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Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, November 02 2012 @ 03:44 AM EDT |
That term is usually used to refer to the inverter type of generator, as
inverters have been anything from a simple square wave to a multi-stepped
approximation of a sine wave. The latest ones are which are Pure Sine Wave use
modern electronics to supply a near prefect sine wave. This comes at a cost, of
course, and the good quality ones are fairly expensive.
A much cheaper alternative is a conventional rotating armature type fitted with
an Automatic Voltage Regulator - AVR. The older generators used a capacitor to
regulate the output voltage, however this was quite coarse and lead to power
variations which were damaging to the switch-mode power supplies used in most
modern electronics.
The AVR device is a solid state feedback controller which varies the excitation
winding of the alternator in inverse relation to the output voltage, so as to
keep the output voltage at the set point.
I have a re-badged Hyundai 7kVA open-frame unit and it has built in voltage,
frequency, current and power readouts, and it has never gone more than 2V or 1Hz
outside the 240V/50Hz setpoint even when switching on a 3/4HP blower or bench
grinder. The split system A/C runs off it, and the MGE UPS supplying the
computer equipment runs fine, too.
There is something to be said for the Honda EU65iS, though, but I can't afford
one.
Lots of research after cyclone Yasi, hopefully this season is quieter...[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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