On Tue, 19 Jul 2011 02:00:26 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
wrote:

What about sticking a constant voltage transformer between the genny and
your step down tranny. Loads of 'em dirt cheap on FleaBay. All surges and
sags taken care of, as well as the inherent crap cleaning that you get from
these devices, so you would then be getting a nice clean constant 230v or
whatever into your 230v - 110v tranny.

Potentially a bad idea. Such CVT devices are ferro-resonant
transformers, which are tuned to 50 or 60Hz. If you feed it with any
other frequency, the output voltage will change. How much change
varies radically with the design and manufacture. I had one (Sola)
that could tolerate a +/-5% change in frequency without much change in
output voltage. Another would produce huge changes in voltage for the
same change in frequency. They are absolutely fabulous for
controlling spikes, sags, surges, and glitches, but only from the
frequency regulated mains. During a lightning storm, I was working on
a computer that had a large CVT attached. I was watching the lights
flicker, but the computer never missed a beat.

If you think your generator is fairly well speed regulated (i.e.
inverter-generator), then it MIGHT work. If you do something stupid,
like start the generator with the CVT attached, you're going to blow
up something. (Ham radio Field Day horror stories omitted).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_regulator#Constant-voltage_transformer
Output voltage varies about 1.2% for every 1% change in supply
frequency. For example, a 2-Hz change in generator frequency,
which is very large, results in an output voltage change of only
4%, which has little effect for most loads.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558