Avoid Unproductive Hours and Losses with a Portable Generator
Ageing, inadequate power generation infrastructure and increasing electricity demands are driving many home and business owners to install a generator. Since the world’s first electrical power plant opened in London in 1882, people worldwide have become increasingly dependent upon a national grid system to deliver electricity to their cities, towns, and villages. Nevertheless, many rural areas remain unconnected and off-grid, and homes and shops must survive without power or generate their own.
Unfortunately, in recent years, even South Africa’s city dwellers have become accustomed to lengthy periods without electricity while the national service provider battles to compensate for shortfalls with planned outages or, as we know it, load-shedding. In some cases, this is merely an inconvenience: a few hours without lighting and TV. However, for others, a loss of power could be disastrous. Fortunately, installing a portable generator can avert the risk of disaster.
Electricity has enabled numerous technological advances, but few have proved more disruptive than the computer. Today, these digital machines are depositories for data vital to many aspects of our daily lives, from access to general information and electronic communications to details of our health and finances. A sudden power interruption could result in such information being lost or corrupted without a suitable means to maintain a constant electricity supply.
Some Creative Uses for a Generator at Home and at Work
Here are a few ways a generator can be used at your home or work:
- Domestic Uses
Although around 50% of power usage is by industries, domestic users account for almost half as much. Once purely mechanical, most household devices have since been updated and are now powered by an electric motor and are often computerised. Even pushing a bicycle up a steep hill is no longer necessary, thanks to the addition of electrics. But when there’s no power to charge it, it’s just an extra heavy bike. Likewise, our mobile phones are little better than paperweights once they have exhausted their charge.
One of the most recent additions to the home is the games console – hours of fun and entertainment when functional but just a superfluous plastic box without power. A portable home generator is all it takes to keep these and other domestic devices performing as and when required.
- Commercial and Industrial Uses
In practice, the effects of brownouts and power outages in these sectors generally tend to have more severe consequences than a night without TV and eating braaivleis by candlelight. Data centres like banks, licensing offices, and health services are intended to be secure repositories of crucial information, but even a brief power outage could leave their contents vulnerable.
Firstly, access to these premises is generally controlled, requiring anyone wishing to enter to swipe a key card or submit to a biometric scan. If the power fails, so does the secure access system, and computer hardware worth hundreds of thousands of rands could become easy pickings for an opportunistic thief. However, such losses can’t happen when installing a backup generator. The latter will automatically take over when power from the national grid is insufficient or lost.
Although stolen hardware can be replaced and the expense met by an insurer, replacing lost data is only possible when backed up to the cloud or a remote server. While a power outage could mean some data is permanently lost during the uploading process or corrupted during processing, the chance that it could be stolen when routine security measures malfunction could have equally serious consequences – yet another reason to consider a backup power option.
Backup Options
An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) can provide AC power via an inverter and generate an alarm to allow personnel time to turn off systems safely. However, only a generator or combination of the two can guarantee data security and integrity. We at CCI Technologies are a registered ECA contractor specialising in electrical and power solutions. Contact us for expert help with your power reticulation and infrastructure requirements.
