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On 12/1/15 11:38 AM, Chris Boden wrote:
If you're doing it with dual generators you also have to take frequency
into account. They *will* lock up perfectly in sync, but it makes really
expensive sounds when it happens.
Bad.....bad sounds......and little parts in the top of the engine get to
find new homes.
Don't ask how I know this. I of course was never there, don't know anything
about what happened to that generator, and you can't prove it anyways. I
was in bible study all night.
I'm curious to see answers on the other side of this though, it's a problem
I've never come across.
Modern inverter generators (or solar panels with microinverters) are
pretty good at synchronizing without pain.
The question comes up when you've got a combination of 240V and 120V
loads.. (just like in a house) and you've got 120V generators/sources
(or a 240V only source).
If the load is "mostly balanced" between the two sides, then series the
generators (which are presumed synchronized) and you're done. But if
they're not, and you put a big 240V load on, you're probably going to
run into trouble.
And writing this, it came to me:
on a single 240V source, you could feed a single winding autotransformer
with a center tap used as neutral. If the loads are balanced, then very
little current flows in the center tap, and just the magnetizing current
would flow in the autotransformer. The rating of the transformer would
need to be sufficient to carry the neutral current (plus the presumably
small magnetizing current)
The same would apply if you seriesed two 120V sources (in phase) and
then fed the autotransformer.
And, then, since the center tap is at 120V from either rail, there's no
reason to not connect the center point of the two seriesed generators to
the centertap of the autotransformer.