Would you trust 'cheap generators' powering your sophisticated kit?

[alan8376]

Would you trust \'cheap generators\' powering your sophisticated kit?

I often read remarks about 'cheap gennys' powering drills, lamps, and the like!
How good are they for supplying power to sophisticated stuff you may have on board whilst out of the water when doing other work? Of course this will be 240Volt!
I have been warned about having 'clean' voltage and no 'spikes' to cause damage. Is it really necessary to have a 'Sine Wave' type of output??

 

[chiefeng]

Re: Would you trust \'cheap generators\' powering your sophisticated kit?

I would of thought everything on the boat is 12v DC so when you use shore power it goes through an inverter.

 

[fireball]

Re: Would you trust \'cheap generators\' powering your sophisticated ki

the inverter converts 12v (or 24v) to 240v .... the Rectifier goes from 240v to 12v (or 24v)

 

[alan8376]

Re: Would you trust \'cheap generators\' powering your sophisticated ki

Ok, I picked a bad example! Away from the boat then! During a power cut at home! Could I, without causing damage? Run a Central Heating Boiler control unit, a Computer or a TV, given the genny will supply the Kw loading?

 

[Lakesailor]

Re: Would you trust \'cheap generators\' powering your sophisticated ki

I'd say so. I blew up the capacitors on a flash generator pack once using a not very sophisticated gennie. My, they went with a bang.

 

[savageseadog]

Re: Would you trust \'cheap generators\' powering your sophisticated kit?

One way round it would be to run on an online UPS, that is a type where the unit runs when the power is on or off. The other way is to use a voltage stabilising transformer.

 

[VicMallows]

Re: Would you trust \'cheap generators\' powering your sophisticated kit?

I would be happy enough plugging in electronic stuff ONCE the generator was up to speed and stable AND loaded to something like a third of its rated output. I would also disconnect the sensitive load before shutting down the generator (or it running out of fuel). On ballance though I would prefer to charge a battery and use a decent sine-wave invertor.

Vic

 

[Lakesailor]

Re: Would you trust \'cheap generators\' powering your sophisticated ki

My capacitor explosion happened after about about an hour of running. Nothing was happening at the time. No recycling or anything. Just BANG.

 

[VicS]

Re: Would you trust \'cheap generators\' powering your sophisticated ki

[ QUOTE ]
the inverter converts 12v (or 24v) to 240v .... the Rectifier goes from 240v to 12v (or 24v)

[/ QUOTE ]

Surely an inverter converts DC to AC (OK very often from 12 or 24v DC to 240 v AC........A rectifier goes from AC to DC at any voltage without changing it.

A transformer changes AC from one voltage to another, either up or down.

 

[Solent sailer]

Re: Would you trust \'cheap generators\' powering your sophisticated ki

Hello
I agree with one of your other postings, use the generator to keep the batteries charged up and buy a inverter. Most electronic equipment will tolerate a pretty grotty supply you only need to look at the output from an old computer room ups system to see that it is more like a square wave
The voltage range on most TV’s etc is very wide nowadays but if you fit an inverter you won’t always need to run the generator to have 230v available and the batteries will act as a buffer should the generator output fluctuate.

 

[TrueBlue]

Re: Would you trust \'cheap generators\' powering your sophisticated ki

I would have agreed with all of the above, weren't it for the fact that a techie from one of the inverter importers recently said to me that true sine-wave inverters aren't really true sine! They are a lot better than the quasi-sine variety (these should really be named stepped square wave).
So nothing is perfect.

Having said that the quasi type runs jolly nearly everything - except a cheap(er) food mixer. I don't have a microwave on the boat.

As to the cheapo generators the problem seems to be poor design of the alternator unit - not enough iron so at the end of its rating you will get a distorted waveform.

I think the problem with the flash unit was probably over-voltage from the genny, as their regulation can also be poor.