What Is A Generator | Generators for Beginners
Have you ever asked the question “What is a generator?” This article is part one of many. If you want to learn all about generators, you are in the right place. Today we will be going over everything you need to know about generators, or generators for beginners. Together, these articles will form an in-depth guide together, and so remember to look for other articles in this series if you have questions about generators.
Next up in the series are our expert tips for buying or sourcing a generator.
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Why Do You Want (or Need) a Generator?
During an emergency, there are a list of things that people worry about- food, water, safety, lack of zombies or invading aliens, where you put your toothbrush and similar things.
Having a way to keep your toothbrush charged (or possibly your cell phone, or even keep your refrigerator running) is something that a lot of people often start to consider after they have the basics of “keeping you alive” covered. I am personally a fan of having enough power to run my router and fiber portal, because in a disaster there is nothing quite like flexing on your neighbors with netflix during an extended power outage, and for those of you with small children, you know how nice it is to have them play on a tablet for a few hours.
Also, if your neighbor has small children that are prone to mayhem when they have nothing to do, being able to provide them with netflix can make your life easier. #Lifehack
On a more serious note, I know people who require a CPAP/APAP to sleep at night, or have specialized medical equipment where a power outage could cause them severe and immediate harm- possibly even killing them.
I have friends who live in climates that are hot enough they can kill you without air conditioning (Phoneix springs to mind). I have at least one friend who has a special needs child who requires feeding every six hours with special food, no breaks, on the dot. They require refrigeration- be that a family fridge or a mini-fridge to keep from confusing the special food with their truly amazing homemade eggnog- to keep this special food from spoiling, and without said special food, their child cannot eat at all.
For some people, power is nice and convenient- for a short term emergency, I am one of those. For others however, it is essential. This article series is meant to cover one common way to keep the power going in an emergency- running a generator.
As a note, I will be mentioning a lot of products and product types- what kinds of things a generator can run for example (and what kinds of things it will have trouble with). I will be linking to these on other websites in an attempt to give you an idea of what kind of thing I am talking about, and the kind of device I am basing my information on. These links are for information reasons, but if you do purchase something through these links, I make money as an affiliate.
What is a Generator?
A generator for purposes of this article is talking about an electrical generator that runs on an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE generators, but not the kind you find in the freezer).
This is not meant to cover solar or wind generators, and it does not cover any of the “generators” on Amazbay like this one or this one that are actually just a battery bank with an inverter. These do not generate electricity, they store it. They are battery banks, not generators.
TL:DR, everything I will cover in this requires some sort of fuel. I will cover the other options at another point.
Generator output is measured in Watts, which are often measured in the thousands of watts, otherwise known as “Kilowatts”, which is shortened to KW. To repeat, one KW is one thousand watts. It will also generally be measured in voltage, and possibly amps.
All of those are terms I will go over in more detail later, but for purposes of this article series, assume the generators I am talking about produce 120 volts AC at 60 hertz, which is US household current. If they produce another voltage I will specify it as a feature.
Why ICE, Not Solar or Wind?
ICE means that you can effectively store power as needed inexpensively in the form of fuel of some sort. Alcohol, Propane, Gasoline, Diesel, Natural gas, and 2 stroke gasoline among other all produce energy on demand, and do not require wind to be blowing or sun to be shining in order to generate power.
In addition, ICE generators are (at time of writing) relatively cheap for the amount of power they produce, and much more portable than say, solar panels or a windmill. As technology changes, that may change, but for immediate foreseeable future, I don’t see those factors changing quickly.
OK, so Why ICE Not Batteries?
Cost. To have a very nice generator and enough fuel to run my home for 72 hours I can buy enough inexpensive batteries to run it for about the same period of time- but I still have to charge the batteries with something, and once I have the generator, buying a lot of extra fuel is easy (relatively).
With batteries, I also have to deal with a charging system, storage and maintenance of the batteries, and how to convert it back into power that I can use for my everyday life, all of which add to the cost. While some of these apply to generators in their own way, they are generally less of an issue in most circumstances.
Right now, we are reaching a point technologically where batteries are better than they have ever been before- but they are not at a point where they can just replace power generation in most circumstances. That time may come, but it is not here quite yet, and I hope to cover what you can do to make a battery bank that would serve your needs in a later article.
Realistically, I actually recommend having both. There are a lot of expenses associated with having both, but the advantages are fairly large- and a subject for a future article.
Terms for Generators
Generators consist of a lot of parts, but it is important to note that the generator (in this case) refers to the entire assembled machine, whereas the engine is just the part that combusts fuel and turns it into mechanical motion, not the part that turns the motion into electricity (also confusingly called a generator, or in some designs is an alternator). There is also the electrical system, the fuel system, and so on.
Generators are also occasionally called “Gennies” (in several spellings), “Generator sets” or “Gensets”. These all refer to generators, but not all generators fit these terms, and various caviats may apply.
TL:DR “Generator” in this article refers to the whole machine, unless I specify otherwise.