UPB on Generator

[felixrosbergen]

Ok..so i live in Connecticut and we've been without power for 2 days and likely to be out longer...i finally scored a generator and wired it into my main panel...

My UPB light switch (HAI) is acting very strange and the light will not stay on properly..it will dim/brighten on it's own and generally act's erratic. I only have one switch right now and no controller yet so i don't know if you can even communicate with it during generator operations.

Since i bought this HAI UPB switch to test with I am not yet in deep with HAI so if other UPB technologies do better on generators then i would be interested to hear.

If i had a whole house done with HAI UPB right now i would be pretty upset i have a generator wired in but all the lights cannot be used.

On the upside my ALC switches work just fine...but they are discontinued before i completed my house (only the lower floor is done).

 

[Neurorad]

Maybe Tony Stewart will buy your ALC devices.

 

[Mark S.]

I developed similar flaky behavior with Compose X-10. I attributed it to poor quality power from my old Generac.

I recently switched to a Honda inverter-style generator. The problem went away immediately.

Inverters are much more exepensive, but the power is very clean, and the Honda is very, very quiet. I'll never go back.

 

[cornutt]

Yeah, it has to do with the power quality of your generator. You can get a power conditioner to clean it up, but it might be cheaper to sell your generator and get a better one.

 

[Frunple]

I'm in Connecticut as well, same issue. They (UPB switches) just don't like the dirty power. I plugged in a bunch of lamps and use them where ever I can instead.
Hopefully a few more days and everything will be back on....

 

[HAI_fjh]

I was going to say it is most likely a problem with the quality of the AC provided by the generator. Any technology that communicates via the power line, like UPB, will be affected by the quality of the AC.

We are located in Louisiana where we have frequent hurricanes and many people have generators. I know several people who have HAI UPB systems with whole house generators and no problems.

 

[drozwood90]

I know several people who have HAI UPB systems with whole house generators and no problems.

do you know what brands they have?

 

[HAI_fjh]

do you know what brands they have?

I don't know all of them, but one is a Generac Guardian 45KW Natural Gas unit.

Two others are Generac, also Natural Gas but I don't reacll the size.

Others I would have to ask.

I am not recommending Generac, and have no association with them. I would suspect that most of the higher quality generators with well regualted output would work. You could probably ask the manufacturer if a particular model is compatible with UPB?

 

[JonW]

I don't think it's always noise causing the dim/bright erratic problems with UPB. I see the same dim/bright issues when my power levels on the incoming utility drop to below about 90 volts. I don't know the exact voltage where they drop out, but when I get power dips, I'll see the UPB lights dim to off and them brighten back to normal as the power is restored to normal level. Sometimes this dim/bright is within a second or two of each other or it could be several seconds to a minute - it just depends on the fluctuation of power. I usually know it is the power level fluctuation causing it because I can hear my APC units kick in on my server.

 

[felixrosbergen]

So the generator i have now is a Brigs&Stratton 5500 which seems like a pretty basic unit. I am borrowing it from somebody but I'll need to buy my own some point soon.

I am concerned about the quality of the power and would like something with an inverter, but the Honda units seem very expensive.

I would like to solicit some recommendation for a reasonable price generator (say up to $1500 max) with the following required and preferred (optional features):

Required:
- Minimum 5500 watts
- Weatherized outlets so it can run in the rain

Preferred:
- Inverter / Clean power
- Hour meter to determine maintenance requirements
- Some sort of meter/indicator on the current load on the units (so i don't overdraw it).

Any suggestions?

I am not surprised the 45kw gas powered units put out some reasonably clean power, i bet they cost over $10k too which i am not willing to spend. We don't loose power often and when we do (maybe 5-10 times a year) it's usually for a maximum of a few hours. However i do want to be prepared for another event like Irene or worse something similar during the winter when the house needs to be heated. Luckily my furnace is propane and only needs a little power to run the air handler.

 

[felixrosbergen]

Just did a little calling around..apparently an inverter based generator costs like 3x as much as a regular..so i think i'll cross that off the list of requirements...guess i'll have to keep some non UPB based lights around..

 

[nov0798]

This is a common characteristic of generators in that normal output voltage is distorted when supplying power to nonlinear loads such as computers.The problem has to do with the generator not producing a pure sine wave voltage. If you were to look at the power on an oscilloscope, you would see that the peaks of the power are usually "clipped" if you will, causing the power to not transition from peak to peak gracefully. Compare this to your regular power, in which you would see very smooth transitions for the most part, compared to a generator. Higher end generators are usually better at handling this than a lower end generator that is meant to run lights and power tools at a jobsite.

 

[drozwood90]

You could pickup a larger inverter and make your own setup...

Might be cheaper than the Honda...I've not worked the numbers.

--Dan

 

[ano]

An inverter is not a cure-all either. This board is filled with stories of people who added solar panels to their roofs and when they started their inverters, their UPB failed. Some inverters are better than others, but most don't interoperate with UPB very well.

 

[drozwood90]

An inverter is not a cure-all either. This board is filled with stories of people who added solar panels to their roofs and when they started their inverters, their UPB failed. Some inverters are better than others, but most don't interoperate with UPB very well.

ano,

you are right, I should have qualified that...

Use an Enphase solar inverter, or pure sine inverter. Otherwise you will be fighting the unknown regarding the noise on the Modified sine inverter.

If you go with an Enphase, you will need to have at least a small Pure Sine to trick it into thinking it's attached to the power grid to have it run when there is no utilities (since it's designed to shut down in the event of no grid...).

--Dan