Onan 3.6kw 120vac generator. [RE-wrenches]

Hugh Piggott hugh.piggott at enterprise.net
Tue Sep 17 16:29:54 PDT 2002


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At 3:09 pm -0700 17/9/02, jberdner at sma-america.com wrote:
>Matt:
>
>While low cost generators may have bad power factor but you also have to
>look at the power factor of the inverter when charging.

this statement puzzles me.  Power factor is determined by the load, 
and not the generator (no?).

>  In my
>experience the US inverter chargers present a low power factor load to
>the generator.  This means the inverter / charger is asking for current
>at the wrong time (out of phase with the voltage).  Low power factor
>loads make it very difficult for the lower cost generators to deliver
>significant power through the charger to the battery.

When I measure the power factor of a Trace SW loading a generator it 
is pretty near to 1, but still it is clear that something is going 
on, because the voltage is pulled down and the engine is working 
hard.  I wonder if my power analyser really takes account of the 
waveform distortion between input voltage and the current drawn. 
They are in phase OK, but the shape of the current wave is weird. 
Not all on the peak like a DR, but more flattened out.
-- 
Hugh

stop the war
http://www.scoraigwind.co.uk/

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