Is it safe to power a Uniti Atom with a portable generator? They typically output a sine wave with distortion in the 12-20% range. Could this damage my Atom?
I did a search and couldn’t find a previous discussion on this topic.
I live in Atlantic Canada where we were recently hit with a severe hurricane. Virtually everyone lost power; some are only getting it back three weeks on after the storm. We were fortunate to only be out for two days. But now winter is coming and probably more outages, so I need to buy a generator, It would be nice to be able to at least play back music during these times.
I think i would be tempted to use the generator for the usual household items like fridges etc. But for the hifi perhaps a back up battery system, in a prolonged outage it could be recharged by the generator?
It’s a really good question, but I don’t really know. Of course house generally get a messy sign wave caused by all sorts of household devices, and is one of the main reasons for going for a dedicated radial circuit, but that will never clean up what comes into the house.
Not cheap, but a solution might be to obtain one of these Power Regenerators that take t rubbish, and produce a clean sine wave. PS Audio would be someone to look at.
A full home generator shouldn’t be a issue for your audio system.
Propane or natural gas powered
When the main power goes out they don’t kick in right away they can be set to engage soon after an outage.
The generator hooks in to the service between the hydro meter and the electrical panel.
The generator tends to be a little over specked for the needs of the home.
You will probably find it a higher cost if you have the audio system bypassed at the panel vs just doing the whole house.
Also these “ whole home generators “ cycle on automatically once to twice a month to ensure proper operation.
Also note they need a proper service once a year and this isn’t something a home owner can do.
A solar powered generator like a Jackery should give very consistent AC as it’s buffered from the battery. The ones with the really big fold out lawn panels generate enough to keep a modest hifi going 24/7.