I wrote my first blog on portable
power generators because when I saw the title of the article, I realized I
never gave much thought to supplying power to performances on the road. When the article described the inner workings
of a portable generator I pictured it in my head as a small-scale version of a
windmill with the rotation of the rotor inside the windings of the generator
creating the electricity needed. Now it
sounds like a generator is easy to get ahold of, but what’s more is that the
generator not only needs to be quiet enough not to disturb the performance, but
also need to provide a stable flow of electricity. Both of these points were not immediately
evident to me, but are very crucial when it comes to planning these
events. If the generator caused dips or
spikes in the power supply I’m sure it would cause massive damage to all
equipment connected to it.
In order to power large concerts I’m
sure there is a huge power requirement.
The article says that generators measure their voltage in kVA, which
stands for kilovolt-Amperes. Luckily,
the article also provides a link to www.onlineconversion.com
for easy calculations on power requirements as well as converting units to
whatever you may need.
There is a governor on the generator
to monitor power output and in addition, circuit breakers are also built in so
that they can immediately shut off in case of a spike. To put it in perspective, construction type
generators can fluctuate by as much as 25%, which already seems like quite a
bit. However, performance type
generators need to narrow that down to about 1.5% to be usable.
Craig
Leerman, who wrote the article, gives a few tips at the end to provide ease of
use of portable production generators.
The most important one I noticed was probably to install a ground rod or
tie in to the generator. In terms of
both personal safety and for the good of the gear, ground lines would be at the
top of my checklist for operating one of these.
Also, just like a car engine, generators require fuel, water, and oil to
continue running smoothly. Therefore it
is important to monitor and check these levels regularly as a shortage of any
one of those would stop the concert and could possibly damage the
generator. Even worse would be if it
happened mid-show.
