Small Portable Generators

[nejuicer]

Hey everyone,

I am pleased to announce that Harry Box, author of “The Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook” has cited my work on the use of portable gas generators in the just released Fourth Edition of the handbook. In addition, he has established a link from the companion website for the Fourth Edition of the Handbook, called “Box Book Extras,” to a company news letter article I wrote on the use portable gas generators in motion picture production.

If you haven't yet read the article, or looked at it in a while, it is worth reading. I have greatly expanded it to be the definitive resource on portable power generation for motion picture production. Of the article Harry Box states:

"Great work!... this is the kind of thing I think very few technician's ever get to see, and as a result many people have absolutely no idea why things stop working."

"Following the prescriptions contained in this article enables the operation of bigger lights, or more smaller lights, on portable generators than has ever been possible before."​

The “Box Book Extras,” site is also worth checking out because it includes other source material used for the handbook, articles by Harry Box published in other periodicals, related websites, a list of production oriented i-phone apps, as well as more in depth discussion of topics touched upon in the handbook. You can log onto the Box Book Extras site at http://booksite.focalpress.com/box/setlighting/ with our pass-code "setlighting." Use this link for my news letter article on the use of portable gas generators in motion picture production.


- Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip, Lighting & Grip Rental in Boston

 

[slondon]

Guy, the passcode is in the book, for purchasers. Are you sure it's okay to give it away here? If so, why even bother to have one?

 

[nejuicer]

Guy, the passcode is in the book, for purchasers. Are you sure it's okay to give it away here? If so, why even bother to have one?

As a contributor to the website I have been authorized by Harry Box to give out the passcode. In addition, I have a limited number of 30% discount coupons to give out as well. The discount coupons can be redeemed when purchasing the 4th Edition of the Handbook from the Publisher's website.

If you would like to receive one of the discount coupons, simply follow the instructions contained in the body of the news letter article I wrote on the use of portable gas generators in motion picture production that is cited in the Handbook and linked to the companion website.

- Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip, Lighting and Grip Rental in Boston

 

[slondon]

As a contributor to the website I have been authorized by Harry Box to give out the passcode. In addition, I have a limited number of 30% discount coupons to give out as well. The discount coupons can be redeemed when purchasing the 4th Edition of the Handbook from the Publisher's website.

If you would like to receive one of the discount coupons, simply follow the instructions contained in the body of the news letter article I wrote on the use of portable gas generators in motion picture production that is cited in the Handbook and linked to the companion website.

- Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip, Lighting and Grip Rental in Boston

Cool. Just asking.

I ordered my copy from Amazon in advance and had it in hand before the publication date. Too bad, the 30% coupon is a great offer, thanks. I cannot recommend the book too strongly to those who do motion picture lighting. Not to sound obsequious, but I've read and appreciate everything I can find that you have written on forums and have learned a lot, thank you.

Here's a question. Because of the lack of power factor correction are manufacturers of consumer CFLs selling us a bill of goods when they state the power consumption of their light bulbs?

 

[nejuicer]

Here's a question. Because of the lack of power factor correction are manufacturers of consumer CFLs selling us a bill of goods when they state the power consumption of their light bulbs?

I am not so paranoid to think that there is a massive fraud being perpetrated on consumers, but there are those who do. For instance check out this article on Pure Engergy Source’s Peswiki website titled “Are U.S. CFL's Designed to Make Us Pay More on Our Power Bills?” by Steve Windisch, available online at: http://peswiki.com/index.php/Article:Are_U.S._CFL's_Designed_to_Make_Us_Pay_More_on_Our_Power_Bills?.

The synopsis of the article reads: “CFLs have been touted to save energy, and they do certainly save significant amounts of electricity. But there are some interesting and largely unknown facts about these devices. It would appear that those sold within the United States and other countries may be specifically designed to allow the utility corporations to bill us nearly double what we should be paying for their use.” If you are a conspiracy nut, you will love this article.

Rather than a massive fraud being perpetrated, I think that absent federal regulation to, lamp manufacturers are simply not going to reveal drawbacks to their products. If you look on the packages of consumer CFLs what you will see are warnings about Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) caused by harmonic currents generated by the Switch Mode Power Supplies (SMPSs) of the CFL ballasts. They are there because it is federally mandated. For instance, Lowel Light on their website has to warn that their compact fluorescent (CFL) bulb, the Lowel Ego,“… may cause interference with radios, cordless phones, televisions, and remote controls.”(http://www.lowel.com/ego/lamp_info.html) because they are mandated to do so by the FCC. They don’t say that the same harmonic currents that cause the RFI are a by-product of the poor leading power factor of the ballast’s SMPSs; and, that the poor power factor also causes the bulb to draw twice the current for it’s wattage because they don’t have to. Is that “selling us a bill of goods”?

The same is true of HMI ballast manufacturers. Because of the added cost, weight, and complexity of PFC circuitry, ballast manufacturers in the US have offered PFC circuitry only as an option in medium-sized 2.5-4kw ballasts. And, until very recently manufacturers did not offer PFC circuitry in HMI ballasts smaller than 2.5kw in the US (in the EU PFC circuitry is mandatory in all HMI ballasts sold.) K5600 is a good example. Their 800W Joker ballast is not Power Factor Corrected; but, rather than promote that the ballast draws nearly 50% more current than it should, they instead promote that “The JOKER-BUG 800 will produce as much output as a 4,000 Watt quartz fixture with the power draw of only 12.5 Amps.” Is K5600 selling you a bill of goods when the Joker 800 will draw about 8 Amps with a Power Factor Corrected Power-2-Light 800 ballast?

The reason PFC circuitry is still not universally offered in smaller HMI ballasts is that it does not offer a huge advantage when plugging into house power, but adds significantly to the cost of the ballast (as much a $1000.00 in the case of the 1200W ballast of one manufacturer.) A typical 1200W Power Factor Corrected electronic HMI ballast will draw 11 Amps at 120 Volts verses the 19 Amp draw of a non-PFC electronic ballast. Since 1200 ballasts are plugged into wall outlets for the most part, are the manufacturers “selling you a bill of goods” by not promoting that they could be more energy efficient?

Perhaps, when you consider that the added efficiency of a PFC 1200 ballast can make a huge difference when powering a lighting package off of a portable generator. For example, when you consider that a Kino Flo Parabeam 400 draws only 2 amps, the 8 Amp difference between using a PFC 1200W electronic ballast and standard non-PFC 1200W electronic ballast, can mean the difference between running four additional Parabeam 400s on a portable generator or not – I think you would have to agree that is a major boost in production capability and pertinent to any one using a portable generator as their principle source of set power.

But that is not the only benefit to using PFC electronic ballasts (both HMI & fluorescent) on portable generators. The substantial reduction in line noise that results from using power factor corrected ballasts on the nearly pure power waveform of an inverter generator creates a new math when it comes to calculating the load you can put on a generator. In the past we had to de-rate portable gas generators because of the inherent short comings of conventional generators with AVR and Frequency governing systems when dealing with non-PFC HMI & fluorescent electronic ballasts. The harmonic distortion created by non-PFC ballasts reacting poorly with the distorted power waveform of conventional AVR generators limited the number of HMIs and fluorescents you could power on a portable generator to 65% of their rated capacity (4225 Watts on a 6500W Generator). But now, where inverter generators have virtually no inherent harmonic distortion or sub-transient impedance and power factor correction (PFC) is available in small HMI ballasts, this conventional wisdom regarding portable gas generators no longer holds true. Where before you could not operate more than a couple 1200W HMIs with non-PFC ballasts on a conventional generator because of the consequent harmonic distortion, now according to the new math of low line noise, you can load an inverter generator to capacity. And if the generator is one of our modified Honda EU6500is inverter generators, you will be able to run a continuous load of up to 7500W as long as your HMI and Kino ballasts are Power Factor Corrected.

While CFL and HMI manufacturers (let’s not forget Fluorescent and LED manufacturers) may not be “selling you a bill of goods,” they are certainly doing you a disservice by not revealing the poor power factor of their equipment.

Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip, Lightig and Grip Rental in Boston