AC/Generac Transfer Switch

@lwin When you speak of this noise, is it safe to assume that it's electrical noise (hums, buzzes, etc) that you're hearing through your audio system itself, and not mechanical generator noise that you're hearing through walls or windows (mechanical noise that's interfering and mixing with your ability to cleanly hear your audio system)? 

There must be a solution here. Over decades, I was Chief Engineer for numerous radio stations that were many times on generator power. This transfer of power always involved an automatic transfer switch. There was never any new buzzing or humming when on generator power (which sometimes involved 5 radio stations and many radio station studios on the same generator). That simply would not work with radio stations. And some of you actually want to bypass this generator power, when you can actually still listen to your audio system when you lose utility power?! Sorry, that doesn’t make sense to me.

If it were possible, I would love to investigate every one of these situations where a generator is creating electrical noise in a home audio system. One thing that comes to mind is long unbalanced RCA cables. These *can* pickup electrical EMI & RFI noise. It’s possible that the alternator portion of the generator (the portion that generates the AC) is emitting this interference, and being picked up by the RCA cabling. It’s very possible if the home audio system was interconnected using balanced analog, this interference would not be heard, as it would be canceled out by the balanced design of the equipment and cabling.

Two things are critical to generator output (voltage and frequency), to replicate utility power (240 volts and 60 Hz for a typical US household). The goal is for the generator to reach full speed (resulting in the correct voltage and frequency) before it transfers this power to the house.

In my situation, to keep most microprocessor studio equipment powered up while this transfer of power takes place, UPS’ were incorporated in studios and equipment rack areas. The UPS’ would temporarily carry the load until the generator came up to speed and transferred power. All earth grounding and equipment bonding stayed the same.