Confusion over right generator for house.

[sinewove]

A customer has a 7kva open frame site generator.The 230v output is floating neutral which would have to be earthed.
In an article titled invertor v conventional gennys,it says the site gennys can damage laptops and other electronics in
the home,but then goes on to say invertor gennys give a cleaner sine wave and are better for camping/caravanning etc.
So do I install the site genny and tell him not to use electronic devices,apart from boiler controls,or tell him he needs an
invertor genny?Thanks for any advice.
Regards
S

 

[James]

If this is domestic backup, I would not be overly concerned about surges etc.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

invertor v conventional gennys,it says the site gennys can damage laptops and other electronics in
the home

This is possible but very unusual, and is mainly sales pitch for their products

Computers and especially laptops are no more sensitive to unsteady supplies than anything else. For example a fridge motor would be damaged by incorrect frequency more easily than a laptop power brick. Most modern electronics use wide-range switched-mode power supplies which are often OK from 0 to 400Hz and 100-254V and care nothing about how clean the waveform is. Audio equipment is more sensitive but unlikely to be damaged unless there is something badly wrong at the genny end.

About the only time I have ever seen electronics affected by non-inverter gennies was when the genny was not running correctly. One piece of studio audio equipment blew its internal fuse, for example, when a small petrol genny was left running with the choke on and kept slowing down and speeding up.

 

[sinewove]

This is possible but very unusual, and is mainly sales pitch for their products

Computers and especially laptops are no more sensitive to unsteady supplies than anything else. For example a fridge motor would be damaged by incorrect frequency more easily than a laptop power brick. Most modern electronics use wide-range switched-mode power supplies which are often OK from 0 to 400Hz and 100-254V and care nothing about how clean the waveform is. Audio equipment is more sensitive but unlikely to be damaged unless there is something badly wrong at the genny end.

About the only time I have ever seen electronics affected by non-inverter gennies was when the genny was not running correctly. One piece of studio audio equipment blew its internal fuse, for example, when a small petrol genny was left running with the choke on and kept slowing down and speeding up.

Thanks for the help,
Regards,
S

 

[Patrick clayton]

A customer has a 7kva open frame site generator.The 230v output is floating neutral which would have to be earthed.
In an article titled invertor v conventional gennys,it says the site gennys can damage laptops and other electronics like freezers in
the home,but then goes on to say invertor gennys give a cleaner sine wave and are better for camping/caravanning etc.
So do I install the site genny and tell him not to use electronic devices,apart from boiler controls,or tell him he needs an
invertor genny?Thanks for any advice.
it is not possible not to use electronic devices​