Generator?

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
I would tomorrow, except for one little issue. Removing the fittings to extract the transformers makes an awful mess which requires replastering. And for some strange reason my wife is not at all keen on it ;)
Do you have to take them out? Maybe just rewire from the tranny input to the bulb/ fitting, cutting them out of the loop ? I'm fairly sure most of these things are designed to pull out through the light fitting anyway - I've certainly changed one and I think bypassed another.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Do you have to take them out? Maybe just rewire from the tranny input to the bulb/ fitting, cutting them out of the loop ? I'm fairly sure most of these things are designed to pull out through the light fitting anyway - I've certainly changed one and I think bypassed another.
where these fittings are in a plasterboard ceiling they will very often make a big hole when you try and extract them. Some clamp far better worse than others. We had to remove 3 or four fittings where they were singed from the halogen bulbs and each one needed the attentions of a plasterer. once the fittings are out then we can fairly easily extract the transformers.
there is one possible answer which is to replace all the fittings for wide brimmed fittings, which I expect will be the eventual answer when I get round to it.
 

Wisconsonian

Member
Trade
As Highland Mule said, if your current generator can run the borehole, then it can keep the lights on. LED lights these days require hardly any power at all. Cooking will be a bigger demand, but it should run an oven OR one stovetop element.

You'll have to dig through the wiring to see if the outlet is controlled based on load/amps, that's certainly possible, and common with farm wiring.
 

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
What size generator would I need for a four bed farmhouse which is all electric?
Thanks

Depends what you want to do. If you're not prepared to take any compromise and your heating is all electric, it would be seriously big 20-30kVA as above (££££). If all you need is to power a few LED lights and top up the chest freezers once in a while you can probably get away with a 1 or 2kVA suitcase. From experience, it's unlikely that you'll need much of a fridge during most power cuts, but will need heating for the house.

Personally, I'd spend the money on resiliance of supplies, some diversity of heating (log burner/ oil boiler, camping stove etc.) and stick with something a bit smaller, assuming that cuts aren't a regular event.
 

Netherfield

Member
Location
West Yorkshire
where these fittings are in a plasterboard ceiling they will very often make a big hole when you try and extract them. Some clamp far better worse than others. We had to remove 3 or four fittings where they were singed from the halogen bulbs and each one needed the attentions of a plasterer. once the fittings are out then we can fairly easily extract the transformers.
there is one possible answer which is to replace all the fittings for wide brimmed fittings, which I expect will be the eventual answer when I get round to it.

White or chrome available, I've used a few of these where the new light is smaller than the original hole



IMG_20211130_165153.jpg


And comes with lampholders as well.
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
You should have bought the generator at the James H Wood sale at Berwick last week, although it might have been a bit on the large side as it was a v8 Deutz 100 kVA set, £2150 including commission.
 

Gormers

Member
Location
east yorkshire
Depends what you want to do. If you're not prepared to take any compromise and your heating is all electric, it would be seriously big 20-30kVA as above (££££). If all you need is to power a few LED lights and top up the chest freezers once in a while you can probably get away with a 1 or 2kVA suitcase. From experience, it's unlikely that you'll need much of a fridge during most power cuts, but will need heating for the house.

Personally, I'd spend the money on resiliance of supplies, some diversity of heating (log burner/ oil boiler, camping stove etc.) and stick with something a bit smaller, assuming that cuts aren't a regular event.

went all electric quite a few years back for elderly parents just because of ease & cleanliness.
Was only saying to brother last month that we have all our eggs in one basket & a serious outage would find us out
Luckily we were only off for 18 hours after Arwen.
We need to have a big rethink and soon 🤔
 

e3120

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
You should have bought the generator at the James H Wood sale at Berwick last week, although it might have been a bit on the large side as it was a v8 Deutz 100 kVA set, £2150 including commission.
Dad had enough bits and bobs of vaguely useful stuff + a mag drill that seems right enough. He's been scavenging upstairs at the bolts as well. They will be missed.
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
Dad had enough bits and bobs of vaguely useful stuff + a mag drill that seems right enough. He's been scavenging upstairs at the bolts as well. They will be missed.

And we'll all be buggered if we need to replace a chain and sprockets on a Saturday morning at harvest, or need a f**kup 'mishap' straightened in the big press.

Your old boy did well to get upstairs, it's where Drew (back in the day) used to keep the left hand threaded widgets, in both metric and imperial sizes. He was bad to beat ☹️
 

HDAV

Member
I think I'd be ripping out the transformers and going to mains voltage if I were you - change the fittings to something more helpful (GU-10?) at the same time.
I’m using Philips master MR16 leds have some 2 and 4 led units only one dodgy one in kitchen works whe it wants too…think it’s a transformer issue but there are plenty of others and it’s over the fridge which is illuminated anyway….
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
I’m using Philips master MR16 leds have some 2 and 4 led units only one dodgy one in kitchen works whe it wants too…think it’s a transformer issue but there are plenty of others and it’s over the fridge which is illuminated anyway….
Are your lights just illuminating small areas as we have tried the larger ones 7 watt but they are all spot bulbs. These work well in some situations but our kitchen is lit by 18 downlighters and narrow angle spots give a lot of shadows
 

HDAV

Member
Are your lights just illuminating small areas as we have tried the larger ones 7 watt but they are all spot bulbs. These work well in some situations but our kitchen is lit by 18 downlighters and narrow angle spots give a lot of shadows
Have 10 in kitchen and 8 in dining room 4 in study 6 in spare bedroom replacing halogen as they go with Philips bought in packs of 10+ ata time think I have enough to repalce all halogen when they blow now (4 more in hall) these are a mix of the 3.4w 7w is a lot of you have that many and don’t look at watts that’s a power rating look at lumens that’s light!
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Ignore wattage…. They are 225 lumens warm white
Wattage is closely related to lumens. The problem I have is my present bulbs are similar to that and we would like to put bigger bulbs in, preferably 6-7 watts dimmable. Any bulbs with higher out put would be good , but only if they work with our current transfirmers
 

HDAV

Member
Depends what you want to do. If you're not prepared to take any compromise and your heating is all electric, it would be seriously big 20-30kVA as above (££££). If all you need is to power a few LED lights and top up the chest freezers once in a while you can probably get away with a 1 or 2kVA suitcase. From experience, it's unlikely that you'll need much of a fridge during most power cuts, but will need heating for the house.

Personally, I'd spend the money on resiliance of supplies, some diversity of heating (log burner/ oil boiler, camping stove etc.) and stick with something a bit smaller, assuming that cuts aren't a regular event.
If you can have a separate board with the “essential circuits” on and aswitcher for the gen set (can be a inlet socket outside that you can hook up to or a standby unit plumbed and ready to go

router lights alarm freezer boiler and associated pumps a couple of sockets for a microwave etc think what you need a caravan and you can pretty much run all that off a 16-amp supply with led lighting once you decide kettles showers others are “essential” the peak demands go up gen sets are good for stable not so good for big demand changes forget where the peak efficiency is but they aren’t good for headroom and fuel consumption at lower loads is still quite high

not sure about current regs but it used to be reasonably easy to fit a change over panel to a split load board but the splitting is often less than ideal
 

HDAV

Member
Wattage is closely related to lumens. The problem I have is my present bulbs are similar to that and we would like to put bigger bulbs in, preferably 6-7 watts dimmable. Any bulbs with higher out put would be good , but only if they work with our current transfirmers
Depends how effienct the leds are, it should be, but lumens are why you want……also the lens technology is key which is why different brands and dare I say quality brands rather than ones that prioritise the biggest number they can put on the box …….. have you looked at home they measure the output?

learnt a thing or 2 rigging theatrical lighting and there is far more to lighting than the number of watts you are throwing about…….
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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