We are under an ice storm warning here in West Tennessee, with the brunt of the weather happening tonight and tomorrow, and another chance of snow on Sunday.
I have the generator serviced, and ready to go, so I am not worried about the food, or staying warm. I was reading in my generator's owner manual that the electronics should be plugged into a surge protector, and then the surge protector plugged into the generator.
My generator is a Porter Cable 5000W. I have used it quite a bit for contractor type stuff, and it is a workhorse, and I am very pleased with it. It is a little big, and loud. I am concerned about the laptops, and charging phones, etc.
I have been looking at inverter generators. I am looking at the Generac, Powerhouse, and of course Honda inverter generators. They are much smaller, quieter, and produce a "cleaner" electric current.
I have been traveling a lot, and am considering a small enclosed trailer fixed up as a small mobile office. Most of my trips are quick, one, possibly two night trips where sometimes something like that would be much more suited for the task than setting up shop in a hotel for one night.
Having said all of that, my question is this: Would a regular generator work with surge protection, or would you spring for the inverter generator? I would be charging equipment, running a laptop and printer, and possibly a small air conditioner in the dog days of summer.
Thanks in advance.
You can get a "whole house" surge protector installed on your power box a whole lot cheaper than buying another generator.
I have a Kohler generator hooked to my gas line that will carry my entire house with no problem. It comes on automatically everytime I lose power. Even though it cost a boat load of cash, it's the best monet I ever spent.
Even with all of that, I had a whole house surge protector installed on the power box. It not only protects every circuit in the house, it protects the control panel for the generator and everything hooked to it.
So far, it has worked like a charm.
I'd call a local electrician like "Electric Pro", and see what kind of deal and set-up they offer.
Thanks for the info. We are hoping to build a house in the next few years. I will have a backup generator when I build my house. I will also have a surge protector to protect the whole house.
Right now I am looking at the portability and multi-purpose use of a regular generator verses an inverter generator. I have a lot of construction jobs coming up, where the small trailer might be pretty handy for looking at plans, doing calcs, etc.
This ice storm warning that we are under just got me to thinking about it with a little more earnest.
Why not just a big un-interruptable power supply with built-in surge protection ports? Plug that into the generator then plug sensitive stuff in to that.
APC makes some big monster ones under $200.
That's got to be a far sight cheaper than an inverter.
E.
In the Ky ice storm of 09 I ended up with 3 generators as our power was off for 3 weeks and needed to run office and farm shop along with house. Lost a tv, microwave, and garage door opener before I got a Honda 6500. Idles at low usage and has a voltage regulator. Was about $4000 but well worth it I think. I fired up all 3 yesterday as we are also under that ice storm warning, just in case.
Thanks again for all the replies.
My big generator is about the size of a big wheelburrow. The smaller inverter generator I was looking at is about the size of a small personal ice cooler. It would be easier to keep in the trailer, and run the stuff off of that I need.
I am also looking at a DC power solution with a solar panel to keep it charged. A friend of mine, Stephen Ward, has a similar system in place in his pickup, and we were talking about it this morning.
If I have to run anything off of the big generator, I have a couple of Fellows and Cyber Power surge protectors, and will use those.
Thanks again.
In general, the hazards include:
-Voltage transients: when a big load disconnects, the voltage seen by other devices may spike. This is where the surge supressors help out.
-Low frequency: (not enough RPM) may overheat transformers in user equipment and could let motors stall. A stalled motor left powered for a while will burn up.
-Low voltage: again motors may stall
-High voltage: could burn out most anything
-Bad waveform: a rotating generator will probably have an acceptable near-sinusoid waveform, maybe with a little flat-topping. Cheap inverters may have a very crude, stepped waveform. The harmonics can be hard on electronics using transformers. The best inverters smooth the waveform out.
I wish I knew more about the behavior of switching power supplies with strange waveforms and transients. They should be able to deal with them but I'm not sure all designs do so.
