Which Emergency Generator?

[Alan]

After our local electricity supplier told us we would be off power for up to a couple of days due to work nearby, I've decided to invest in a small generator for our fish tanks. Not being particularly flush with cash at the moment (who is!?!) I have a max budget of £175, so am looking for some recommendations. Also, is there any benefit of getting petrol over diesel, or vice versa? I need to draw about 1000W for my tanks.

[Bas Pels]

Would hiring one be an option?

If it is, you might get a much better one - and perhaps leave some of this money for other purposes

[MatsP]

Bas's suggestion is a good one - if it's just a "one off", then hiring one would be much better than buying one, at least with regards to price.

This page:
http://www.hss.com/index.php?g=41402#PricingTitle
says that you can get a 2.6kVA (that's about 2kW) generator for about £60 for a couple of days.

My only concern would be the fuel capacity - as it says that it runs at full load for about 3 hours.

This:
http://www.hss.com/g/41105/Generator-4k ... etrol.html
may be better, as it runs for 13h on a tank.

This page shows that the first one listed will probably break your budget:
http://www.thegreenreaper.co.uk/showdetails.asp?id=1615

--
Mats