Home power generator: will it save during outages and how to choose the right model

Russia continues to build up military power on the border with Ukraine, and the Donbass has recently been subjected to increasingly brutal attacks by militants. In this regard, Ukrainians are afraid of power outages and are thinking about escape routes.

“Today” tell whether there will be a “boom” in the country for electric generators and whether it makes sense to buy it for your home.

According to Dmitry Marunich, Co-Chairman of the Energy Strategies Fundit is very unlikely that Ukrainians will run en masse for power generators.

“The current events in the Donbass have nothing to do with the work of power generation. Coal is not supplied from there, Ukraine buys coal abroad, nuclear power plants operate stably,” the expert says.

Marunich notes that interruptions in electricity and gas supply can only occur in the event of a large-scale war, but the expert considers such a scenario extremely unlikely.

Why are power generators needed?

An electric generator is a device that independently generates electricity and converts it. Often they are used by owners of private houses to prevent power outages.

There are different types of power generators, but all of them, Dmitry Marunich emphasizes, have the ability to work limited amount of time.

If your light was turned off for several hours, you can not get candles and work quietly on the power of an electric generator, but it is very expensive and simply impossible to live in this mode all the time.

Power generators can run on diesel, petrol, gasthere are also combined models.

Gasoline and diesel are the most popular due to the more affordable price and the ability to easily transport the device to any place.

Equipment with a capacity of up to three kilowatts burns approximately 0.7–1.0 liters of fuel. If you want a more powerful generator, the consumption per hour increases to 2 – 2.7 liters.

Gas generators, although distinguished by their innovativeness, must be connected to centralized pipeline.

How to calculate which generator you need?

If you still want to buy a device in case of a sudden power outage, you need to carefully calculate how much power you need.

The company selling gardening equipment storgom.ua recommends calculating the power as follows:

• Write down on a piece of paper all the electrical appliances in the house, opposite each write its power in watts.
• Divide everything you’ve recorded on vital electrical appliances and the ones you can do without for a while.
• Select separately the equipment that must constantly, uninterruptedly and simultaneously work and add up their power. There also add the power of interchangeable electrical appliances, and also do not forget to add another 20% of the power “in reserve”.

For temporary lighting of a summer house or a small house, a generator is suitable up to 3 kWgenerators up to 5 kW can provide more opportunities, such as watching TV or lighting a large area of ​​​​the house.

Generators are suitable for a very large house up to 7 kW, and 10 kW capacities are already acquired for enterprises or workshops.

Gasoline generators, depending on power, cost 8 (less than 3 kW power) up to 70 thousand UAH (more than 7 kW power).

Diesel models are significantly more expensive, – from 20 to 200 thousand UAH.

Is it possible to buy an electric generator in an apartment?

Dmitry Marunich does not recommend buying such a device for an apartment.

“This is a temporary solution, in private houses it is possible. In multi-apartment housing stock it is not realistic,” the expert believes.

Technically, you can run a generator in your apartment, but it’s a very noisy appliance, and it also stinks of gasoline. There are also danger of suffocation from carbon monoxide if the generator is installed incorrectly, a lot of space must be allocated for it.

Now more silent and compact models are already being sold, but only inverter generators are recommended for apartments, which can cost a pretty penny (about 30 thousand on average).

Segodnya also wrote about the most profitable way to heat a private house and told about the difference between firewood and pellets.