Generators or inverters explained at Port Alfred Business Forum
Thesen empowers residents with power generation talk
Simon Thesen of Thesens Generators gave a talk at last Wednesday’s Port Alfred Business Forum meeting, explaining power generation issues and how to resolve them to suit your budget as well as electrical requirements.
Thesen was asked to speak as many residents in the Ndlambe area are looking for independence from Eskom.
He said there were four
main components of a generator system that needed to be considered when purchasing, including the engine (petrol or diesel), the alternator (that generates the electricity), the distribution to appliances and the switch-over from Eskom to generator power.
“Some agents use good engines but substitute the other components for cheaper alternatives,” said Thesen. “However, when you go to maintain these items they could be out of stock and unavailable.”
His recommendation was therefore to choose the correct generator and its component parts as this will save money in the longer-term. He also spoke of the differences between generators and inverters, and the advantages of either system.
“Generators can be quite noisy in operation,” he said, “and most require intervention to switch them on when the power is cut off.”
Thesen explained that the life cycle of an inverter system depends on battery life and how many appliances can be used, as battery replacement can be a major cost should they not be able to slowly charge because of continuous use, as occurs when Stage 2 or higher load-shedding is implemented (more than one Eskom power-cut in a day).
He said the fast recharging will cause damage to the battery banks which are very expensive to replace.
However, one advantage of an inverter system is that the power will swap over very rapidly.
“Your DStv decoder won’t even reboot with an inverter system,” Thesen said.
“Some people don’t want to have to get up to switch the generator on, so an inverter will switch over without any intervention.”