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Diesel Generators

Some Good Reasons for Homeowners to Invest in Diesel Generators

The demand for independent power sources, such as diesel generators has increased in recent years. Part of the reason is that homeowners have been joining the more traditional commercial and industrial consumers, now sharing their need for an on-site power source at a time when that from the nation’s service providers can no longer be taken for granted. Unfortunately, years of access to a more reliable service has made us increasingly dependent upon electricity, which we now employ in almost every aspect of our lives.

The average home now relies on electricity to power everything from lighting, ablutions, laundry, cooking, and climate control to security, communications, and entertainment. Without the emergency supply provided by diesel generators; although power outages might not be as financially crippling to residential consumers as they can be to commerce and industry, they can still be extremely disruptive.

While candles can provide a home with lighting, and a gas or charcoal braai could cover the cooking requirements, many things that we require daily rely on electrical power, and while there are other ways to produce it, not all are ideal. Solar panels, for example, are an excellent way to reduce your monthly power bills, but they do not work at night, and there is a limit to what their storage batteries can deliver.

Instead, a system with a more continuous and greater output will be necessary in order to ensure maintaining essential domestic functions. Because diesel generators include models with a wide range of output capacities, they offer residential consumers the choice of powering just a few of the more essential functions or everything electrical throughout the entire home, according to the homeowner’s needs and budget.

While the purchase price is certainly important, so is your safety. You may pay considerably less for a petrol-driven unit, but its fuel is highly inflammable. Unless the appropriate precautions for the storage of reserve fuel on your premises are strictly observed, this is a choice that could present a significant fire hazard. By contrast, storing a reserve of the fuel used to power a diesel generator will present no such hazard, as it is non-inflammable.

A combination of the individual inventions of Michael Faraday and Rudolph Diesel, these units have now been in use both by service providers and consumers for more than a century. Consequently, their design has been refined and their capabilities extended, offering many new benefits to the end-user. One that is considered vital to commercial and industrial users, and which is of obvious value to homeowners also, is the automatic transfer switch. Its function is to activate the emergency power source immediately upon detecting a mains failure, thus limiting downtime to a minimum.

A brief loss of power during the switchover is of little consequence in the home. However, for industrial applications, diesel generators tend to be equipped with a more sophisticated control panel. This can be programmed to start up and balance their output with that of the mains minutes, switching a little before the start of a scheduled outage, and thus ensuring there will be no interruption to a factory’s production.

For residential purposes, it is important to locate the unit where its fumes will pose no problem. A patio or garage could work, but, with a suitable canopy, it can stand anywhere outdoors, as there will be little or no noise to disturb owners or neighbours, and the genset will be protected from the elements.

In summary, diesel generators have become as important in the home as they have been for much longer in the factory. Those without them face the ongoing threat of disruption. Those who have them need not worry about costly fridge and freezer failures, premises being unprotected by security systems, loss of contact with friends, family, and essential services, or children being terrified by the dark. It is your choice.