Just had this enquiry come through and I thought it might be quite widely relevant so I have posted it here for your consideration. Please come back with any thoughts or personal experiences on the subject. Heres the question I received via email: Would you mind if I asked you a quick question? We’re wondering…
Earthing your generator. Floating live and neutral or neutral bonded to earth?
Please note that I am not a domestic electrician by trade so you should regard the following as a resource intended to inform and to initiate a discussion and further contributions. However much we understand or think we understand about connecting generators to circuits and distribution systems, it would be folly to proceed without consulting…
modifying 125w mercury vapour lamps to run on the Honda EX350 inverter generator. by Peter Noble
Modifying 125w mercury vapour lamp to run on the Honda EX350 generator for Moth men (entomologists) Changing the power correction capacitor in the lamp to a higher quality paper capacitor will enable it to run from the super lightweight 8.5kg Honda EX350 generator. The capacitors can be obtained from : Paul Butty http://www.pwbelg.clara.net or telephone…
Concerned about valve burn on LPG converted generator engines? by Peter Noble
Its something that people tend to be concerned about. My experience is that if the gas conversion is properly set up with the correct jetting then its a bit of a non issue. Nevertheless I can see some instances where it would be a concern and most particularly on the Honda EU10i. The engines on…
Should I use the DC output of my generator to charge my leisure battery. by Peter Noble
If the choice is between using the DC output on the genny and having a flat battery then the answer is maybe. If the choice is between a proper power factor corrected 240v charger and the DC genny output then No No No!. Proper PF corrected chargers like the Victron, Mastervolt etc etc are a…
Sudden and total loss of residual magnetism in the rotor of a Honda EM4500 by Peter Noble
I had a call from a guy whose AVR generator had suddenly stopped putting out power. I went through the usual fault-finding steps over the phone, including testing the stator resistances and connecting a battery to the brushes to flash the field. Flashing the field made voltage appear at the outputs but with the AVR reconnected the output…
Tweaking the Victron to work with a generator (The experiences of boater Mike Christian)
Sometimes you can can plug your generator into a Victron inverter/ charger and everything is rosy. Other times you need to tweak the software to let the Victron know what it’s dealing with. Below is a letter from one of my customers who has done battle with the Victron Multiplus and emerged victorious. Many thanks…
