Generator and Electronic Sensitive Equipment

[2Biz]

This morning it was 5° and the electric went out at home @ 5:00 a.m. I got up and started the generator to keep the wood furnace going to give me time to see how long the electric was going to be out. I Don't like to get out the whole house generator if the electric is only going to be out a few hrs.

So I went to the CW, only a few blocks away and luckily the electric was on there. But it got me to thinking...I have backup heat for the ER and the weep solenoid will open to weep the bays @ 100% flow...But I was wondering about my pop machines...I wonder how long they will last at 5° or lower before the pop freezes?

If I put a generator online and powered the whole wash, single phase only, could any of my electronic equipment be damaged? The new Takagi Boiler, the weepmizer, the PLC controling my freeze gaurd system, the changer, my furnace, etc. They all have electronic control boards...I've already discovered the changer won't work on a normal Battery Backup, it has to be ran on a Pure Sine Wave Inverter...

Would the generator I use have to have a Pure Sine Wave Inverter? They do make them, but are quite expensive...Just wondering if anybody has ran into this when powering your wash with a generator. Will a standard generator work without doing any damage? Or maybe you turn off some of the sensitive equipment?

 

[cantbreak80]

Wouldn't it save you a lot of money to just empty the pop machine until the power comes back on?

 

[Whale of a Wash]

Most generators are not too bad--You can adjust the rpm to get the right voltage if necessary. But if you want better electricity than the grid gives you get a generator with an inverter. Yamaha and Honda are awesome. I have a
2kw Yamaha that is super stable , and will run on low (less than 400w) for
11hrs on a gallon. Hondas is almost identical. Both makes kits that if you want to go to 4kw you can parallel two together. But if you already have the generator get a UPS power supply to hook in between and you are good.

 

[2Biz]

Wouldn't it save you a lot of money to just empty the pop machine until the power comes back on?

OK...Guess that might be the easiest to accomplish! But my can machine holds 650 cans and the bottle machine holds 250 bottles! I was trying to steer away from that! Plus loose out on all those sales if the electric goes out! Ha!

I did do some searching online and newer pop machines won't run off a standard generator. It has to have an inverter. It is VERY expensive to get one that outputs 220v! So given my wash is "In Town" and we have 3 different services supplying power for our town, I'm told if we loose a feed, its simple for them to switch load to the other feeds.

A neighbor (At the wash) told me, yesterday, he's lived next door for 52 years and the power has never been off for more than 12 hrs, so I don't think I'll try to fix something that isn't broke... As long as I have a few propane tanks and my Mr Heater Big Buddy, I can keep the ER from freezing...I think I'm canning the idea to hook up one of my generators....I have too many sensitive electronic devices at the wash and don't want to take a chance on frying any of them...

 

[Whale of a Wash]

You could heat the machine and not run it .

 

[ToFarGone]

If it stays 5 degrees for very long my pop starts getting crunchy...power or no. We just put in a disconnect for our generator to plug into. Runs floor heat, ER heater, and whatever lights we may want (lights mostly used to play spades while babysitting the place until power returns). This makes it pretty simple.