The XYL returned from a quick shopping foray this afternoon with the
latest magazine showing next week's offers which included a "Golden
Oldie" first seen two years back. Said Golden Oldie (the PGI 1200 A1),
presumably being priced for nostalgic reasons, is on 'offer' at the
original 129 quid price (their version of "Rollback Pricing" I'm
guessing).

Although remarkably cheap for an inverter genset even at the 30 quid
higher asking price than the later PGI 1200 B2 "Suitcase" generators they
were selling in the 2nd week of April this year, it has even more going
against it than the 99 quid B2 model which I'd assumed to be its
replacement and thus rendering the A1 model totally obsolete.

After checking out this video review on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oclB_Uj7KX8

and taken another look at this one on the B2 model:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTTGvjbY8_s

which is worth checking out simply for the extremely informative
comments made by dean handley from ten months ago which would have saved
me so many return trips to finally track down a working PGI 1200 B2 some
seven weeks back, I have come to the conclusion that unless you want to
strip out the guts of the A1 and transplant them into a properly designed
enclosure of your own (whether portable "suitcase" or just a small brick
outhouse), or you simply want to use it for spares[1], I wouldn't bother
unless you're really desperate to get hold of a 1KVA pure sine wave
inverter generator having just missed out on April's bargain of the
decade in cheap inverter genset technology.

Having said that, it's still superior to a cheap open frame genset. Yes,
it may be almost as noisy but at least its 1KW of pure sine wave power
can be safely used with electronic kit and even old fashioned sine wave
UPSes, unlike normal generators using 'sophisticated' AVR control which
will grossly over-volt at the drop of a hat (leading current loads from a
few microfarad's worth of capacitance generally being all that's needed
ime to send a 2.8KVA 230vac generator going north of the 270vac mark!).

If you're looking for a cheap alternative to buying a few hundred quid's
worth of SLAs to boost the autonomy of a 1.5KVA or higher rated UPS by a
couple of hours, this could prove a more cost effective alternative,
especially as you can get a good 3 to 5 hours worth out of each gallon of
unleaded petroleum/gasoline you care to pour into its tank (5 to 7 hours
in the case of the PGI 1200 B2).

The only downside, of course, being the noise pollution if you don't
already have a suitable brick outhouse to minimise this and both secure
and run it safe from the CO poisoning and fire hazard risks presented by
such generators. In this regard, it's very little different to the 99
quid PGI 1200 B2 Lidl were selling just a mere 7 weeks ago. For static
use, the only downside is that extra 30 quid hit on your bank balance.

Even so, it's a remarkably cheap way to buy into a 1KW standby source of
pure sine wave 50Hz 230vac power. Now that I've replaced all the GLS
lamps (bar the set of four 35W 12v halogen downlighters in the shower
room) with LED lamps, I can keep all the lights on along with the fridge,
the freezer, the 4K smart TV, my IT kit and the CH with a mere 1KW of
standby power. Admittedly, only at a pinch and by careful power
management but if ever the need for sustained emergency power ever
arises, this is just exactly what anyone running off emergency power
would be having to do anyway.

I'd have preferred a 2KW inverter genset but not only are the cheapest
alternatives some four or five times as pricey, they'll burn through
emergency fuel reserves faster as well even when only providing the same
amount of power as the smaller genset. Limited emergency power is better
than no emergency power at all and even if I do push the boat out on a
quieter 2KVA inverter genset at a later date, at just 99 quid, I can
afford hang onto the Lidl genset as an emergency backup to the 2KVA
emergency backup genset. You can never have too many emergency gensets
when the price is *so* right. :-)

TBH, I'm quite amazed at the cheek of Lidl in trying to sell an inferior
version of the PGI 1200 B2 less than two months later and at an extra 30
quid to boot! Perhaps they're thinking that its "Retro Chic" cheap two
stroke portable genset looks are deserving of the extra 50 or 40 quid
over a more appropriate (IMHO) 80 or 90 quid price point. :-)

Major points of difference between the A1 and the B2 models a

The A1 uses a top mounted 4.2l pressed steel gravity feed tank prone to
leaking fuel during transportation. Fuel consumption rating at 2/3 power
output is 0.88l/hour from its 2.85hp 53.5cc engine (4.77 hours run time
on a tank of fuel). Considering the use of a gravity feed fuel system,
there's a surprising absence of a carburettor float bowl priming plunger
to assist cold starting.

The B2 uses a plastic (presumably shatter-proof) 4.5l side tank (which
reduces sloshing of its contents) feeding an engine vacuum powered fuel
lift pump[2]. Fuel consumption rating at 2/3 power output is 0.68l/hour
from its 2.04hp 53.5cc engine (6 1/2 hours run time on a tank of fuel).

The A1 is 200g lighter than the B2 (13Kg). Both produce the same total
sound power of 95dBW but the B2 claims to be 1.3dB quieter at the 1 metre
SPL test distance (80.2dBA).

Now that I have an actual class 2 SPL meter to test with, I'll be able
to confirm just how optimistic a claim this is for myself (give or take
1.5dB of metering error along with other environmental factors that make
such tests so less than 'scientific'). At least I'll be able to get base
line figures by which to gauge any attempts to quieten it.


[1] Afaict from pictures - unlike the potted inverter module in the B2,
two cermet trimmers do actually poke up out of the hard and shiny black
potting compound in the one used by the A1 making it amenable to
adjusting for manufacturer's calibration errors[3], assuming they haven't
switched over to using the same inverter part used by the B2 (probably
not since the A1 shown still only uses two LEDs to show status using
blink codes for normal/slight overload/full overload condition and
"Goodnight Vienna" whilst the B2 uses three LEDs).

[2] The only downside of using a fuel lift pump, aside from the extra
complexity over that of a simple gravity feed setup, is the need to spin
the engine over several times on the starter cord just to prime the fuel
line and the carburettor float bowl when starting from "Dry" (initial
commissioning run or else after a long lay up after letting the carb run
dry to minimise the risk of fuel gumming up the carburettor's jets during
periods of protracted storage).

In this case, it's best to crank the engine over leisurely 4 or 5 times
after turning the fuel feed on with the ignition still off and closing
the choke for the penultimate pull before turning the ignition on for a
full on pull of the cord to actually fire it up without needlessly
wasting energy on premature attempts to fire it up before there's even
any fuel in the carburettor float chamber.

Where more regular use (say every weekend) precludes any need to run the
carb float bowl dry, this won't be an issue. A single priming yank before
turning the ignition on and setting the choke should get it running on
the next pull of the starter cord.

[3] I discovered when testing with a 900W toaster and a bunch of 150W
incandescent lamps and a few other ses lamps of various wattages that the
inverter signals overloading at the 980W mark according to my digital
watt meter. I was a little disappointed at discovering this, especially
in view of the fact that it would cheerfully run a 1200W test load not
for the mere 5 seconds claimed but a full half minute every time before
shutting the inverter down.

I realise it's just possible that it's been calibrated to detect
overload at exactly 1001 watts and my watt meter is merely under reading
by 2% of the +/-3% allowance of its rated measurement tolerance. Still,
I'd have hoped they would have erred a little more on the positive side
of the tolerance range with their overload setting point, say 1050W
before sensing an overloaded state.

This is how I came to discover the complete absence of any means to
adjust the output voltage setting or the current overload point to
correct such a parsimonious setting. I guess I'll have to do some cross
checking with my other "Kill-A-Watt" meter and the analogue watt meter
before deciding whether to buy another PGI 1200 B2 the next time they're
on offer from Lidl to do a "Pick 'n' Mix" swap out to get the inverter
genset I so richly deserve.

--
Johnny B Good