Looking for a 1500va UPS that will charge off my generac generator

[timdau]

I have a bunch of cyberpowers and none of them will charge off my generator.  I guess the power isn't clean enough.  I have tried running a light or a hair dryer and it didn't clean up the power enough.  I am looking for an APC model that will work for me.

[Teken]

You may refer to the following APC FAQ’S:

https://www.apc.com/ca/en/faqs/FA158891/

https://www.apc.com/ca/en/faqs/FA158842/

At a high level the generator in question must be within its specifications for operations. As such regular maintenance as outlined by the manufacturer should be followed based on hours of use and environmental conditions.

If the generator is not an inverter type you have absolutely no hope any UPS will operate correctly. Even if the generator is a inverter that outputs a pure sine wave you have a greater than 50% chance you’ll see problems as outlined in the APC FAQ.

As such it’s important to demo and test any UPS with your generator to see how it behaves in a real world situation.

If voltage and frequency is not the problem the vast majority of the time its due to 3rd harmonic noise (THD). 

If THD is the root cause than the possible solutions get very expensive. Which are to use filters, isolation transformers, and AVR systems.

Ultimately, the primary purpose for any UPS is to allow you enough time to gracefully shutdown computer systems. When mission critical systems require longer operational runtime these are mated to extended runtime UPS Systems.

This also highlights the importance of having a manual bypass maintenance switch. As this allows you to manually bypass the UPS and force the load to be powered by the utility / generator if required.

NOTE: Do not confuse a manual bypass switch with a ATS. A Automatic Transfer Switch by its very nature automatically switches from one source to another.

From 35+ years of experience and using millions of these devices. You either have to spend a lot of finances, resources, to determine if the ATS is acceptable or forgo the above and install a manual bypass switch for 100% switch over.

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