Now I Really Need a Power Conditioner? ?


I have just returned from a survey of a new house in the coutntry, where my wife and I have been hoping to close on the deal in the next week or so.

Just when I thought there couldnt possibly be any more expenses involved in this new venture for us, our new neighbors have informed us that branches and trees fall frequently in the Winter, and knock out the power lines sometimes for a couple of days or so.

I can survive without heat, food etc., but I would really be traumatized to be without music and audio during these times.

Therefore, could any of you please explain if you have any experience with electrical generators, which ones I might review, and if there are any that could possibly power up a few lights, TV etc and still keep my Levinson amp happy?

Could there possibly be an "audiophile" generator?

Any ideas greatly appreciated.
cwlondon
Cw I admire your attitude but really now, 2 days without food & water (you have no water without power to run the pump - can't even flush :-( of course your wife will be in town at a motel for the first couple of outages before she moves out permamently! Then there's the frozen plumbing & broken pipes, potentially overflowing sump pump etc... Face it you're now in the market for a generator.
At our country home we have an 8 horsepower 240VAC (for supplying both phases) ~5kW generator on hand including a days's supply gasoline stored with PriG fuel preservation additive. This is enough for the furnace, refrigeration, water pumps, lighting, and outputs a clean enough sinewave for the audio rig. Of course I use AC-line primary lightning surge arrestors & audio system AC power conditioning with AC surge protection anyway, but if running on generator power the additional line-filtration is mandatory not only for noise-reduction but also for protection against back-emf transients generated when other loads in the house connect & disconnect.
Mine is manually connected to the mains via a special cable & backfeed-outlets that I fabricated & installed. Of course you must first isolate your house from the distribution grid via an outside disconnect (breaker or knife switch) before backfeeding with your generator. Install mains-monitoring neon indictor lamps on the line side of your switch so you'll know when commercial power is restored.
Most generator owners keep a conservative but adequate setup on hand like mine. But you can go for electric starting, higher wattage (probably you would need to have a larger unit than mine to run a current-hungry rig like that - make some measurements with an amprobe instrument for proper sizing). Some generators can be fueled from methane (if you have natural gas service out there) or bottle-gas propane, eliminating fussing with gasoline & refueling issues.
An AC line transfer-switch is another step up. This can be done manually via 2 knife switches, or automatically via an optional transfer relay box available from better generator suppliers (Onan, Kohler, etc). The best systems have electric starting & are always on standby ready to run when power goes down. The transfer switch automatically places the load online typically within 15 seconds or less of startup, then retransfer when power is restored & shut off the engine after a cooldown interval.
I have an Onan RS 12000 GenSet by Cummins. It runs on natural gas the same as my furnace and hot water tank. It's a great set up. It automatically starts up as soon as it senses a loss of power (basically within seconds). I believe mine is good up to 50amps, 10,000 watts. It can run my entire house including of course my stereo. I needed this because I am not connected to city drainage,sewer and water. If my power went off for a prolonged period of time it would be trouble. I also work out of my home which makes it an added benefit. I don't notice any increased noise floor when it's on. A thing of beauty.
I dont know much about them, except that when I was checking into them for my house, I decided I want a natural gas one (vs. gasoline). It can be set up for auto switch over when the power fails. As for gasoline, I dont want to have to worry about refilling it, having water condense in the gas tank, etc. There are many generator capacities available, depending on what you want to power and how much power you need. You can start looking at samples at amazon.com. I also heard that power quality on the generators is not as good as a normal circuit. (but I am not sure) If you get a line conditioner/regenerator such as the PS Audio power plants for your equipment, then the power coming out of the generator would be cleaned up.

You might also consider getting a whole house surge suppressor, so when the power comes back up and the voltage surges, you dont damage any items in your house. Even if the power company says this never happens after a power outage, my computer repair company fixes a lot of machines that have been damaged after power has come back online.
I agree with Bob, your main concerns should be backup power for heat, food and water if via pump. Everything else is a luxury.

Another idea in addition to the above is too see if there are any "in production" residential hydrogen fuel cells. I know an outfit near me, Plug Power, is currently working on bringing one to market. I am sure they would not be cheap though. Solar energy another idea???

Good luck,