Plasma or Not?

If you add upp all the watts connetcted to the generator, does it come to more than 2.4kW continuous? If so then the generator is undersized. If not then it should be OK.

Power supply voltages swing up-and-down a bit over the course of the day, and depend a lot on whether the neighbours are drawing huge loads.

Do you have an AC voltmeter? Wire it across a socket outlet supplied by the generator, connect some load and see what happens. You may find that the voltage is quite resilient to increasing load up to about 2kW, and then starts to fall off a little.

The inlets to power supplies in significant electronic appliances are designed to cope with variations in the local supply voltage.

Can you? possibly depending on the wattage of your TV and rest of the loads draw.

Should you? I wouldn't for the following reasons:

• Plasma TV's use allot of power: from 330 watts for a 42" to 675 watt for 100"
• Plasma TV's have a short life expectancy and a varying power source will definitely shorten it.
• Plasma TV's are expensive to replace.

But if you are one of those people with more money then common sense, go for it.

If you do this...

Watch out for the unloaded voltage on the generator. When unloaded, cheaper gensets have been known to put out a higher then expected voltage. Such higher voltages can and has damaged electronic equipment.

Check the unloaded voltage and if it is high I would... before using any electronic equipment, plug in a resistive load, such as a 200 watt light bulb. This should load the generator and bring the voltage back to nominal.

Having said all this... I have to ask if it is worth the effort, how long do your power outages last? Might be a good time for a snooze instead of watching the boob tube.

I would not use the generator unless I saw the output on a oscilloscope, to be a nice sinewave at 60 Hz. Not square, without spikes and harmonics...and 2.4K is rather wimpy for your application, what about the freezer/frig, toaster too? Manufacturers will often cheat on the "continuous duty" specs. Check it out, before your $500 gen blows up your $3500 TV. Maybe you could ask the manufacture if their gen is designed to power electronic equipment. I have seen portable generators used on job sites, blow up battery chargers for cordless tools more than once. If you loose power often, perhaps you should consider a residential standby generator that runs on LP or natural gas, designed to output stable power.

I gave you a GA for a good answer. Exactly what I would do.

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Also, assuming that this Generator has a nice sine wave output, switch the Plasma TV on last.....

Keep an eye on the volts at least the first time you do it.

If the sine wave is NOT a good sine wave (on oscilloscope), at least for the Plasma TV buy a 1:1 transformer (commonly called an isolation transformer) for 60 Hz, that should correct it enough for usage on a TV to a good sine wave.....not a cheap option though!! But cheaper than a new plasma TV. Checkout the transformer output using the scope before connection to the TV.

If you are worried about any other of the units, then add them onto the isolation transformer as well, but make sure that you add all the wattages together, add some extra and buy a quality isolation transformer big enough for all of that......

The 2.4 KW gen should be OK with supplying all of what you noted with no real problems.....

Thx Andy. I think during the power-out's I will just use the tube tv and not the plasma for safety sake. I am sure the tube tv should be ok. I hope so? Thanks anyway. Rather safe than sorry.

Its probably the best way as they are expensive.....

An LCD TV usually uses very little current against a Tube CRT.....if that helps in anyway at all....

Hi Andy

Just some feedback. Friday I bought a 2.8Kva generator and of course had to try it out. Connected 2 x 54cm tube tv's, my pvr sattelite decoder, one vcr, 5 x lights (energy saving globes) and a fan to it. No problem, works great. So now i am ready for the powercuts. I will just make sure i have some petrol on standby. You see, this is just supposed to be a quick fix. I am planning emigration out of SA soon and is busy with the whole process. As soon as i can find work I am gone. I did not want to spend to much on inverter/battery systems now. Thanks for your/everybodys help/advise.

It was nice to work with you.

SA it would appear, has sadly been "caught up" in Africa by Africa, it looks as though it will "degrade" to the state of the Countries around it eventually, really sad.

You are doing the best thing I feel for your future.....

Anyone who has not spent time actually IN Africa, may not understand my statement, I am sure that everyone who has spent time there, will understand what I mean immediately....

I have not visited SA for about 4 years now, and except for an occasional Business trip, I probably will avoid it completely....

I wish you well in your future, keep in touch.

Thanks everybody for the answers. I think I will skip the plasma on the generator.

I am using a plasma on a generator. Make sure that the generator is sized correctly and that it is not laboring under the load. Remember that all this equipment is fused. As an extra precaution run the plasma through a surge protector... which you should already be doing even on household power. Enjoy the game, just don't spill the beer because the surge protector will not help you here. Where you need to be careful is on inverted power.

One has to compliment Conrad on his priorities: forget the fridge, freezer and hot water heater... power the plasma television....

He he he he, yeh, kind of weird if you look at what I want to do. But you see, the power is only off 4 hrs every second night between 16:30 and 20:30. So i don't need to power any huge items. As soon as the power returns all is working well. BUT, when the power is off, it is in the exact time I get home, and then you want to relax etc. So, tv and satelite on my priority list, cold beer, and some dimmed light. Relax time.

It will better to check up the out put you get from the generator. I know now a days there is severe problem of power in S.A. One solution may be to install a Voltage Stabliser before connecting to Plasma T.V but you should check up with T.V mfr.

Wow, so you are without power during prime time for 16 hours every week, seems pretty inconvenient. A residential standby generator would come on automatically, but certainly more expensive. Another alternative for your situation would be to use a battery inverter setup since the AC power is on during the day and will keep the batts always charged, and this system would power just your electronics. They are extremely dependable and many models will output true sine waves, power would be instantly available. Better models sense power draw so it won't discharge batteries if your not watching TV, no gasoline to keep filled. Use deep cycle batteries for best performance. This system will be as convenient as a dedicated standby generator, but less expensive to install and operate, and very reliable.

Check out these manufacturers for inverters.

http://www.xantrex.com/

http://tripplite.com/products/inverters/index.cfm

A typical 52" plasma draws up to 700 watts depending on briteness setting, newer models would draw less I guess.