Kinda OT.. Generators and voltage spikes

(Yeah, I know it's not "repair" but my favorite techie types are here.)

I'll be floating down a French river on a small barge in several weeks. They'll provide 220v from a Hawker Siddely Generator.

I'll have a couple of expensive 110v devices that I intend to connect through a step down transformer (not purchased yet). They implied that the power might not be all that clean and they won't be responsible for voltage fluctuations.

Would a surge protector and an appropriate transformer protect things or should I be looking at a voltage regulator.. or maybe voltage regulator/transformer combo?

I really don't want the "magic smoke" to escape from my stuff.

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Dallas
Reply to
Dallas
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Dallas Inscribed thus:

I'm guessing "Canal Du Midi".

My very limited experience of a canal boat (4 - 6 Berth) was that the generator was driven from the engine and charged the big 12 volt batteries which ran an inverter for the 220/230 supply. I ran the laptop without any problems but did notice that the lights dimmed when the microwave was used. All the lighting was on the battery. I think the electric heater and microwave were the only things that ran on 220 AC.

If its a real generator and not an inverter, a transformer would be fine with the added advantage of spike and noise suppression. I wouldn't think a transformer would be too happy fed from an inverter.

Enjoy your vacation.

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Best Regards:
                          Baron.
Reply to
Baron

Nope.. the Cher.

Gotta be a real generator. The boat's engine is listed as something else.

Merci

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Dallas
Reply to
Dallas

My suggestion would be to use a power line conditioner between your transformer and your expensive devices. Search the auction site for "line conditioner" in the Business & Industrial category. The line conditioner provides significant surge and spike protection to your devices. ONEAC is a good brand; I've used them in my shops over the years without any failures in either the conditioners or connected equipment (that I could attribute to line faults). Just be sure to match line frequency, voltage and current requirements to your equipment requirements.

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David
dgminala at mediacombb dot net
Reply to
Dave M

What about sticking a constant voltage transformer between the genny and your step down tranny. Loads of 'em dirt cheap on FleaBay. All surges and sags taken care of, as well as the inherent crap cleaning that you get from these devices, so you would then be getting a nice clean constant 230v or whatever into your 230v - 110v tranny.

In fact this one

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does the stepping down to 120v as well, saving you having to buy that tranny ...

Arfa

Reply to
Arfa Daily

Trouble with generators is very light loads and very heavy loads. I would suggest you permanently wire a 60 watt bulb in for a constant base load.

Reply to
N_Cook

Potentially a bad idea. Such CVT devices are ferro-resonant transformers, which are tuned to 50 or 60Hz. If you feed it with any other frequency, the output voltage will change. How much change varies radically with the design and manufacture. I had one (Sola) that could tolerate a +/-5% change in frequency without much change in output voltage. Another would produce huge changes in voltage for the same change in frequency. They are absolutely fabulous for controlling spikes, sags, surges, and glitches, but only from the frequency regulated mains. During a lightning storm, I was working on a computer that had a large CVT attached. I was watching the lights flicker, but the computer never missed a beat.

If you think your generator is fairly well speed regulated (i.e. inverter-generator), then it MIGHT work. If you do something stupid, like start the generator with the CVT attached, you're going to blow up something. (Ham radio Field Day horror stories omitted).

Output voltage varies about 1.2% for every 1% change in supply frequency. For example, a 2-Hz change in generator frequency, which is very large, results in an output voltage change of only 4%, which has little effect for most loads.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Won't that make it hard to sleep?

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Dallas
Reply to
Dallas

Nah. Just dangle it over the side in the water ... :-)

Arfa

Reply to
Arfa Daily

Arfa Daily Inscribed thus:

If he likes fishing, it might attract some !

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Best Regards:
                          Baron.
Reply to
Baron

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