I have recently moved to a new house that has a garage on a seperate block with no electric. The electric company want a grand to put a meter in(!). Can anyone tell me what size generator I will need to power my SIP Migmate 130 welder and angle grinder, lighting etc and recomend a model (preferably cheaper than a grand!) thanks.
- Thread starter Stupot
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That's running the welder at full power, you would get away with a smaller one at lower power; but better to get as large as you can afford then you are not limited. (Get a Honda engined one aswell - best available, start first time every time).
weldequip
weldequip
What to do! Gennys are 500 quid upwards and will need servicing and may break down and it will cost a grand to have electric put in, whichever way its gonna be expensive. Shame cos it is a really big garage and out the way so I can work on vehicles without disturbing the neighbours.
Masked Marauder
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Why do you need a meter in your garage? Can you not just get a sparky to run an armoured cable from the house?
The garage is in a block not connected to the house so it would have to be run through 5 peoples gardens, that is another possibility that I will get a quote on but some people can be funny about things like that. I dont know my neighbours particularly well as Ive just moved in.
Masked Marauder
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Ah, right. That explains everything then.
rtbcomp
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If you have electricity laid on consider having 3 phase put in. They may let you have one meter to use single phase to start with.
If you own the garage having power in will increase its value when you come to sell.
A genny would be noisy, especially at night, and you can't run it inside!
If you own the garage having power in will increase its value when you come to sell.
A genny would be noisy, especially at night, and you can't run it inside!
welduk.com
welduk.com
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Hi
To work out the genny size it is
Open circuit voltage X Amps + 10% = KVA Generator
e.g.
130amp sip mig has an open circuit voltage of 18 - 34
130 x 34 + 10% = 4.86KVA
Have you thought about an invertor (GYS made in France) these can be run of a gen with + or - 15%
Welduk.com
I rented a holiday gite in France a few years back that wasn't on mains electricity. It had a big old genny in a seperate shed that was powered by an old lister diesel engine, (I think it may have been ex british army) starting it was incredibly complex, prime this tickle that up, pump this pressure up, wind up a big clockwork crank and hit the starter button and if you were lucky you'd be rewarded with a cloud of blue smoke and a steady thump thump thump. The owner called it Fafner after some sleeping dragon in a Wagner opera, was very apt!
You could have a squint on ebay and try some of the specialist military equipment companies that advertise in the likes of land rover mags as theres always the odd ex army generator set for sale.
You could have a squint on ebay and try some of the specialist military equipment companies that advertise in the likes of land rover mags as theres always the odd ex army generator set for sale.
???? I thought you need to know the power factor of the equipment you were running to work out the KVA. IE if the load it creates is purely resistive (PF1) or inductive or capicitive loads. PF can only be 1 or less, the smaller the figure the more 'extra' power you will need. Most welding sets are highly inductive, which is why some have capacitors to bring the PF nearer to 1
