GENERATOR QUESTION

[wrenchero]

hello. i have a coleman powermate megapulse 1850 generator.i have been told that if i want to run my tv or computer with this generator,i need some sort of filter.this is not an inverter generator.does anyone know anything about this or should i just not run sensitive equipment with it? thanks

[38racing]

Regular generators do not put out a pure sine wave which inverters do. Not aware of a filter that converts the wave form. There are 12v to 115v pure sine wave inverters. So in theory you hook that inverter to a battery and use your generator to run a battery charger to keep the battery at full charge. Add up the cost and maybe best to buy the gas powered inverter in the first place.

[KE4AVB]

Regular generators do not put out a pure sine wave which inverters do. Not aware of a filter that converts the wave form. There are 12v to 115v pure sine wave inverters. So in theory you hook that inverter to a battery and use your generator to run a battery charger to keep the battery at full charge. Add up the cost and maybe best to buy the gas powered inverter in the first place.

I think it the other way around unless it is invertor that is designed to produce pure sine wave. Most invertors that I know use a modified square wave output.

[bgsengine]

38 racing has it a little closer but that isnt it either - sensitive electronics require a steady, "clean" 120V @ 60Hz (U.S. anyways) However generators vary their output depending on load and voltages and Hz (frequency) may vary by as much as 5-10 Hz which is not good for electronics.

You need a "buffer" or battery backup surge protector that "smooths out" those voltage spikes that a generator will cause.

[bobodu]

I think a lot could be gained by running a couple 100 watt bulbs...the OLD KIND that get hot. Get a UPS surge protector and plug everything into that.

[wrenchero]

sorry not sure what that means.is there a certain kind of surge protector i need? why do i need 2 bulbs?

[JonCraig]

As an electronics nerd, I can speak to this. The square-wave output of which you speak is bad for electronics. A square wave is a waveform with a (theoretically) infinite number of odd harmonics. What you need is a low-pass filter. Which would be a resistor, followed by a capacitor running to ground. The downside is that you'd have to size the resistor to handle the wattage of your load. 1850 Watts. I don't know of an 1850 watt resistor. One probably exists for huge industrial applications, but I'm guessing it would cost more than the generator.

That said, this square-wave type output is the same one used on each and every uninterruptible power supply that you can buy at Office Max/Staples/etc. There are hundreds of thousands of computers plugged into them across the world, and they can't fry computers TOO often.

An added bit of insurance is the fact that every electronic device you have is first rectifying the input voltage to DC anyway, so a lot of the noise & junk on the input is getting smoothed by each device's filter capacitors and/or voltage regulators anyway.

I wouldn't want to do it daily, but in a pinch my gut says you'll be okay. In theory the frequency of the sine wave shouldn't matter, either--within reason--'cause it's all getting rectified to DC anyway. But a voltage drop below the regulating limit of whatever linear regulator is built into the power supply--this is indeed a very bad thing.

Interesting side note. I have a client who uses a power conditioner that has a series of relays/switching logic that is connected to a large torroid transformer with multiple tap points. The incoming A/C is measured by the conditioner, and the circuitry controls where the relays tap the transformer, effectively changing the transformer ratio. Example: if the incoming power is 120VAC, it will select the tap that forms a 1:1 ratio. If the incoming power is, say, 108VAC, it will choose a tap point that increases the ratio of the secondary to make it 1:1.1, thus making the output as close as possible to 120VAC at all times. If I recall correctly, the client paid around a grand for this nifty little box.

[wrenchero]

thank you all for the insight.i guess i am looking for the easiest answer-good or bad.i researched a battery back-up surge protector.will this do the job for me?

[bobodu]

Running light bulbs will introduce a constant load on the generator and reduces surging.

[Arkie]

hello. i have a coleman powermate megapulse 1850 generator.i have been told that if i want to run my tv or computer with this generator,i need some sort of filter.this is not an inverter generator.does anyone know anything about this or should i just not run sensitive equipment with it? thanks

You asked this: should i just not run sensitive equipment with it?

Small emergency gen's are not designed so as to operate electronic eq, especially computers and Tv's.

This info is also usually listed in the owners manuals of the electronic eq.
It's ok if you want to TRY SUCH but be aware you are taking the chance of sacrificing your electronic eq Best bet is to use your borrowed Bro in laws computer and TV for use on the small emergency gen.
Also you asked if you can use a UPS battery backup surge protector. The UPS will see the smaller dirty voltage gen's as a non stable source of utility power (which the UPS is designed to accomplish) and switch to the battery or back and forth as the freq and voltage of the gen changes. (dirty voltage)

Bottom line to your question is NO!