HOME EMERGENCY GENERATORS
Commercially Available Technology







GENERAL INFORMATION
Home generators are a commercially available product that many people own and use in certain situations where there is a lack of power.  They are easy to operate and can be utilized as a temporary back up power supply until primary power has been restored.  Home generators primarily operate on diesel fuel or regular gasoline and there are many different versions available with different power capabilities.

WHAT IS A GENERATOR USED FOR
When there is a loss of power in a building, the generator is plugged into the outdoor inlet box and is then switched on.  The generator then operates on diesel or gasoline and will stay in operation as long as there is fuel available. Once it is running, you can choose which appliances and circuits to use by turning certain transfer switches to the on/off position.  The generator will supply enough electricity (depending on wattage) to run certain appliances which homeowners would like to be kept on during a power outage.

Transfer Switch

According to a survey, the top 5 electrical devices that people want to use during a power outage are as follows:

HOW DO GENERATORS WORK
Electrical generators convert mechanical energy to electrical energy.  A simplified explanation of how it works is as follows.  The mechanical energy needed to turn the generator comes from the brown hand crank at the front of the generator.  The hand crank in the animation causes the red wire to spin inside a magnetic field (the blue lines).  Moving the wire through the magnetic field causes electric current to flow in the wire.  This is how the electricity is produced and then it flows out of the generator and to the desired electrical device. Click here to see a working diagram of what has just been explained.
 
 

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