Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Mikeyboy writes:
I posted a week ago to inquire what capacity generator I might need to
power things like central heating, freezer, large american fridge
freezer. The consensus seems to be, go for a 2 kw one, Honda if
possible.

I also note that things like inverters can do some of the jobs that a
generator can. Would one be relevant in my case?

You would need an unrealistic sized battery to carry the same
energy as a tank of petrol,

? Not really.

Depends on what you call unrealistic.

You can get a kilowatt hour of battery for about 150 quid..

30 of them would give you enough to power a house for a day, including
things like the odd heater, shower and electric kettle, and be about the
same size as a fridge. About the same (output) energy as a car tankful
of fuel.



and you can't easily top it up when
it runs low

Jump leads and your car?

and you still don't have your mains supply back on.
(The more expensive generators actually use an inverter as the
final stage to generate a good quality output, but that's fed
from the generator, not batteries.)

I've got a 17Ah battery and an inverter. In theory that would
keep my heating alone running for something like 90 minutes if
the inverter is 100% efficient (it's probably not far off, as
it doesn't get hot).


85%-95% is fairly normal on a HF inverter.