We have kept it simple, as we don't need to power the whole house during the outages. My big concern was charging my laptop, phones, security and the fridge. The rest we can do without, and we use battery LED lights. Also have gas for cooking (braai!)
In view of this I bought a 3,5 kva generator which I installed with a nice thick lead to a multiplug, located near the fridge. During outages I just plug in the fridge, and switch off the fridge when we need to boil the kettle or charge any of the devices. The generator has a decent earth into the ground, as well as AVR (I assume this means Automatic Voltage Regulator?) as well as an overload cut-off.
This kept it really simple and the cost very low. Also, I never plug the computer straight into the generator power supply, only use it to charge, so I assume that the charger will take the brunt should there be a spike in current?
The question marks above are assumptions, I am not an electrician. Would welcome comments.
Cheers
KC
Andy why did you have to go spoil it and bring that up. That is why you have to plug it in so that it doesnt become part of the electrical installation. We discussed this issue during the last load shedding episode. Just imagine trying to stop all these generators being connected, there are thousands of them connected to DB's. The worst i have seen to date are the suicide cords, with the plug on both ends of the cable.
Eek, 'plugging it in' would not be a wise move.
In some smaller site type generators the centre of the windings is actually tapped and bonded to the chassis as an earth which ties both L and N at 110v wrt earth, they're not floating. The problem is when the centre tapped earth is bonded internally to the generator chassis. If you bridge a centre tapped earth and neutral you're effectively shorting out half of the winding which would cause a fault condition and probably damage to the windings. This is what would happen with a cowboy connection into a DB.
These generators are designed to be used with extension leads only.
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Hm, can you sparky's please tell me and KCS how to set up a very simple thing like a generator powering a few things of choice via an extension lead?
I won't need a fridge/freezer as it can survive 2.5h load shedding. I really only need to power my PC (desktop), router, printer and scanner without risking frying any of them due to problems induced by the generator (Voltage & Amp variations). I can charge my cell via USB from the PC
Houses4Rent
"We treat your investment as we treat our own"
marc@houses4rent.co.za www.houses4rent.co.za
083-3115551
Global Residential Property Investor / Specialized Letting Agent & Property Manager
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Thanks Andy, but how does one establish what is a decent genny and AVR? Any trusted brands/sources which can be named (Cape Town).
Houses4Rent
"We treat your investment as we treat our own"
marc@houses4rent.co.za www.houses4rent.co.za
083-3115551
Global Residential Property Investor / Specialized Letting Agent & Property Manager
I've got limited generator experience but I've always paid the extra and purchased Honda. So far I've not regretted it, some of my gennys have not had an easy life and are over 10 years old.
As with anything I'm sure there's some Chinese brands that are very respectable but the problem is there's a lot that aren't and most of the time you're relying on info from the salesman who's going to tell you anything. The number of times I've heard 'they're made in the same factory as **insert well known brand name**' is laughable and not just for generators.
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Something to note, not all small generators cannot be connected to a house. I indicated to a customer today that it was not wise to connect a small generator to a house. He set the record straight with documentation and a diagram showing how to do it.
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