CURLY Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 hi there, i know its a bit off topic, but a friend of mine is getting married outside, and needs a generator to power the following: disco, 2000 watts of lighting an electric hog roaster, a kettle and a PA system what sort of size generator would comfortably power this? cheers, CURLY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 The electric hog roaster I suspect will be the killer. disco = ??? Assuming you mean a medium sized sound system then ~2kw at least (input power) 2000 watts of lighting = plus the usual margin = 3kw an electric hog roaster, = god knows, I'd assume at least 3kw, probably a lot more if it's an industrial catering thing. a kettle = assuming a normal household one, budget 2-2.5kw and a PA system = Again, that could be anything from a 100W amp to a 10kw stage rig but I'd guess at least 2kw All powers are the guestimated power allowance on the generator, not necessarily the rating of the items. A 1kw device will take a startup kick of anything up to 3x its rated power, a good rule of thumb is to budget around 2x the rated power of everything you're running. I'd suggest the hog roast may be better done by combustion rather than electric heating if possible. Also, you may be better off with more than one generator - for example, power the lighting from a separate generator so that if the DJ turns the volume up too loud, you're not standing in the dark. Also gives you some redundancy in case of breakdown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishbosh Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Fridge, Surely you'd be [The Boss voice] Dancing in the dark????? [/The Boss] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CURLY Posted August 12, 2009 Author Share Posted August 12, 2009 i'm going on mixed messages from the girl thats getting married, but i think the hog roaster is just the electric motor that spins the pig on the spike to make the lurvely crispy pig skin all crackly and crispy.. droool.. mmmm but not 100% sure. i'll find out more! cheers, CURLY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wettstuff Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Try a company called power electric, havent got there number to hand at the moment they are excelent bunch of people and always freindly and willing to help, they also hire generators too Mark PS no affiliation etc etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
errol209 Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 2000 watts of lighting 2000W? 2kW? Four par cans? Cor, you know how to live it up! In the dim and distant when I did the odd similar thing in a tent we always went for a 10 kVA genset, a) because you can tow them and b) straight watts of power only works on resistive loads, and hog roaster motors, dimmer racks, power amps etc. are all inductive or have funny phase angles and sudden changes in demand (a big genny will deal with crazy changes in load better, IMHO) As Mr F says, far better to err on the big side and use a bit more fuel. At work we used to use Aggreko, but I don't think they go down very small (but they were always quite good). Tell a lie a bit of Googling says they do 15kVA to 2.1MVA. I'll get my coat ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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