Author: Josie

What is a circuit breaker?

That is a great question. Simply put it is a safety device that can stop the flow of electricity in a circuit. It is important to understand the limitations of a circuit breaker in your application to make sure you are protected. It is easy to get into trouble when we misunderstand what the CB actually protects against.

A circuit breaker interrupts power in two main configurations switching and interrupting.

Switching

When a circuit breaker is manually opened (power off) or closed (power on) it servers to control the electrical flow to certain appliances. This is helpful when performing maintenance and testing.

Interrupting

The circuit breaker is constantly monitoring the power flowing through it. When the current (amps) exceed the limits the breaker will automatically open (power off) to protect people, equipment and the source from damage. Check out our article on how circuit breakers work to gain a better understanding of the various technologies used to monitor the power.

It is important to remember that circuit breakers focus on controlling the amount of current in the circuit and don’t monitor voltage or power quality. You can also compare a CB to a fuse. The main difference is, when a fuse has too much current, it breaks itself to stop. Where as, a CB is re-settable while normally not getting ruined once it has tripped.

Click to view our spec sheet on circuit breakers.

Do WINCO Generators have “clean” power?

When you start researching generators you quickly start hearing about the importance of clean power. A frequent question is whether or not Winco generators offer clean power. The simple answer to that question is yes. We also want to go into some additional detail so you can understand what makes power “clean.” 

To be clean power a generator has to maintain its frequency, voltage and Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) within acceptable levels. At Winco our new products meet or exceed the thresholds listed below. 

Voltage Regulation: +/- 5%
Total Harmonic Distortion: < 6%
Frequency Regulation: +/- 2hz

Many of the models we offer use electronic controls to improve voltage and frequency regulation well below these minimum thresholds.

We have created some additional articles that cover the different technologies we use to produce clean power.  
– What Controls Voltage Regulation?
– What is Total Harmonic Distortion?
– What is Frequency Regulation?

Some applications have special power requirements and cannot tolerate variations in frequency or voltage that are more stringent. Some examples of these include technologies like large UPS applications and some specialty electronics. Most common applications are going to be within acceptable operating ranges.