Generator Hire Costs

Are you thinking about running the building on the generator & the mains at the same time?

If you are there are soooo many things to consider than just the price.

No, not at the same time. It purely hypothetical. I just wanted to know what hire charges might be. More a case of just trying to "sense check" with the client

Hire for very short terms is mostly delivery costs. Hire for very long periods is mostly dominated by fuel costs. The cost of machine is not a linear function of power rating, but fuel consumption is more or less proportional to engine size..

So how much do you need -  a load of 100A phase suggests a machine of plate rating  80-100KVA, but that is if (and only if) the load comes on slowly. If the load is very sudden - perhaps a single large oven, then a the genset needs to be oversized, a load jump of 25-35% of full load is about the most you can switch onto an unloaded machine in one hit without stalling.

Expect to fork out £500 - £1000 per week for the sort of thing that will do 100A phase, more for a nicely boxed one with built in fuel tank, like you may see at a pop festival,  less for a noisy open frame type like you may use on a building site, and then there is the question of fuel tanks integrated or external,  and that price range will probably not include the cost of  getting it there, and delivery may involve a low loader or  HIAB or if you can handle less power below 50KVA or so more like a horse box sized towable thing.  That choice may also depend on accessibility of the site and how far it has to travel. If you need it for several weeks, like all hired items the price drops smartly. If you need it for years, buy it or lease it as a service.

If gensets do need to be paralleled with each other or with the incoming mains, that can be certainly  done, but it is 'extra' in terms of the equipment complexity as the engine control panel and main contactor and interlocks  need to be set up for this. And then we worry about earths and NE bonds, as on switch over you cannot rely on the DNO provided NE bond, but when in parallel you should not have two, at least in the UK where ECSQR applies. The rest of the world are more liberal about it ,and DNOs when they add generators during repairs do all sorts of odd things.

In any case you need DNO permission to add anything that has the potential to force current backwards up the street. (except small solar panels and a few other named things where they cannot refuse but just get notified.)

Mike.

Simples, surely the price is dictated by the area and whether delivered etc., shop around

Jaymack12

I was just try to get an idea base on others experiences. More a case of just trying to "sense check" with the client. If I thought it was going anywhere I would have been on the phone already.