When You Find Out How Complex The Electric Grid Really Is, You’ll Want A Backup Generator | Dillon, SC

When You Find Out How Complex The Electric Grid Really Is, You’ll Want A Backup Generator | Dillon, SC

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There’s a lot of change in the air that’s affecting the way power reaches your home. There are changes in weather patterns that include more extremes, and cybersecurity issues that affect local and national infrastructure. Changes in electric demand include support for electric car charging, power for huge computer server facilities, and growing housing developments. Even fundamental issues like significant changes in power generation strategies such as coal, nuclear, and natural gas fuel sources and variable renewable energy sources, provide additional uncertainty in the power reaching your home. Solar flares have repeatedly affected long-distance power transmission lines, and aging power distribution centers and occasional failing transformers cause more localized but still significant outages. At Mister Sparky Generators, we’re here for our customers in Dillon, SC, so they can have a direct power connection to their backup generator. That way if the complex national power grid and local connections become disrupted for the short or long term.

A Permanently Installed Backup Generator Is Almost Transparent as It Takes Over

Manufacturers have recognized that a growing number of backup generator systems are being installed for homeowners, and they have created lines of backup generators that are as easy to operate and maintain as possible. A typical unit sits unobtrusively on a concrete pedestal near the house, looking similar to an air conditioning unit with its sound-deadening cover in place. When our team installs one of these units, we perform detailed site surveys to ensure that the location is safely away from the house to avoid exhaust risks and also located where any sounds will not bother the homeowners or the neighbors. The connections to the home include generated power integrated through an automatic transfer switch with the home’s wiring, a power supply to the backup generator to charge the unit’s starting battery and supply its electronics with power, along with a wired or wireless internet connection so the electronics can communicate with the owner via display unit in the home or smartphone app. The fuel supply is carefully laid out, typically natural or propane gas, and the homeowner selects a backup generator capacity that governs how much power is available for the home, from 5-10kW for basic needs to 20kW or more to support the home’s normal operation, often including HVAC system. When the power fails, after a break switchover interval of a few seconds, the backup generator supplies power until it’s time to switch back to grid power. While the unit is sensing power loss, starting the backup generator, and switching the power source, any electronics in the house that need constant power to avoid rebooting can be connected to a commonly available UPS system that uses a battery to provide near-instant but limited power for network routers, desktop computers, smart home systems, and similar equipment.

Working from Home Nearly Requires a Backup Generator

One of life’s ironies comes when a professional is working at home using backup power while reading online about the cause of their power failure. One recent example is the 2021 Texas Power Crisis, which cut off power to many homes in the state that led to additional problems due to the unusually cold weather, such as pipes bursting from the lack of heat. Problems also caused a reduction in available gas because gas station pumps were off, and grocery store closures were due to lack of power to operate. A home with a generator that supplied their refrigerator and freezer, powered by natural gas, could ride out the extended power failure. Note that while gas-powered vehicles were stuck after they ran out of gas, electric vehicles also could not charge and be stuck as well — unless they had access to generator power.

Aging Electric Power Infrastructure

Many components in our national electric grid are designed to last up to 50 years, but in fact, they are already crossing over the hundred-year mark, an extra fifty years of service while the grid serves a modern demand for power that is still not being addressed with significant improvements to the electric power infrastructure. Resolving these issues will take time, and having your own power source in the backyard is a wise investment in lieu of the national investment that’s still in the works. We have already seen, also, that problems in one portion of the electric grid can cause cascading failures, often protectively induced but still resulting in power loss, that could affect the reliability of our electricity supply. Another problem that’s increasingly visible but has existed for some time is the effect of solar events on our long-distance electric supply lines, very high voltage connections, often 200,000 volts or more, that act a bit like antennas when the solar events occur and receive enough disruptive energy to cause a temporary shutdown, and occasionally damage that requires repair.

Working at Home and Home-Based Education Require Consistently Available Power

In the past, daytime power failures and overnight blackouts had a minimal effect on our lifestyles, since we typically weren’t home for daytime disconnects, and at night we slept through, only recognizing the event from the reset digital clocks such as the one on the VCR and stove. Now, we have so many electronic devices that depend on power that it can be quite disruptive to lose power, even overnight. With adults working from home and children attending school from home, daytime power failures can be highly disruptive. It seems likely that, in the near term, the need for backup power in order to stay working and learning will remain.

Reliable Backup Power in Dillon, SC is a Phone Call Away

Mister Sparky Generators provides generators for homes and businesses in Dillon, SC, along with generator hookup service and ongoing maintenance to ensure generator reliability over the years. We have the information you need about the high-quality systems we offer, and how they can make a difference in your family’s electricity-based lifestyle. Call today.