Tuesday, Mar 03, 2009 at 22:09
Hi Bruce,
A fair and reasonable question based on the information supplied.
For me personally I've got a hold of as many generators of as many brands as possible and connected the alleged AC output of all of them to a piece of electrical
test equipment called an oscilloscope.
I'm not sure if you know what an oscilloscope is, in case you don't here's a Wikipedia definition of one:
Oscilloscope
The unit I used has the ability to capture waveforms to removable media for offline analysis and lists for
about US$45,000 (The perks of working for the manufacturer in electrical engineering)
Now for what I learnt.
The quality of the output is generally (with one exception) proportional to the price of the unit.
The cheaper units, read GMC, Diesel Brand and those cheaper chinese Bunnings units have very poor voltage and frequency control. Chris's statements actually mirrored my testing.
They can output anything from about 180 Volts to about 300 Volts in the ones I tested. The frequency can be anything from about 40Hz through to about 60Hz.
A very, very loose definition of 240V AC at 50Hz to say the least.
The inverter units were quite a deal better with the top end being Honda and Yamaha in alphabetical order only.
The worst of the inverter generators was one that starts with E and is a green colour. It actually outputs a square wave signal. That for me makes it not worth the money.
I've even had a play with a heap of "Pure" Sine Wave
inverters. Some of them are about as "Pure" as the girls on the corner in Kings Cross!
I do hope that has answered where I'm coming from.
Geoff
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