PacB Group // This is Now Generator Country. Do You Have a Good Supplier?

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This is Now Generator Country. Do You Have a Good Supplier?

South Africa was always industrially ambitious, ever the quiet competitor that managed to impress the world on a regular basis. Since Eskom has been flailing, South Africans have become pretty familiar with generator power! Renewable energy solutions are slowly moving into the realm of feasibility, although generators still provide the highest efficiency ratio of alternative power solutions as a general rule. South Africans today shop for generators all the time, and industrial generators are especially ubiquitous, with homeowners not far behind. Especially when it comes to a generator for commercial application, there is still a percentage of companies who are buying the wrong machines.

As any reputable commercial and industrial generator supplier will be able to tell you, generator under-sizing is still encountered, even in industrial application. In fact, very often, industrial generators have been bought with but a five-year lifespan. That is not because the machine will break down or because it was a dinky toy to begin with, but simply because successful business has a tendency to grow. Power demands particularly tend to expand, even on the same premises.

Although workable tandem solutions can be designed, skating too close to the line where your current demands end when buying a generator is an all-too-common mistake. That is not to say that you need to overspend in anticipation of future expansion, but rather strike a balance, so that you know you are comfortable for the next while anytime Eskom goes west. Of course, a reputable generator supplier builds them, manufactures their components, and services industrial generators with glee, and would not sell a client something undersized.

Get the Basics Right with Residential and Industrial Generators

If you are a homeowner, you are not going to be looking at anything above a 50 kW (kilowatt) generator, unless you have extraneous power needs on an expansive estate. Residential generators are typically in the 5 kW to 50 kW range, so any generator supplier pitching you on a bigger machine needs to justify themselves thoroughly. By the same token, commercial shoppers should start above 50 kW in size. Buying a generator that is inadequate for commercial premises is costly.

Homeowners might be able to toggle between appliances and lights to make a situation work, but a business needs its production line complete. It needs all its functionality to stay in business. Whatever power solution the company has had better enable all conventional functions of that company, or it is a failed solution.

Industrial generators go up to around a 3 MW (megawatt) rating, and banks of generators are typically installed to get up to the power demands of large utilities and mines, for example. So how to gauge the size of your ideal generator? A superior generator supplier will provide the service of savvy and expert calculation, but for your own rough estimate, you need to consider:

• What is the total load to be on the generator? Here you will need to calculate each appliance or sector of production’s machines (in the case of industrial concerns) and illumination and sundry demands, for their individual demand in watts. Add it all up, and you will have a rough figure. It is rough because timing is a factor in those calculations too. How much of the demand will come at the same time? Will you legitimately never be running everything at once? And how does that rough figure change as you factor in simultaneous operation or staggered demand over a working day?
• The startup pull of almost any electrical appliance surges when the equipment comes alive. Things like household pumps (used in ponds and pools, for example) ask one and a half times their running pull at startup. Heavier machines push that figure right up. Especially in the case of industrial equipment and machinery, a savvy generator supplier needs to assist with those calculations to be able to specify your ideal power solution. It is not the kind of mistake you want to make. Some things are either a success or failure, there is no medium level, and commercially applied generators are definitely on the success side. Undersized generators are a liability, not an asset.
• Homeowners have it a little easier, as they can calculate surge pull (startup) and running load (how much power the appliance draws when running) without worrying about huge omissions in their calculations. Forget a bank of freezers in a food processing plant or the top line of conveyor belts that you use once a week to ferry in coal at a smelting plant – you are stuck. Generally, homeowners can err on the side of caution in their estimate of power needs and be safe. Commercial application should really draw on the generator supplier to apply their expertise to these initial calculations so that money is well spent. 

PacB Does the Most Important Calculations for You, Including Financial Ones 

As a highly reputable generator supplier, PacB has steered more customers in the right direction in generator purchases than we can remember. With us, you will always get the whole story and all the intel you need supported by our extensive experience, so that you can make the most informed decision. We are generator nuts who regularly manufacture components for all the top global brands in industrial generators, and our electrical engineering is world-class too. We bring all our expertise to bear on a client’s unique demands of standby power, and we are the kind of engineering service that is an asset to your business. That is our goal. Because we manufacture excellent generators, which we know will give you great performance over the years, and we repair and service them too.

A smart generator supplier is business smart, and PacB has developed a number of options on financial assistance. That is the level of service we provide, because we know how business is, and we know that if we keep you running, so do we. Especially for larger industrial generators, come to a generator supplier who makes them! We are the top level in quality generators, and we have got global trade and standing to prove it. We enjoy being of service, steering our clients towards a successful solution that gives them a big part of what they are paying for－peace of mind. Call us or mail us but take the first step towards success.