Buyers Guide - Portable Power
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There are many situations when you need electricity somewhere away from the mains supply. Machine Mart has three solutions to your problem. GENERATORS Machine Mart sells a selection of generators which run on either petrol or diesel, some can also be converted to run on Propane. They are capable of supplying from 700watts to 6500watts (0.7Kva to 6.5Kva). Some are suitable for occasional use, and some are designed for continuous use. If you are looking for a generator for leisure use – Camping, caravanning or boating there are super quiet models to choose, for commercial and industrial use, there are larger machines – with less sound proofing, but able to supply a greater output. When picking a generator, things to look out for are: INVERTERS Inverters can be used to power mains voltage items in your vehicle or boat, now you can take almost anything you can think of and use it on the move (Subject to legal guidelines) – Lap-tops, shavers, Hi-Fi’s – DVD players, TVs, Power tools, etc An inverter will take a 12volt, direct current supply, from a car or leisure battery, for example and turn it into 230volt, alternating current supply. As you never get something for nothing (in science, at least!), the greater the output you require from your inverter, the greater the drain on your battery. All Machine Mart inverters have at least one 13amp square pin socket and one even has a USB socket, suitable for powering/re-charging mobiles, MP3 players, PDAs etc. The majority of them just plug into the 12volt cigarette lighter socket in your vehicle. Larger models may be hard wired into your boat, caravan or motorhome. Invertors are silent in use and therefore ideal in sensitive situations. As with generators, you should buy a model with sufficient output to power whatever you need to attach to it. SOLAR PANELS Machine Mart’s solar panels harness the suns free energy (maybe you do get something for nothing, after all!) and convert it into electricity. With the high efficiency units we sell, it doesn’t even have to be sunny – daylight will work just as well. The solar panels are primarily designed to re-charge batteries. The smaller models, some of which are only a little larger than an A4 pad, are suitable for trickle charging. This stops your battery from going flat when you’re not running the engine for long periods, but not really draining it either. The larger models, which are still very light, can be used to re-charge a battery which is being used more heavily or even multiple batteries, making them suitable for boats, motorhomes and caravans. Solar panels are silent in use and therefore ideal in sensitive situations CALCULATING VOLTS, WATTS and AMPS To calculate the wattage of an item multiply the amps by the volts v x a = w To calculate amps – w ÷ v = a To calculate volts – w ÷ a = v Use this as an approximate guide to the power required from your power source.
*These items need a regulated power supply which makes sure the current supplied is suitably “smooth” for the delicate electronic circuitry. ‡Items with symbol may require a higher starting current - please check before buying a specific generator or other power source.
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