Club Arnage

Have a look at the last item on this link.

http://www.generators.co.uk/suitcase.php

Any views on how useful this would be? I reckon you could charge it off a genny during sensible hours and then use it to power essential beer and lighting items at night thereby avoiding the certain buggering you may receive from generator haters.

RIP OFF!

Get one the same power and smaller from DIY shops or macro for less than £80!!

Have you got a link Rick? I can't find them anywhere.

Aside from the price, what do you think as to their usefulness?

Hi robspot, a quick google turns up quite a few hits. You will need to check out the exact specs, but here are some around the £70.00 quid mark.

UnicornMotor (http://www.unicornmotor.com/Portable%20Power.htm)

AJM Shopping (http://www.ajmshopping.co.uk/more_details.asp?ItemCode=04542)

And to make you happy about your first suggestion, this looks like the same thing for £311.38 HTA Systems (http://www.htasystems.com/power_station.htm)

In general, it looks as though this sort of device is popular with fishermen, so check out some angling shops. Personally, I would go for one with a compressor if I was getting one, as I have a small unit in my car already (does not do AC) and it is invaluable for airbeds and emergency tyre inflating.

I got one from Makro for about £25 that has three 12V sockets and has car jump leads.

Thanks for your help Mr I and JP.

I am looking for one with a decent inverter to run beer fridge (75W). The link above has 180w inverter which should manage easily for nightime drinking. There is one on ebay for 80 quid with 150w inverter but only one battery. The one I am looking at has two 18 Ah batteries. I've also found it cheaper on QVC for £120.

The real question is whether or not it is worth bothering with. Will it run my fridge for ten minutes and then pack up? Will it take an entire generator tank of petrol to charge it up again? Will I be too pissed to care?

I have a similar unit as JPC (£30 from Costco), + a 240v - 300 watt Inverter from Maplin(£25). This year I plan to run the Cool box off of it whilst its not in the car (12v), + charge the video, digital camera and phone via the inverter. Whislt out and about in the car recharge the power pack and run the cool box of of the 12v.  Though about a solar pannel to continously trickle charge the power pack while running the coolbox but one with 2.5 amps will be at least £75 and still only slowing down the battery drain.

Hmmm solar power, that's interesting, hadn't thought of that. I could erect some sort of wooden gazebo and line the roof with panels. How many would I need to run a fridge? Or maybe heat the pool, lighting, stereo (maybe a full disco). Ok I'm getting carried away now.

I have seen a 12V 15W panel for 80 quid. Does this mean I need 5 to run a 75w fridge? I'm not very electrical I'm afraid.

Anyway.......If we built this giant wooden badger?

Zarse would poke it with his spoon!!!  ;D

Ooo.. That's Shocking  :P

How could I have missed that one  ???

I'm not sure it's possible to build a spoon proof wooden badger, but I guess it would depend on the size of his spoon. Come on then Mr Zarse - how big is it?

Robspot, is your 75W fridge a heat pump type or a refrigeration compressor type?
If the latter, it may have a larger starting load than it's run load and hence will require a greater capacity supply.

My illustrious band of warm beer drinkers intend to purchase a small chest freezer, fill with water and run the freezer from a genny during the day.
The insulation of the freezer and the ice contained therein should stay nice and chilled during the night and we (hopefully) won't need to run the generator at night.

We're taking one of those 800W 2 stoke small gennys from Makro / Costco / Romford Sunday market that retail for about £75.

Errr  ???

I've got a small beer chiller type fridge but I was also thinking of taking a 4ft upright type fridge. I would guess at the compressor type.

Rob, have a look on the data plate on the fridge (or failing that, see what fuse is fitted).

This should confirm the total full load current.

Will do, cheers Steve.

Makro have one on special at the mo, £42 notes, for a 850 W genny

Offer till the 10th May, i'm heading down there on Saturday

Jay

I've gone off badgers now. Sorry.

I still like spoons though, so maybe you could make a big badge-proof wooden spoon instead. I admit it's not very practical for power generation purposes but it would certainly be a conversation piece if the talk dried up.

So you've given up on badger baiting Andy and you're now into spooning!!  ;)

Mama Mia! a couple of days in Rome and JPC has gone all romantic.. :-*

Watch out for a phantom bottom pincher in the poo bar.....

F

Fran, there's certainly nothing Phantom about Mr Chenet (says me having shared a tent with him in Sebring and listening to the JPC snorathon  :' :( )

Kettle - Pot - Black

I think you'll find it was that YOU snored SO loudly that you woke yourself up!!!!  ;)

Hmmm.....depends on how many females there are there this year.

I'll have to practice my accent!!  ;)

He needs a new one - the old one has gone all saggy...  :-\

We've just bought one of those at work, says it's 68db on the back but it's bloody noisy. Apart from that you can't really go wrong for 42 quid. Runs a 300w drill all day on one tank.

We've just bought one of those at work, says it's 68db on the back but it's bloody noisy. Apart from that you can't really go wrong for 42 quid. Runs a 300w drill all day on one tank.

68db is noisy have a look at this table, it stops at 65db, for every extra 3db the noise level doubles, its an expontential thing, you might want to shroud the genny and direct the noise up.  The table says that serious damge occurs at 65db, lets hope its not your campsite!! ::) ::) ::)

Indirect damage

As well as this direct damage to hearing, constant unwanted noise is very stressful, even at lower levels, causing rises in blood pressure and heart rate, or disturbing sleep (even noise as low as 30 decibels can affect sleep if it is continuous).

Research has shown that:
- at 55-60 decibels (dB) noise creates annoyance
- at 60-65 dB annoyance increases considerably
- above 65 dB serious damage caused by noise arises

I think we are planning to dig a hole and drop it in, then cover it with a board or something.

Save annoying the neighbours.

While we're on the subject does anyone have any experience with the silent camping generators, such as the Honda EU10i or a Kipor sinemaster. They are encased in plastic and claim to only produce 52 db at half load.

We've got a couple of the Hondas at work and they are whisper quiet. Just a bit out of my price league. Wife can't see the point in getting me a nice big 2KW genny for xmas so it'll be the cheapy 2 stroke one for me this year. One day though, one day................

Whats up Stu are they a bit big to stick under your tunic???  ;D

There must be different scales.  MSA Noise tests for cars tend to be 98-108 dB, so my car should be lethal.  Background noise on my meter is usually 60-70 dB.  Nevertheless, 2 stroke gennies are very noisy, and the quiet ones are ten times the price.  Running a 2 stroke for few hours a day to charge up batteries isn't that helpful, as the wheelchair batteries found in powerpacks can only be trickle charged.  I've been trying to work out a way of running the fridge off batteries for years, but have given up and use gas

truck there are, when i was doing my engineering qualifications there was all manner of ways of measuring sound, ranging from distance, frequency, footprint, effectiveness, how it effects humans etc etc.  i dare say even 1 db at the right frequency could kill you.

When noise levels are quoted they should either be in dB or more commonly dB(A). A level in dB will always be louder than one in dB(A) of the same number.
Also the levels quoted are sometimes Sound power levels,  which is at source, or sound pressure levels at a cetrtain distance.
If anyone needs advice on how to build a relatively cheap acoustic box to go around a genny that will still let enough air in to keep cool then contact me.

Damm- I may have just given the game away that I don't really work for the tax man!!

And yet, in a funny old way, we are all working for the tax man... :-[

Well, just thought i would check in with a quick report on the Makro 42 quid job. It is definately not silent running and will require some kind of muffling system if you plan to run it continuosly. I plan to dig a pit and drop it in, then cover it over with a board with some exhaust holes.  However on the plus side it turned over without any problems, unlike the 2 stroke attached to the mini moto which is a pain in the butt to start and it apppears to be able to power all the required gear.

I think the offer is on till the 10th so if you are quick, you might just make it.

Jay, see balck granny nee tax man, post.  Cooling will be paramount especially in france in june.  you may wish to use the excess heat to warm the swimming pool.  could be a patent here somewhere.  a device which keeps the genny quite but cool, chills the beer and warms the swimming at the same time.  answers on a fag packet.

Just got the Makro Mail flyer through the post for offers starting this Wednedsay.

There is a nutool/nupower 12V Booster Charger with Inverter for £24.99 + VAT. The description states:

• Charger recharges flat batteries
• 300 Watt Inverter:Converts your cigarette lighter to a 3 pin plug socket (max 300 watts)

300 watts at 12 volts is 25 amps.  The battery will last just over an hour.  Very clever (and cheap) device, which will have its uses.

I liked the idea of digging a pit to silence the genny, but what happens when it rains?  I know it won't but we had problems with the KKOC pissoire one year when it did.

Untill the beginning of May every year >:( :o

My local Makro (Fareham)were out of the £42 (plus VAT) job today but they say they may be getting some more in (don't hold your breath).

They had a much bigger (and heavier) 4-stroke one for £129. Plenty of those in stock!