What If The Power Goes Out?

Every home or business owner is frustrated when the electrical power goes down. It is not only inconvenient, it can be destructive and a variety of problems can arise. Everything from equipment damaging brown outs, surges, over voltage, loss of sync on equipment, to network outages can and will occur. Under standard voltage levels will do awful damage to motors that might be running or devices with power supplies at the time since under voltage conditions lead to larger current draws for the motors and power supplies to continue their operation.

Natural Gas Generator

The most common solution that is usually presented to a home owner is a gas generator. Gas generators of this variety are typically permanently installed and are set up to start up when the power goes out. It is not instantaneous but takes 15 seconds to a couple of minutes to come on, stabilize, and restore power to the circuits it is connected to. The power they generate can vary from a choppy AC that has an irregular waveform to respectfully good. The biggest difficulty is the time to turn on leaves your systems without power for a period of time and sensitive electronics may not restore to proper synchronization and end up going off line. There is also the problem of a poor waveform which some devices may perform poorly on.

UPS – Uninterruptable Power Supply

A UPS or uninterruptable power supply is a combination of a battery and charger along with electronics that control its turn on/off.

These come in two main varieties.

• First is a standby UPS which turns on when the power goes out. These are similar to the common generator in the way they respond although faster to transition to on. The issue that arises with this type of UPS is the lag time from power out to battery on. The lag is just long enough that sensitive electronics have their power interrupted before the power turns on from the battery. Also the power being generated is similar to the lesser generators and not a perfect electrical signal.

• Second is a much more desirable UPS called an Online UPS.

  In this case it always has its battery on line and it has a power transformation feature as well. It takes the incoming power from the grid which varies. It is rarely exactly 120 V. This UPS’s circuitry transforms voltages from 80 to 140V into an perfect 120V signal. Because it has its battery online, there is no lag time to keep perfect power flowing to the connected equipment. It is always assures perfect power as long as the power is on or when the power is out, that its own battery can deliver voltage.

Large Format Battery Backup

Large Format UPS

This solution is a combination of the Online UPS and multiple batteries combined in a large enough capacity to be connected to selected breaker circuits in a residence. All of the most important gear and equipment that is connected to the chosen circuits will be delivered power when the power is out but will go down if the time exceeds the battery capacity. Like the Online UPS, it will take in any voltage from 80V to 140V and output a perfect 120V sine wave. This assures that connected equipment remain stable and see an ideal signal. Connected equipment would likely include items like your furnace, sump pump, electronic gear, lighting, phone system, and the like. These items would go on powered up until repowered by the electrical grid or powered down if the outage was a long time.

Large Format Battery Plus A Gas Generator.

This is the ideal power solution. The gas generator will turn on when the power goes out and the Large Format UPS will assure a perfect transition without the power ever being interrupted. Also the power associated with it’s connected equipment will only see perfect 120 V signal because the Large Format UPS will create an ideal sine wave electrical signal of exactly 120V at 60 cps from any voltage delivered to it from 80V to 140V. With this combination. you are going to continue forward with the associated circuits in your home never even indicating they had a power outage. Your only indication will be you hearing the generator turning on.