I'm an Electrician, but I don't necessarily have all the answers. Generators have a much less accurate peak to though voltage swing. Electronics need that voltage to be very predictable, within 2% is good. Also compared with utility power, there is no line impedance to mitigate any kind of spike or surge that might be created by a less that ideal combustion of the fuel or any other mechanical imperfection in your generator.
An online or double conversion UPS would help. Please be aware that those are two different kinds of UPS. However from my experience they're not very cheap either. Exposing a slightly less sensitive piece of electronics to protect electronics makes sense, but has limited utility. Things you might consider would be: A good surge arrestor. (Not one in a power strip, those are great and all but they are made to be the canary in the coal mine, or the sacrificial lamb. The most expensive part of a power strips surge protector is the insurance policy that comes with it. Did you fill out your power strip's warranty card? - I sure as heck didn't) Next up on the protection list would be a line reactor. It's basically the same thing as a surge protector, but made to protect to tighter tolerances, and made to survive all but the biggest surges. I've heard of line reactors that can protect to as tight as 3%. Finally the best, and possibly most expensive, option an isolation transformer. An isolation transformer would provide complete isolation of grounding and noise-related input power problems that can affect electronics. (*I'm not giving you a guarantee, just telling you what it does*) Interposing an isolation transformer between the electronics and its power source offers several benefits. Isolation ensures that no direct electrical connection exists between source and load — but that's true for any transformer, other than an autotransformer. What makes the isolation transformer unique is the placement of grounded electrostatic (Faraday) shielding between and around primary and secondary windings. This shielding provides up to a million-fold decrease in the capacitive coupling involved in transferring common-mode voltage disturbance. Without such shielding, that capacitance allows passage of high-frequency noise and transient voltage spikes through the transformer. Some isolation transformers can also block “normal-mode” transients appearing between line and neutral. (Some of that was cut and paste from: http://m.machinedesign.com/motorsdrives/feed-your-vfd-right-power ) A true double conversion UPS provides isolation; but I have no way of knowing what kind of shielding it's transformer has, or how long it will hold up in the face of your particular generator. An on-line ups acts like an automatically adjusting auto transformer and does not provide isolation, but is an excellent UPS. If you want really clean power get all four: Isolation transformer, a surge supressor, a high precision line reactor, and a UPS. Each does a slightly different thing. But that might be overkill. I renovated a high school once where the engineer must have felt that they had dirty power (near a sub station possibly). He specified isolation transformers and line reactors for every VFD in their HVAC system. It was pretty cool to work with that stuff. Good luck! Josiah Luscher ( OR: 26166J - WA: LUSCHJJ861B9 - UT: 6753759-5504) On November 15, 2014 9:29:17 AM PST, Chuck Hast <[email protected]> wrote: >Based on your description of the problem, looks like you >need a "On line double conversion UPS", > [Cut out for brevity, I hope that's not rude] > > > >On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 5:36 PM, jim karlock <[email protected]> >wrote: > >> Not all UPS reform the sine wave. ALL of the low cost ones I have >> played with merely pass through the line, then switch to internal >> power when the line goes away. >> >> My main worry would be over voltage. Get a voltmeter! >> >> PS: None of those low cost UPS, that I played with, put out a sine >> wave - they put out a "modified sine wave" which has a zero volts >> time to allow a peak voltage the same as a sine wave, with a RMS the >> same as a sine wave: >> >> --- --- --- --- >> | | | | | | | | >> - - - - - - - - >> | | | | | | >> --- --- --- >> thanks >> JK >> >> >> At 05:15 PM 11/13/2014, David wrote: >> >On 11/12/2014 09:45 PM, John Jason Jordan wrote: >> > >> >< lots of stuff clipped > >> > >> > > Do I need to be concerned? If so, what kind of line conditioning >> > > equipment shuld I use? >> > > >> > >> >I am not an electrician nor do I have a lot of experience with this, >but >> >I think you would be safe with any of the reasonably priced UPS >devices >> >on the market as an intermediary. >> > >> >The UPS should help to reform the sine wave, hence conditioning, the >> >incoming signal from the wall to keep your equipment happy, and >provide >> >a bit of protection from surges as well. >> > >> >I've read that damage to electronics is caused more by brownouts >than >> >surges, so in addition to being able to keep the devices up and >running >> >(presuming no built-in batteries) during the switch from one outlet >to >> >the other, the UPS will hopefully prolong the life of your equipment >as >> >well. >> > >> >david >> >_______________________________________________ >> >PLUG mailing list >> >[email protected] >> >http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug >> _______________________________________________ >> PLUG mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug >> -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
