Battery for house

[Formatted]

The new house is significantly rural and losing power is a real possibility. During Beast for the east, they didn't have any for a week. Got an oil boiler and borehole, young children and looking to ensure we don't have enormously long periods without water, light and heat. Can we put in a wall battery in the extension that we top up with mains power which might last us a day or two? Would a small generator top this up for longer periods? If in the future we were to install solar could this feed into this?

Any good guides or videos about this?

 

[Timbo]

Just get a diesel generator.

 

[wdah/him]

I’d go generator full stop for backup. How long would a battery do? When will the solar etc be fitted cause a battery would need to be compatible wouldn’t it

 

[HatsOff]

Givenergy, Tesla or pylontech modular are your best bet. If you have an AC linked battery any solar will be compatible. Getting off grid power needs a bit more thinking about - Tesla and givenergy have off the shelf solutions for that for an auto switchover.

How long they last depends on how much you'd use and how much you want to spend on the battery

 

[br jones]

nissan leaf

 

[toquark]

I set up a 8kW diesel generator and changeover switch after storm Arwen when we were out for 7 days. Electrical work was about £400, second hand Honda genny was about £1k. Had it on a few times since.

 

[ollie989898]

If it's only for a residential dwelling, you won't need a huge generator as the main loads aren't massive- electric oven, etc likely to be the bulk of it.

Big store of good firewood (+/- some back up coal in bags you rotate through slowly) I would view as being essential.

Hob here is on LPG and once cylinder seems to last 18 months so we would do fine as we'd be able to cook something, the main concern would be the contents of the fridge and freezer.

 

[Formatted]

Sounds like generator is way forward. Will speak to an electrician about how to set that up.

 

[HatsOff]

Without solar panels, yes. With solar panels I'd get a battery and a small generator that can be used manually. The higher losses are made up for by the free solar energy.

 

[tepapa]

How many kw's do you use in a day? A 13 kw battery will likely cost circa £6.5k
And may only provide a days worth of electricity so without solar panels to make the most of seems like a lot of money for one days cover .

Generator will go indefinitely as long as you keep adding fuel. Just needs a changeover switch and a plug to connect it into the mains.

 

[steveR]

Sounds like generator is way forward. Will speak to an electrician about how to set that up.

Put in a change over switch outside where your meter box is, and then you can easily pop a gennie in as required. Size teh CoS so you can in theory, run the house completely.

For just a short standby, a cheap pertol of diesel 5KW will be more than adequate in most cases, a length of cable from gennie to CoS, and happy days.

Only issue, might be that control circuitry on boilers etc needs a clean supply of power, so old tractor PTO units can be a suspect I believe. Modern standalone gennies seem OK