What Size Generator Best Suits Your Connecticut Home ? Part 2
In last week’s blog we talked about portable emergency generators for homes in. This week we will explore “smart circuit generators”.
If you run a home business or you are caring for an elderly parent or other person experiencing ongoing medical issues “smart circuit generators” can insure you will have adequate power to fulfill your needs whenever your power is out.
Smart Circuit Generators
The best way to compare the difference between emergency portable generators and smart circuit generators is to compare them to your thermostat. Emergency portable generators are like an ordinary thermostat. They can turn circuits on and off and can power only a predetermined number of circuits no matter how much power is being used. Smart circuit generators are more like a programmable thermostat. Smart circuit generators combined with smart automatic transfer switches can power your entire electrical panel. When your system is close to the overload point its’ “Digital Load Management” (DLM) technology will automatically shut off 2 or more high load circuits until your demand for power decreases. It will then repower the shut down circuits. This DLM technology can also rotate high demand appliances. For instance, if your home has 2 air conditioners, the smart circuit standby generators will automatically alternate when the 2 air conditioners can run. The advantage to “Smart Circuit Generator” is that they cost significantly less than a whole house standby generator while providing the capacity to run your entire home
Another less expensive way to use “Smart Circuit Generators is to use an “Essential Circuit” transfer switch with your generator. These transfer switches are set up to run 16 circuits that you consider essential to your home’s operation. These 16 circuits will always remain energized when your home is without power. The smart automatic transfer switch will also energize the rest of the circuits in your main electrical panel. If the generator being used approaches an overload condition the non-essential circuits are shut off causing a mini power outage in your home. The number and frequency of these mini-outages will depend on the size of your generator and your electrical usage
The sizes of these generators are usually between 8KW and 12KW and are usually powered by natural gas or propane which makes their use much more convenient. There are also models available that will run on gasoline or diesel fuels
This is the second part of our three part series. Next week we will discuss whole house standby generators, installation & safety issues