oobayly
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Thanks Lectrician.
We got a quote for a 16kVA generator with an ATS, but to be honest we looked at what we'd effectively lost from power cuts, and the RoI was going to be about 15 years!
Transfer time isn't an issue, our UPSs give servers, phones & desks about 60-70 minutes of up time, and seeing as most of our power cuts last less than a few minutes we tend to wait about 20 minutes before even thinking about getting the generator started.
Loading would be an issue, so getting another CU for the critical systems would be the ultimate choice - especially as we have a a few spare RCBOs in the 1st stage CU. It would however mean trying to wedge in a transfer switch and another CU and rewire the existing 2nd stage CU.
The plug-socket arrangement is - as you say - a bit of a bodge, but seeing seeing as we've used the generator "in anger" for a total of 12 hours (the rest was running in) in 2 years, so while far from ideal, the "half-way" solution does give us the benefit of not spending a large amount for something that is barely used.
My main concern was that somebody was going to say "hell no, we can't install ceiling lights that are going to be used of a plug", though I can't see a reason why that'd be the case.
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