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Running from backup generaor in powercut?

 
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Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs)
Last Post by Transparent 4 months ago
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Mars
 Mars
(@editor)
Illustrious Member Admin
Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 4551
09/01/2026 10:34 am  

Right on topic, Storm Goretti has done its thing and we’ve been without power since last night… looks like we’ll be lucky to have power restored by 9pm tonight according to text messages from the DNO.

The fires are on and downstairs is heating up.

IMG 1428

I do find it odd how ‘fragile’ the electricity infrastructure is in the UK. We ended up having about 25cm of snow last night, and no overly strong winds, so I’m really surprised that huge areas around us are without power. 

IMG 1410
IMG 1418
IMG 1406

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Transparent
 Transparent
(@transparent)
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Posts: 3179
09/01/2026 1:18 pm  

Here's the Power Cut map from Cornwall at 23:00 last night

NGED outages 2026 01 08 23 06 03

 

The best strategy for adding a (diesel) generator is to connect it to a dedicated input on a hybrid storage inverter.

That allows it to run in its 'sweet spot' for efficiency whilst re-charging a battery.
And the inverter will switch it off when the stored energy reaches a threshold which you configure.

image

Here's the notes from the Sunsynk inverter, describing how the relay contacts can be wired to
start and stop the generator automatically.

image

 

Posted by: @editor
↑

I do find it odd how ‘fragile’ the electricity infrastructure is in the UK.

The technical term for this is "low resilience".

Commercial companies are busy adding Battery Electricity Storage Systems (BESS) all over GB, claiming that this will increase resilience.
In most cases, that's bunkum. If the power-lines are down there's still no supply to consumers.


This post was modified 4 months ago by Transparent

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Mars
 Mars
(@editor)
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Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 4551
09/01/2026 2:50 pm  

@transparent, super interesting. 

I had a long chat with the ‘reconnaissance’ team from Scottish Power a short while ago, and what a nightmare trying to track down the issue. The grid, around us anyway, is  not fully self diagnostic so it’s a lot of legwork and visual inspections. Massive faff. 

 


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Transparent
 Transparent
(@transparent)
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09/01/2026 3:40 pm  

I haven't previously met the concept of the local grid being fully self-diagnostic.

The DNO Engineers have a device they can attach to the wires which bounces back a signal from where a wire is broken (open circuit).
That allows them to travel to within one pole of the fault.

Here in the West Country we get notification of when they expect power to be restored in an affected area:

image
image

 

Currently we have NGED engineers working in Cornwall from elsewhere in the UK.

That can cause confusion when they don't understand our place names:

image

 

This might be a good moment to inform the wife that 2026 is going to be the year when you assemble and install your own off-grid storage battery.

If that news is met with stone cold silence,
defrost her before trying again.


This post was modified 4 months ago 2 times by Transparent

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Mars
 Mars
(@editor)
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09/01/2026 3:53 pm  

Our DNO has updated our restore time to 21:00, after the initial update that said we’d be back by 10:00. 


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Toodles
 Toodles
(@toodles)
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09/01/2026 5:42 pm  

@editor It is just as well that you possess some fossil fuel burning devices! But I do feel for you both nevertheless. We have been lucky in the SE of England with just heavy rain for a few hours and it was a bit blustery overnight. I hope the supply is resumed earlier than they have predicted though. Regards, Toodles.


Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.


   
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Majordennisbloodnok
 Majordennisbloodnok
(@majordennisbloodnok)
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Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 1766
09/01/2026 6:56 pm  

Posted by: @editor
↑

Our DNO has updated our restore time to 21:00, after the initial update that said we’d be back by 10:00. 

It seems the Microsoft minute has been usurped by the Scottish Power hour.

 


105 m2 bungalow in South East England
Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5 kW air source heat pump
18 x 360W solar panels
1 x 6 kW GroWatt battery and SPH5000 inverter
1 x Myenergi Zappi
1 x VW ID3
Raised beds for home-grown veg and chickens for eggs

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"


   
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Toodles
 Toodles
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09/01/2026 7:54 pm  

@majordennisbloodnok Back in the 80’ or 90’ we had a team of electricians from the local electricity board working at the college; they explained to me that they worked to a metric hour based on 100 minutes to each hour 😳 Toodles.


Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.


   
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Batpred
 Batpred
(@batpred)
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Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 823
10/01/2026 6:49 pm  

As the Iberian blackout reminded us, anything you don’t exercise now and then can show a habit of sulking when you really need it…  😄

One small upside of having a battery is that it gets used often enough to stay ‘awake’.


8kW Solis S6-EH1P8K-L-PLUS hybrid inverter; G99: 8kw export; 16kWh Seplos Fogstar battery; Ohme Home Pro EV charger; 100Amp head, HA lab on mini PC


   
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Toodles
 Toodles
(@toodles)
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Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 2731
10/01/2026 6:54 pm  

@batpred In our case, 3 times each day when the Octopus Cosy hours stop! Regards, Toodles.


Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.


   
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 Ringi
(@ringi)
New Member Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 5
17/01/2026 9:12 pm  

Posted by: @abernyte
↑

then the plumbing was left with manual change over valves to isolate the heat pump and run the old LPG boiler to provide heating,

Does that setup heat the water inside of the heatpump?



   
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 Ringi
(@ringi)
New Member Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 5
17/01/2026 9:16 pm  

Posted by: @transparent
↑

The best strategy for adding a (diesel) generator is to connect it to a dedicated input on a hybrid storage inverter

Does the quality of sine wave from the generator then become an none issue?



   
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