I have been reading Andrew's topic "Bally Power Cuts !" with great interest
http://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,9984.0.htmlI don't live in the countryside, but this area is still pretty sparsely populated and has some power lines that seem to go down almost once a year when there is autumn storm.
I have two UPS for computer/WiFi and two laptops with 2/3 batteries 70% charged all the time for each.
What is more that autumn storms seem to get here later and later every year and year 2011 it was in Boxing day and pretty damn cold. Power break lasted almost three days and we have a wood fired oven but our friend had not. They were four strong and were ready to evacuate and move in to our house at that evening - middle of packing essentials they got power on on we few hours later.
I have oil/electricity central heating with radiators, it does not need much electricity to feed oil burner and circulation pump, 200 W at most.
Calculated that I could easily construct 12/24 V system with 200/100 Ah batteries and sinusoidal inverter to go trough up to 9 h power cut. That should do most, but not the longest and most troublesome. So, it would need an DC generator (probably self-build) or generator and very expensive battery charger (20-30A chargers are not cheap). But it would be quiet for whole night.
Then I considered these small 1Kw briefcase generators, small, easy to store and Honda/Yamaha seem to be good and produce enough of good quality electricity. I have had some problems storing gasoline for a long time, would really need a good system to recycle gasoline from canisters to car and that sounds like eventually something could go wrong (water, contamination, dent on my car.....). Not sure how easy to maintain, but they definately seem to need a lot of maintenance to run for three days more or less continous.
I finally splashed out my cash (actually swiped Visa-card) and bought year 2008 diesel generator half price, because it has been sitting on the cardboard box on the storage all this time and it's all open roll cage construction I prefer for maintenance and transportation. It's noisy, probably that's why they are not sold for construction workers anymore.
it has Yanmar L70AE diesel engine and single phase 3,9KWA alternator. Engine manual is pretty good, alternator manuals pretty basic and generic, generator manual very sketchy and importer Finnish manual next to useless.
I like that it is simple one. Recoil start and all. Would have been nice to have a starter motor without dynamo/regulator/small battery, but that was not an option, just ideal for me.
Got 4l of oil and 20l gallon filled with oil. I still need to find a maintenance manual, spare filters (to be changed after 200 h of run, but good to get before I need one).
The generator is this type Pramac E4500
http://www.pramac.com/pages/Product_detail_fr/513?ixRecordTableName=vw_p_product_sheet&root_node=2&lang=en_GB&id_market=176&id_product=1026&ixRecordId=1026I still have to run it in and familiarize, just to make sure it works when I need it.
It has a small gas tank. It's really not that big problem. But 2-3 hrs of running time could be sometimes a bit limiting and the fuel filter is inside the tank.
I'm considering either external fuel tank with an electric driven pump AND good big automotive type diesel fuel filters and all that pluming. OR just a bigger tank over that roll cage and some bigger filter attached to the frame.
What could go wrong?

Pekka