I picked one of these up at Lowes to temporarily power some incandescent lights. With a couple of hundred watts of load I notice that the lights flicker slightly but annoyingly. For a normal generator I'd let it slide, but I thought the point of these inverter designs was "clean" power. Is slight flickering typical of the iX2000 or did I get a bad one?
Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com
Did you check the voltage it puts out loaded, is that unit like the Honda inverter that varies rpm to keep voltage constant. On constant speed units to get 120v 60hz you need 3600 rpm .
I just looked at a spec sheet and I think its like the Honda EU series so if its not giving 120v 60 or lights flicker its a defect
Inverters put out a crappy sign wave. Looks like a stepped pyramid.
Should not flicker. But most generators specify not to return it to the point of sale if there are problems. Call the number in your owner's pamphlet before you do anything.
--Next time you buy a genny (and there will be a next time!) research the brand, re: service and spare parts. I bought a used RV with an ailing Generac and I found it was *impossible* to get a response from Generac. Best I've been able to determine: the company's been absorbed into another company and new co doesn't give a shit. Also there's no place in
*my* neck of the woods that will service it. Get a better brand next time; what's that quote... '..the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten'. Heh.
If it doesn't put out a real sine wave instead of a stepped one you could probably do better with a cheaper brushless AC generator.
LSMFT wrote in news:ztnTn.30272$% snipped-for-privacy@newsfe14.iad:
that shouldnt affect an -incandescent- . at 60hz,the filament will average out the waveform.
I use a light bulb to load UPCs that I'm testing, and noticed that the bulb brightness is very sensitive to the voltage and width of the square output pulse. The bulb responds to changes that are barely visible on the scope.
jsw
Ah, I read that wrong. I guess I was just assuming fluorescent.
In article , Mark snipped-for-privacy@Yahoo.com (ransley) writes: | On Jun 20, 3:51=A0am, ddl@danlan.*com (Dan Lanciani) wrote: | > I picked one of these up at Lowes to temporarily power some incandescent | > lights. =A0With a couple of hundred watts of load I notice that the light= | s | > flicker slightly but annoyingly. =A0For a normal generator I'd let it sli= | de, | > but I thought the point of these inverter designs was "clean" power. =A0I= | s | > slight flickering typical of the iX2000 or did I get a bad one? | >
| > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Dan Lanci= | ani | > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 ddl@danla= | n.*com | | Did you check the voltage it puts out loaded, is that unit like the | Honda inverter that varies rpm to keep voltage constant. On constant | speed units to get 120v 60hz you need 3600 rpm .
It is basically a clone of the Honda, but the equavalent of econo-throttle was off. The voltage was something reasonable, 118V I think. I actually have a smaller Honda (1000VA) but I never used it for lights. I suppose I could take it to the site for comparison. I was tempted to order the larger Honda, but the Generac was available and in stock on a direct line from where I live to where I needed it. :)
Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com
Before you adjust the Governor, or change anything...............You might want to put more of a load on it. A couple hundred watts isn't much. Mine ( 3500 watt) did the same thing with only a couple lights on it. I added more load and the flicker went away.
Hank
"UPC's" Universal Product Codes?
TDD
On 6/20/2010 9:00 AM Tony spake thus:
By "stepped" you mean a square wave, no?
But even if the inverter outputs a square wave, that still shouldn't cause flickering with incandescent lights. I'm going to guess that you're going to need a signal with a frequency down around 10 Hz or less to see that. Dunno what that could be.
OP: you don't happen to have access to a 'scope or a signal analyzer, do you? Maybe know someone who owns one? It'd be interesting to connect a scope and see what the waveform actually looks like.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com (Jim Wilkins) writes: | On Jun 20, 2:18=A0pm, Jim Yanik wrote: | > ... | > that shouldnt affect an -incandescent- . | > at 60hz,the filament will average out the waveform. | > Jim Yanik | | I use a light bulb to load UPCs that I'm testing, and noticed that the | bulb brightness is very sensitive to the voltage and width of the | square output pulse. The bulb responds to changes that are barely | visible on the scope.
Indeed. I once got a Best FERRUPS online UPS because everybody told me the quality was spectacular. The first thing I tried was a 100W light bulb, and interrupting mains power caused something way beyond a flicker, almost to the point of a double blink. I was disappointed, but then the same everybody told me that lights were very sensitive and I shouldn't worry about it. If this is the same kind of thing I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to "fix" it. In particular, I don't want to end up with the maufacturer swapping a "reconditioned" unit (that behaves the same but is all beat up) for my nice new one because they don't want to admit that the lights flicker...
Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com
If he just bought it he should return it, those call us first statements are to avoid getting the unit returned to the company , rather you go through months of new parts.
ddl@danlan.*com (Dan Lanciani) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news1.IPSWITCHS.CMM:
at that volts/div setting,changes WILL be "barely visible". Besides,scopes display peak-peak voltage,and the bulb responds to RMS power.
a square wave is MUCH different than a quasi-sinewave output. (like the OP was discussing)
an entirely different matter.
your PC doesn't mind it because the first thing the PS does is rectify and filter the input into DC,for the switching circuitry.
ddl@danlan.*com (Dan Lanciani) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news1.IPSWITCHS.CMM:
return it ASAP. You bought it to run some simple lights and it didn't do the job -- so the various reasons why it failed don't help your lights. Get another one and if it fails get a different brand.
just saying what i'd do is all.. best of luck
I find the flicker in incandescent lamps is caused by low frequency in my case.
I have a 28 Kw Diesel generator and when I load it quite a lot the frequency (Hz) drops a bit, as the diesel engine governor lets the motor slow down a bit on heavy current draw.
Now it is not all that much, here in Australia we have 50 cycle power and as my 4 pole genny has to maintain 1500 RPM to hold that.
I have set up the speed slightly to try and keep it up, so lightly loaded it runs at around 53 cycles per second, but under heavy load it may drop down to 48 cycles, and although that is not much, I note there is a slight flickering in the incandescent lamps when it is heavily loaded.
It does not worry me as the generator is simply an emergency standby unit.
There is no problem with the voltage and it remains quite steady, within a couple of volts of the requires 415/240 volts.
If you have flicker in your lights while running on your genny, if you can get hold of a frequency meter, it might pay to check and see if it is holding at the requires frequency while loaded.
Maybe the inverter is not putting out the correct frequency. If you are in the USA the frequency (cycles) should be 60 Hz.
Sorry, I have no idea what the effect of 'square sine wave' has on the incandescent lamps, that is if your generator is supplying' square sine wave'.
I have been told some electric motors do not like square wave power supply, especially refrigeration motors.
----------------
I do have a 2.5 Kw inverter (24/240 volt) and have had no problems running the fridge and a small window air conditioning unit from it, but it is a 'true sine wave' inverter. My only problem is that I do not have enough battery power with 4 x T 105 batteries (4 x 6V 225 Ah) , but that is another story.
I have never checked the output frequency of the inverter, but I do not have lights on the circuitry.
If I ever get around to installing that small transfer switch which I have for the inverter, I will find out, I guess.
How to you measure the Amp-Hour capacity of the batteries to know when to replace them?
I know the laboratory methods but not a simple one I could suggest for 'civilian' use.
jsw
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