Do I Need a Generator for my Event?
Do I Need a Generator for my Event? A very popular question I answer with my clients and in this article I will do my best to educate you enough to help you make a decision to what will work best for your event.
After all, with no power there is no event – so it’s crucial we get this right. Any experienced marquee hire Company will be able to guide you through what options you have at your disposal – They should tell you whether you need a generator for your event. This is where organising a site survey with your marquee hire company is such a good idea during your planning stages. You can book a site visit with us online here.
Does my Event Need a Generator for my Event at Home?
If you are hosting an event at home with a marquee in the garden, you may be able to use the incoming power from your mains at home. Most marquee hire companies’ lighting systems are LED which consumes very little power and adding in a band and a DJ and power for the bar should also mean your house incoming mains power will be adequate. If you are having a heated marquee, most heaters are diesel powered so again, they do not consume a considerable electrical load (they still require power, but that is just to power a small fan to blow the heated air inside the marquee)
Most modern homes have ring mains of 16Amps or more common, 32 Amps. You will fine a decent specced marquee will be consuming less than 13Amp of power at any one time if there is not a separate catering tent. A good marquee hire Company will have spread the power by plugging in multiple power leads from various plugs from your home. They should give the band/DJ power on a separate lead – this is mainly so if they have a fault within their circuit when plugging in their equipment halfway through the event it is just their own power line that could trip a fuse and the marquee lighting, heating and refrigeration systems stay on.
If the incoming power source (where you’re plugging the power cables into) are quite a fair distance (50m+) from the marquee you may want to consider a generator due to something called a voltage drop. Think of an electrical cable like a water pipe, it is harder to push water through a greater distance than a shorter one – cables heat up as the Amps increase if the electrical load is having to travel a distance.
This is quite rare, but it might be a good idea, if you do live in an older property to ask an electrician to come around and test your incoming power to check it sufficient. 95% of home-based events are perfectly fine to use the house electrics. Generators do tend to start at around £500-£600 – it’s a cost that I’m sure you would like to avoid, so if you have to pay your local electrician a nominal amount of money to spend 15 minutes assessing your home it might be a worthwhile investment.
Caterers & Catering Tents
We would advise a generator if your caterer is planning to be bringing in extra catering infrastructure such as cooking ovens and plate warmers. These do take up a considerable load on a domestic electric supply. Purely for peace of mind to have a generator power these juicy appliances as well as the marquee power will ensure your event goes smoothly. The extra kitchen equipment consumes a lot of power and these appliances are typically delivered a day before your event and turned on on the day of your event. It’s far to late to think of a plan B regarding power on the day of your event if you thought your house electrics would be able to take on the extra load.
Your house most likely has a 100Amp incoming supply however your house could be using half of that just running your home (kitchen appliances, car chargers, living room appliances etc). If you start plugging in separate ovens and hot plates on top of the marquee you can quickly see we might be overloading certain circuits within your house.
Speak to your caterer and ask him what if any, extra pieces of electrical equipment they are planning on bringing to your event. Have your caterer and marquee hire supplier liaise with eachother to determine whether a generator will be a good idea.
Powering Marquees in Fields
In this instance we have no choice – a generator is our only solution! Event generators are a super silent and a placed in covert areas so you’ll not be able to hear them when they’re running. Multiple distribution boards are used to make sure the whole event isn’t interrupted if a fuse is blown. I would strongly advise you let your marquee hire supplier know if any of your other suppliers you have organised for your event require power. Your marquee supplier will most likely be the person providing power for these suppliers and as much as they should carry a sufficient amount of electrical cabling – you do not want the stress on the day of the event that your marquee supplier didn’t know you have a band, external bar, photobooth to power in certain areas of your marquee and they do not have the cabling for this.
Most generators are on a road tow trailer so vehicle access will be required to get it close by to the marquee. If road access isn’t possible you can still use a generator using longer incoming mains power cables from the generator to the marquee. If this is the case we would always recommend hiring a far larger generator than required)
For larger scaled events, you can add a backup generator, which automatically kicks in should the very rare occurrence of your main generator failing. This is of course an extremely rare thing to happen – in the 11 years I have run Abacus Marquee and Event Hire this has never happened when we have brought in generators to power marquees but it could statistically happen.
Generators are powered by a mechanical diesel engine, and anybody who owns a car knows that sometimes they do let you down – often at the wrong time. Having a backup generator with something called an Automatic Mains Failure box automatically fires up the backup generator should the worst happen.
Pricing of Generators
The price of a generator, including fuel and cabling for a medium-size event will cost around £600-£70. If you wanted a secondary backup generator with an AMF you would be looking in the region of £1500.
In conclusion 95% of home based events where the marquee is located close to a power source you will be absolutely fine to use your domestic electrical power as a source so long as caterers are using just your existing kitchen and not bringing in any extra equipment. I would strongly advise to bring in an electrician and explain what you are doing to give you that peace of mind your house electrics are up to the task.
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