Emergency generator for home

To answer the question that's been ignored, the simplest solution is to get a manual changeover switch fitted by a REC, the caveat being that if you go that route, anything in the house can be active when the generator is running, so care is needed to avoid overloading, things like kettles and (especially) electric showers take a big load, and may overload the generator.

In that scenario, if the power fails, the generator needs to be started and allowed to stabilise, then operate the changover. That puts the power back on. There is no indication that the ESB supply has returned, so you will need to check to see when you can switch back. The best way to switch back is to stop the generator, then operate the changeover to go back to ESB supply

It is possible, but considerably more expensive, to put in automatic changover contactors, and to also have the generator automatically start and shut down if the ESB drops out, but that level of capability tends to be used on larger generators that have electric starting, and for loads that are more critical.

looksee wrote: »

I thought Ireland didn't do the 'feeding into grid' thing? I don't know, I could be wrong. Yes I looked rather briefly but didn't follow though, really its a young person's game, getting your money back on solar takes too long to be worth it to me.

And there in a nutshell is the problem that none of the relevant stakeholders are even looking at with serious intent, let alone addressing with any degree of urgency.

The older people that can possibly afford the costs of the upgrades needed for the benefits to be worthwhile are going to be reluctant to spend the sums involved because they won't see the benefit of the spend, and the younger people that could benefit from the spend on energy changes can't afford the massive up front costs that are involved.

For there to be any real meaningful uptake of changes will require a fundamental change of attitude towards the supply, costs, certification and grant aid of alternative energy, right across the board, so that LOCAL manufacturers of appropriate technology get massive tax breaks to enable them to produce their products for a much lower unit cost. The install process probably cant change much, but the certification can be made much simpler and straightforward, and there have to be significant incentives to enable micro generation systems to feed back into the grid if they are producing an excess, with an option to bank that surplus as a fund for use during periods of the year when there is no surplus, and there needs to be a much clearer and simpler method of funding and grant aiding upgrades to older properties that incentivise people to upgrade, rather than the present negative system of just increasing taxes to discourage usage.

30 years ago, I designed our heating and hot water system here to have multiple zones, so that we could get better utilisation of our energy input. Now, that foresight disqualifies me from taking grant aid to upgrade the system to "smart" technology, which is not what the scheme is supposed to do.

In the same vein, the insulation schemes are still not well thought out, one of the biggest energy losers are the thousands of dormer roof style houses that have been built over the last 40 years, as their construction style makes them almost impossible to adequately insulate, particularly for air tightness, which is the only way to prepare to install a heat pump style system, and I could very easily add to the list of other issues that SEAI are not adequately addressing.

And yes, to partially address the original thread subject, a better energy utilisation system for house lighting that provides safety by keeping lights on from battery or alternative sources in the event of power outages should be very easy now with the advent of LED lighting that only needs low voltage supply, but there seems to have been very few initiatives to encourage such changes, in many respects, there's been no new thinking to the way lighting works for close on 50 years, other than the recent introduction of LED luminaires, which are the game changer for this sort of idea.

With the way weather changes are happening, I suspect that there will be increased numbers of outages of power, and possibly for longer periods, partly because of stronger and more regular wind events, and partly because of of other weather related issues like snow, and there is only so much that can be done to improve the resilience of distribution systems, especially in rural areas, and the costs of putting much more of the lower voltage systems underground make that option prohibitive, the initial install costs, and subsequent maintenance costs would be astronomic.

There is also the still unknown issue of what happens if the wind power systems are not running because there is no wind, unless we as a country have access to alternative supplies, if we are too dependent on wind and solar power, unless someone can come up with a new energy storage technology, there will be times when the power available will not meet the demand, and in that situation, some form of load shedding or sharing systems will have to be introduced to avoid cascading crashes of the supply system.