Home Generator Buyer's Guide : Useful Information on Everything Generators
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Understanding Generators
How Does A Home Generator Work?
You might be thinking that a power generator is a complicated piece of equipment, but there’s really not much to understanding how they work.
Four important components of a generator are:
The motor, which burns fuel—usually propane, natural gas, gasoline, or diesel—to supply power.
The generator head, which turns that power into electricity.
Most residential generators require a transfer switch, which acts as the interface between utility power and generator power. The switch recognizes an absence of utility power, and switches your electrical circuits to the generator as their source of power. The time it takes for this process to happen is generally less than 30 seconds. The process is simply reversed as soon as utility power is restored.
The size of a generator is measured in kilowatts (the wattage it produces). Sizes range from 1 kW for the smallest, gasoline-powered, portable generators, to 500 kW for large, industrial generators. The typical range for a residential generator is 7 kW to 45kW.
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