Generator For Power

Generator For Power - Winco-Alternator Equipped

The role of AUTOMOBILE lineage in modern BACKUP power equipment.




Many of the technical advancements and changes that have effected backup power production were seen first in the automobile. Today's power generators are based on an alternator - same as the electrical system of a car. The final form of the electricity produced is different. The electrical system of a car operates on direct current or DC, while the appliances and lights inside a building are designed to operate on AC (alternating current). The electricity produced for automobile consumption therefore must undergo rectification (change from AC to DC) before it can be used. Putting this aside, the method of creating electricity beneath the hood of a car is exactly the same as that employed by a backup generator.




Operation of the ORIGINAL generator used to MANUFACTURE backup POWER.




When a traditional (non-alternator) generator spins, it creates electricity. Spinning is done by an external force - like the gasoline engine in a car or on an electric power generator. How does this spinning translate into electricity? After all, spinning a quarter on a tabletop doesn't produce anything close to electricity. The creation of electricity involves the components that are being spun.

You may have seen the word "armature" used with respect to a power generator. An armature is a series of wires wound together. In the traditional (non-alternator) generator, this armature is spun - by the motor - inside of a magnetic field. In an automobile generator, the magnetic field consists of an electromagnet - a device that becomes magnetized only when electric current passes through it (and otherwise harbors no magnetic properties). An electromagnet and an armature together can transform a small amount of current into a significant electric output. In the case of a car, this is what happens. A car's electrical system utilizes a regulator to increase or reduce the amount of battery current being supplied to the electromagnet in the generator - which, in turn, increases or decreases the amount of electricity produced (as required to operate the car and its accessories). The difference between an automobile generator and an electric generator for backup power is in the magnets being utilized - traditional magnets in the power generator, an electromagnet in the automobile's generator. The number of windings in the armature is what determines the voltage produced.



EVOLUTION of the ALTERNATOR from the generator in SMALL-ENGINE based backup power production.






The primary difference between a traditional generator and an alternator is this: with respect to a generator, an armature or coils of wire wound together spin inside of a magnetic field, either an electromagnet or standard magnets, to create electricity; meanwhile, in an alternator, the magnetic field does the spinning - inside of windings that are called a "stator" (you can see this stator by shining a flashlight beam into your power generator's alternator). There is a difference between the stator of an alternator and the armature windings of a generator. The stator actually contains multiple windings, each producing its AC current at a little different interval. Taken together, these disparate intervals produce a relatively clean and stable sine wave. Think of it like a musical round ("Row, Row, Row Your Boat" for instance). This nursery rhyme can be applied to as many as four voices or singing groups. When the round works well, its voices overlapping, the normal peaks, valleys, and moments of inactivity generated by a single voice are undetectable.





Are there DIFFERENCES between an AUTOMOBILE'S alternator and the POWER-PRODUCING alternator inside a generator.


Yes indeed! Part of it is in the electricity an automobile requires versus what a home or building does. The AC current manufactured by a generator is just fine for home backup, or operating power tools at a job site, but it won't do much to help your car. In order to make its production useful, an automobile alternator must convert AC into direct current or DC. This is accomplished via the diode. The diode is a solid-state (lacking in mechanical or moving parts) device that permits current to travel through it in only one direction. The diode will eliminate exactly half of an AC sine wave. This process leaves a jumping and pulsating direct current. The DC output of an automobile alternator loses some of its roughness when the partial sine waves of its multiple stator windings are combined - the same way that overlapping AC sine waves create smoother, more refined power. Another difference between the two relates directly to power regulation. Automobile alternators can have internal or external regulation, they can be mechanical or solid-state in design, but they are absolutely critical to proper operation of your car's alternator and, by extension, your car. By controlling the current being supplied to the alternator, the regulator dictates both outflowing current and voltage. The much less sophisticated use of engine speed accomplishes this in a power generator. Ever wonder why all portable generators with a traditional alternator (no inverters in other words) must operate at 3600 rpm? You're right - that 3600 rpm is required to maintain the proper 120 or 240 volts (in addition to the amount of electricity available at the outlet panel).




How does the INVERTER generator compare to the concept of an AUTOMOBILE alternator?


It may seem as if the two are similar at first glance, but this is an illusion. The regulator governing a car's alternator was never designed to eliminate or replace the alternator itself. Instead, it directs the alternator's activity - like a puppet master controlling his puppet. The inverter, meanwhile, is an alternator - in that it both manufactures and supplies electricity. It also does the job of the automobile alternator's rectifier or diode, in that it refines the electricity produced. In this sense, the inverter also replaces the brushless alternator, once the only option when it came to manufacturing cleaner electricity than could be obtained with a traditional power generator.