Emergency Power Systems

If you source your electricity from the grid then loss of supply may be something you rarely think about if the supply is stable, such as experienced in most parts of the UK.  On the other hand, if you in a country or area that experiences frequent loss of supply then it can be a major headache.

What follows are some practical solutions to help you manage utility disruption.  Costs of the solutions will vary according to need and demand and may only run for short periods of time - emergencies - but the systems do work and will be able to manage your demand until the grid supply comes back on.

There are three major steps you can take:

Step 1 - Install a Generator

A good high quality generator should be the preferred choice for short duration power cuts. Naturally, a diesel generator will be expensive to run, could be noisy - you need good neighbours to get away with this. The simplest are generators with a manual start-stop switch. When the power fails then somebody has to physically start the generator, then turn on the switch to start using the electricity. Clever systems do this automatically.  Dead time - the time between the power going off and the generator starting - does vary a lot so try to reduce this as much as possible.

Also, and we can't state this enough, Reduce and Conserve, the amount of power you need.  There really is no point in trying to run big energy intensive units, such as Water Heaters, Electric Space Heaters and the like on a small emergency power system.  It's crazy to think of doing this unless you have a big generator on hand - 12Kva and above, and money to burn...besides it is wasteful and bigger is not always better as generators run nicely between 50-80% of the load required. Now may be the time to think about moving to step 2.

Step 2 - Add Batteries and Inverter Charger

It certainly does not make sense to run generators all of the time. What is the point of that?
As stated above generators run very well near their peak loading, around 80% and cope nicely with loads when run at this level as well as being efficient delivering the power (WATTS) per gallon of fuel consumed.  This is where batteries and an inverter/charger comes into the picture. Adding these to your Emergency Power System makes complete sense for a number of reasons:

a)  the energy stored in the batteries can be used at any time, at a later date.

b) the energy stored in the batteries means the generator does not have to be used so often.

c) the DC energy stored in the batteries can be converted to normal AC mains power when required.

d) the battery bank is modular and can be moved or increased in size as and when required.

Depending upon the model of inverter charger chosen - you should choose one with a built-in, automatic battery charger and generator start capability. Whilst the inverter charger senses that the grid supply is available it will pass right through. If the grid supply fails, the inverter will switch to battery power, and start supply AC power to the connected loads. When AC power is returned the battery charger will start charging the batteries.  If the power supply is off a for a few days then stored power in the batteries should provide all the power you need whilst reducing the need to run the generator.

Step 3 - Add Solar, or Wind Power for Battery Charging

If you experience frequent loss of supply and the power loss lasts for days at a time then consider installing a solar, wind or hydro power system as it makes good sense to do so.  Assuming that you already have batteries and an inverter charger installed then adding solar or wind power is quite simple.

The battery doesn't care where the energy for charging comes from so the addition of a solar pv array or wind turbine should be straightforward.  As in all cases with regard to working out what you need don't spend any money until you have done your homework. You need to analyse and assess your electricity requirements and work out what you need to use just in case of an emergency.

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