Finding a good key generator?

Invertor or Generator?

• Hi All, I am planning to set up a small office which would host upto 10 - 15 staff members. Considering the frequent power cuts (sometimes upto 6 hours) I am finding it hard to decide whether to go in for a invertor or generator. I am working on a tight budget - Could you please advise? Thanks in advance! Best Priya

• Answer:

  That depends on a few things. how much equipment are you going to need to power? how often do you need to use it? you should find out approximately how many watts you are going to need, then buy something that supports about 25% more than your estimated drain. an inverter will require your host vehicle to be running, or else it will drain the battery, very quickly if the power useage is large enough, and generally speaking a car will use more gas powering an inverter, than a generator would, for an equal length of time. most generators start at about 1000 watts, for the cheap ones. that probably wont be enough to power whats needed in an office setting. i would say figure on an average office computer drawing at least 300 watts, if it uses an LCD (slightly more for CRT) searching the net i found a coleman 2000 watt inverter (4000 peak) for about $225. you can probably figure on that running ok for about 3000 watts, if it wont be on for more than an hour or so. generally speaking, a generator is going to cost more per watt than an inverter. but, the generator will also consume less gas. myself, i use a 1000 watt (2000 peak) inverter in my car. when the power goes out, it powers my TV, computer, and fridge. havent had any trouble with that yet. another note about gas, is that, your car will almost always have gas in it, so it will almost always be ready for use. a generators tank is usually 1-4 gallons, and when that runs out, you have to refill it, so if you forget to keep a gas supply around, you'll be out of luck. hope some of this helps you make your descision. sorry for the long post :)