Friday, Nov 07, 2008 at 23:21
Hi Steve,
"Dirty power" in my world is certainly an acceptable terminology.
Hmm, you are certainly on track with the surge suppression device and extremely cheap generators. They do seem to struggle with voltage control, I've seen a couple rise toward 280 Volts, at that point I've pulled the plug to protect some very expensive
test equipment.
It's really a combination of both voltage and frequency variations and controlling these variations along with controlling electrical "noise". Hence my comment about spending some $30,000,000 to achieve this level of control on a fixed station! (Smaller stations do come cheaper but the cost is far from linear)
Noise is a big variable, some appliances will run connected to some generators and not others. Why? No idea, it's just down to the quality of the power or lack of "dirt" on the power and the appliances tolerance to that noise or "dirt".
As I see it the problem is something like what Formula 1 get up to, it costs everyone a certain amount to qualify. To be at the front and 0.1 seconds per lap quicker than everyone else costs twice as much. To be 0.2 seconds per lap quicker than everyone else costs four times as much.
In generator parlance to make somthing that somewhat qualifies as AC power costs $x. To make something that qualifies as average AC power costs 2 x $x and to make something that is good AC power costs 4 x $x.
The hard part is there are no right and wrong answers on this subject, it's just that some gear is tolerant to "dirty power" and some isn't!
It also helps to understand how tolerant you as the user are to risk. In other words are you happy to have an air conditioner, microwave or battery charger be cooked by a cheap generator if it loses voltage or frequency control for the sake of saving on the initial generator investment?
Again, hope that helps,
Geoff
FollowupID:
601922