Generator or Inverter for residential use?

Having lived with a 15kVa generator for a little over a week, my thoughts thus far...

It is great being able to run just about anything in the house such as the electric kettle, ovens, pool pump, microwave, etc.
The switch over and back time sucks meaning everything in the house goes on and off, at least it is automatic.
Buying diesel and refuelling sucks balls, especially at the rate a 15kVa uses diesel.
Switching it to manual at bed time so it doesn't run at ridiculous hours of the night but still getting disturbed by electronics switching on and off.
The fact that it costs money every time it runs and when it isn't running it is basically just a big heavy eye sore.
 
Neuk_ said:
Having lived with a 15kVa generator for a little over a week, my thoughts thus far...

It is great being able to run just about anything in the house such as the electric kettle, ovens, pool pump, microwave, etc.
The switch over and back time sucks meaning everything in the house goes on and off, at least it is automatic.
Buying diesel and refuelling sucks balls, especially at the rate a 15kVa uses diesel.
Switching it to manual at bed time so it doesn't run at ridiculous hours of the night but still getting disturbed by electronics switching on and off.
The fact that it costs money every time it runs and when it isn't running it is basically just a big heavy eye sore.
Click to expand...
Soon you'll just be using it to charge your batteries and supplement load when it's raining. You won't have to worry about the off/on thing because the inverter will take care of that...
 
Neuk_ said:
Having lived with a 15kVa generator for a little over a week, my thoughts thus far...

It is great being able to run just about anything in the house such as the electric kettle, ovens, pool pump, microwave, etc.
The switch over and back time sucks meaning everything in the house goes on and off, at least it is automatic.
Buying diesel and refuelling sucks balls, especially at the rate a 15kVa uses diesel.
Switching it to manual at bed time so it doesn't run at ridiculous hours of the night but still getting disturbed by electronics switching on and off.
The fact that it costs money every time it runs and when it isn't running it is basically just a big heavy eye sore.
Click to expand...
Sounds like the inverter spoiled you in someway.
The only thing I cannot run on my 5kw is the oven and geyser, but everything else runs no worries on it. The electronics switching off must be weird, as you got so used to it not doing it.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Soon you'll just be using it to charge your batteries and supplement load when it's raining. You won't have to worry about the off/on thing because the inverter will take care of that...
Click to expand...
I need to get a bigger gen to do that, as my old 2.8kva is with my dad at the moment.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Same, unfortunately the money that I set aside for that was spent on a PS5 Black Friday deal... :/
Click to expand...
Mine was on a 65" OLED... Though my dad does require the generator more then I do as he's had 4 days of no power :-(
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Soon you'll just be using it to charge your batteries and supplement load when it's raining. You won't have to worry about the off/on thing because the inverter will take care of that...
Click to expand...

Yep, install is scheduled for Wednesday if everything can be procured in time and the weather plays ball.
 
Lupus said:
Sounds like the inverter spoiled you in someway.
The only thing I cannot run on my 5kw is the oven and geyser, but everything else runs no worries on it. The electronics switching off must be weird, as you got so used to it not doing it.
Click to expand...

Exactly, even with the small ESS that we had, we just never worried about LS or no CityPower feed other than the oven for cooking. Admittedly, to get a 15kVa capable ESS would cost a small fortune compared to he R100k for a 15kVa diesel generator.
 
Neuk_ said:
Exactly, even with the small ESS that we had, we just never worried about LS or no CityPower feed other than the oven for cooking. Admittedly, to get a 15kVa capable ESS would cost a small fortune compared to he R100k for a 15kVa diesel generator.
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It would yes, but the 15kva generator costs you all the time you run it though so you'd need to take into account how much 1 session costs you.
 
Lupus said:
It would yes, but the 15kva generator costs you all the time you run it though so you'd need to take into account how much 1 session costs you.
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Yep, 15kVa is overkill for LS needs though, we are going for an 8kW inverter with some load management will be enough to run almost the entire house. And unlike the generator we will get something back every second the ESS is used.
 
Neuk_ said:
Yep, 15kVa is overkill for LS needs though, we are going for an 8kW inverter with some load management will be enough to run almost the entire house. And unlike the generator we will get something back every second the ESS is used.
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Big jump up from the 3kva, how many panels are you going with?
 
Lupus said:
Big jump up from the 3kva, how many panels are you going with?
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Yep, we have two electric geysers in the house and a pool now, I may put a KwikHot geyser in the kitchen though and only run the one electric geysers when we have guests staying with us. Going for 16 540w PV panels, so theoretical 8.6kWp available but our roof orientation isn't conducive to true North facing.
 
Neuk_ said:
Yep, we have two electric geysers in the house and a pool now, I may put a KwikHot geyser in the kitchen though and only run the one electric geysers when we have guests staying with us. Going for 16 540w PV panels, so theoretical 8.6kWp available but our roof orientation isn't conducive to true North facing.
Click to expand...
A biiiig jump up, nice pics of when it's done.
 
Neuk_ said:
Yep, we have two electric geysers in the house and a pool now, I may put a KwikHot geyser in the kitchen though and only run the one electric geysers when we have guests staying with us. Going for 16 540w PV panels, so theoretical 8.6kWp available but our roof orientation isn't conducive to true North facing.
Click to expand...
I am running the whole house of my 8kW including the geyser and pool pump. There is also a flat but it is not used at the moment. Will stagger the 2 geysers to manage the load. Also using SolarAssistant now and when the load gets too high it switches the geyser off and delivers a TTS notification on the kitchen speaker. It will then check after 10 minutes if the load has dropped enough to turn the geyser on again.

It is actually easy to use more than 8kW if people don't think about what they are doing. I think I need to expand my load management to include the oven and dishwasher as well. Also going to put a CBI on the big AC in the house and the flat to be able to switch them off when needed.
 
furpile said:
I am running the whole house of my 8kW including the geyser and pool pump. There is also a flat but it is not used at the moment. Will stagger the 2 geysers to manage the load. Also using SolarAssistant now and when the load gets too high it switches the geyser off and delivers a TTS notification on the kitchen speaker. It will then check after 10 minutes if the load has dropped enough to turn the geyser on again.

It is actually easy to use more than 8kW if people don't think about what they are doing. I think I need to expand my load management to include the oven and dishwasher as well. Also going to put a CBI on the big AC in the house and the flat to be able to switch them off when needed.
Click to expand...

I will be looking at a similar management process to monitor heavy use appliances, initially I want to get an idea of what our consumption is like so will put the two geysers on the non-critical output or aux side of the inverter. I'll eventually have HA running again, the inverter and weather station, smart switches, etc. all integrated in and use it to manage as much as possible.

Are you using something like the CBi WiFi CB's to switch geysers on and off?
 
Neuk_ said:
I will be looking at a similar management process to monitor heavy use appliances, initially I want to get an idea of what our consumption is like so will put the two geysers on the non-critical output or aux side of the inverter. I'll eventually have HA running again, the inverter and weather station, smart switches, etc. all integrated in and use it to manage as much as possible.

Are you using something like the CBi WiFi CB's to switch geysers on and off?
Click to expand...
Yes I have a CBI switch in each DB to control the gesyer. Want to install the CBI isolator on the aircon.
 
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