Best Generator For my garage

Stinky

Stinky

Stinky

Soldato
Joined
28 Mar 2005
Posts
9,250
Hi all

after recently selling a car i am now aiming to get my mini back on the road over the xmas period. however, the garage i have has no power / lighting etc

so i need a generator. budget is as little as possible. it will only need to run a lead light or 2, and some sort of heating.

whats the best and cheapest genny i can buy?

i dont have a clue what im looking for! :(
 
Is there no way you can get power to the garage from the house? I'd much rather dig a trench and run a cable than have a noisy generator running all the time
 
Is there really no way of powering it any other way? Generators are noisy and often quite expensive.

I use a 50m extension reel run from an outside socket on the house when I need to work in the garage, it's enough to run the lights, drill, grinder, sander, electric HVLP spraygun etc. The lights dip for a split second when you crack the MIG on but it copes with that too.
 
no unfortunatly the garage is about 1/4 mile from my house so running a lead isnt possible.

i had to rent a garage and this was the closest i could get :(
 
You could just get a wind up/solar powered lantern or two and wear more layers. If a generator is really necessary then i'd not get a petrol one - perhaps a small wind turbine?
 
Presumably down a road and not across private land?

You could speak to the local electric company and find out how much it would cost to put in a meter and supply - you're probably looking at a fair whack for a generator anyway so it's worth a phone call
 
Is the gaps around the door big. If not maybe a chaepo parraffin heater might take the worst off the cold.

You should have done it in the summer...plenty of heat and light...lol
 
*Moangroan* said:
Is the gaps around the door big. If not maybe a chaepo parraffin heater might take the worst off the cold.

You should have done it in the summer...plenty of heat and light...lol
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i didnt have the money to get it all done in the summer. and now im back off work till new year i have all the time in the world to get on with it!

Lopéz said:
What about those emergency floodlights for the lighting, the big battery jobbies?
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cant say ive seen these.... lighting is my main issue. will check out this idea
 
I've got a 1kw petrol generator which runs for about 4 - 6 hours on about £4 worth of petrol, kicks out enough juice for things like lights and a stereo + fridge, should be good enough to provide you with light and some additional power. Was about £200 but you can get them for closer to £100 now.
 
For comparison - at work we've been fitting out a new shop which needed a supply installed, involved running a 3 phase supply (for air con) from a submain that wasn't the "local" one, they had to do it on a sunday morning due to other buildings being affected and it cost £600
 
Just get a 5KW cheapie petrol one, should be fine if it's only being used for lights...

Or...

Buy a load of torches and rechargeable batteries...
 
For lighting you could slap a trickle charge solar panel to a leisure battery such as for a caravan (£70-80 from my local caravan shop) and hook 12v flourescent strip lights to it. If your in there 2-3 times a week the battery will charge plenty in between to run the lights when you are there.

No generator will run heating for long, a small gas camping heater will help take the edge off though.

If you do decide to get a generator then there are 2.5KV petrol honda knock offs on ebay. I bought one of these 2 years ago for bike racing and it is more than capable of running tyre warmers (1200w), 100w light and some 12v chargers. Plenty still for the kettle by itself too. I have run a 3 bar electric heater off it too (1200w) but gas is cheaper and better for space heating.
 
Space heaters are quite cheap now, then get a cheap genny for lights and power tools. And the spaceheater of course ;)
 
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Firestar_3x said:
I've got a 1kw petrol generator which runs for about 4 - 6 hours on about £4 worth of petrol, kicks out enough juice for things like lights and a stereo + fridge, should be good enough to provide you with light and some additional power. Was about £200 but you can get them for closer to £100 now.
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Sounds about right... I have a 950w 2 stroke jobby which was around 130 quid I think, although I only ever really used it for running sound systems in field parties ;). Having said that I think I did use it once when the power went down in my house for a couple of days, had it running server, pc, lights and sound system so more than ample power really.

A couple of years ago B+Q were doing a deal on a 4 stroke one, was only about 80 quid I think.. worth a look?
 
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