"Tony Hayes" wrote in message
...
Now that the power cut season will soon be here again I've been thinking
about getting one of those small petrol driven generators which could be
put
to good use as well as acting as an emergency electricity supply -
basically
running the central heating and some lighting.

In use, is it simply a matter of connecting an 'extension lead' with
trailing bank of sockets to the generator and using this in the house to
plug in your essentials? Or is there a way of putting some sort of
permanent system in the house which can be connected to the generator?

Sorry if this sounds a bit vague.....

All I am going to do, is make a cable up with a plug on each end, fitted
with a 3 Amp fuse, fasten it to the generator so that it wont get separated.
Then switch off the mains at the fuse box and plug the genny into the
nearest 13 amp socket. I bought the genny for just this reason, after seeing
that the possibility of power cuts may take away our use of the central
heating. Its gas powered, but as you know, the pump hast to run and the gas
control valve needs power. After this, all the rest is a bonus. We don't
have a large freezer, so the contents can be a total loss if power is off
for more than a couple of days.
OK I'll lose the RCD system, but at least I will be able to run the central
heating and a couple of lights, possibly even the TV. The house is PME by
the way, so I might have to hook up an earth to my earth rod.
All that remains, is to open a curtain to see when the power comes back on
again and reverse the connections.

Dave