjes and they have done a fantastic job. So any one out there that wants a good solar system don't scrimp and use somebody that says they know what they are doing (because they probrly don't!!!) Use a good company like llatjes

just out of interest how much wwas your solar power system, we are waiting for mains electricity to be connected.

My apologies for sticking my nose in AGAIN. I got a quote for batteries, inverters, panels installed finish and klaar for Euro 13000-00 That was based on .5Kw continues use over 24hrs. (I will get ALL the amp charge/discharge figures  should someone really want to look at it...) but that would give a household  of 2 grown-ups and 2kids sufficient supply. Our figures excluded vacuum cleaners, iron's, microwave's, hair drier's washing m/c on hot cycle's. It has been decided that these items will run whilst a generator is running (which was something that was not part of the quote). The rest of the stuff is gas where possible.