Using a Generator

mikeecho

I recently visited a newly built house, the guy had it setup so that in the event of a power outage, he could connect the house to a Generator.

I have no specs or details of his setup.

How difficult / expensive would it be to retrofit a similar system to my house?

I have a detached garage with its own breaker board (correct term ?) The garage has my oil boiler and well pump.

I would need the generator to run both the house and garage.

Any suggestions/ideas

Luckysasha

You would have to ask yourself do you really need it. Look at the area and see historically if it is prone to power outages. The days of people beings without power or days on end are long gone except in exceptional circumstances i.e.: hurricanes etc. Even at that the last major storm I work was Doris back in 2014 and I remember when it was all over the longest anyone was without power was something like 4 days. You could be spending a whole lot of money for something you will never use

mikeecho

Luckysasha wrote: »

You would have to ask yourself do you really need it. Look at the area and see historically if it is prone to power outages. The days of people beings without power or days on end are long gone except in exceptional circumstances i.e.: hurricanes etc. Even at that the last major storm I work was Doris back in 2014 and I remember when it was all over the longest anyone was without power was something like 4 days. You could be spending a whole lot of money for something you will never use

Very true.

But if I don't have electricity, I don't have water.

It's just to have for an emergency, as I could rent/borrow a genny

Any idea of ballpark costs?

Steve

Change-over switch about €50-€60, cabling / plugs sockets another €50 - €80, labour would depend on location of everything and access etc.

Not a big job - probably get charged 1.5 day between visit, ordering, and install.

You'd have to manage the loads the generator is supplying carefully or it'll stall, turn off all non essentials and leave fridge, water, boiler, and some lights.

mikeecho

Steve wrote: »

Change-over switch about €50-€60, cabling / plugs sockets another €50 - €80, labour would depend on location of everything and access etc.

Not a big job - probably get charged 1.5 day between visit, ordering, and install.

You'd have to manage the loads the generator is supplying carefully or it'll stall, turn off all non essentials and leave fridge, water, boiler, and some lights.

Perfect.

That's exactly what I needed to know

Thanks

Ill have an electrician calling to the house soon for an unrelated job., I'll ask him for a price.
Now that I know it's not going to cost the earth.

Bass Reeves

Steve wrote: »

Change-over switch about €50-€60, cabling / plugs sockets another €50 - €80, labour would depend on location of everything and access etc.

Not a big job - probably get charged 1.5 day between visit, ordering, and install.

You'd have to manage the loads the generator is supplying carefully or it'll stall, turn off all non essentials and leave fridge, water, boiler, and some lights.

Labour would be the big issue. Any electrician doing something like that has to be affilated to RECI( actually any contract work in general) and has to certify the work.He may also need to recertify all your existing wiring. Lots of these independent electricians are charging 50/hour for labour. You might not have much change out of 1K. The other thing unless you have a generator yourself in the case of a long outage because of a storm it is unlikly you be able to borrow a generator.

Steve

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Labour would be the big issue. Any electrician doing something like that has to be affilated to RECI( actually any contract work in general) and has to certify the work.He may also need to recertify all your existing wiring. Lots of these independent electricians are charging 50/hour for labour. You might not have much change out of 1K. The other thing unless you have a generator yourself in the case of a long outage because of a storm it is unlikly you be able to borrow a generator.

50/ hr is not excessive - especially for small jobs, I charge a lot more than that .

REC is only mandatory for domestic jobs that meet the criteria. I only do industrial / commercial work.

You could be correct on having to re-cert the whole installation, I don't know about that in a domestic setting. You don't have to in non domestic.

EHP

Steve wrote:

REC is only mandatory for domestic jobs that meet the criteria. I only do industrial / commercial work.

Fitting a generator in a domestic house would come under restricted works and would have to be certified. In industrial commercial work you don't have to be a reci to complete any electrical work but if you are a reci you have to issue certs as per the same guidelines as you would in a domestic.

Steve wrote:

You could be correct on having to re-cert the whole installation, I don't know about that in a domestic setting. You don't have to in non domestic.

You wouldn't re-cert the whole installation just the works you complete, of course you would be completing an insulation resistance test on the complete installation and would also have to note any existing defects you find on the cert.