Iam to design a circuit that will use microcontrollers inorder to be able to switch two generators, say a 5kW and 10kW to have 5kW, 10kW, or 15kW depending on the need.
I would like to use a PC as my microcontroller but i do not know how. I need your help. I have no idea about microcontrollers but am willing to learn fromthe above to coding.
Thanks
Colin
Back to the beginning. Attached is an image of my security blanket. Rest assured I am going somewhere with this. Not sure where but somewhere.
Today the outside air temperature is about 10 degrees F (-12 C). Read into that cold. If we lose power it gets cold real quick in the house and suddenly cold beers on a nice Sunday afternoon isn't fun. However if my mains power suddenly goes away within 10 seconds my life is happy again. My generator starts and comes online with a transfer from mains to generator power fully automatic. During that 10 seconds all my computers and anything I care about is backed up by UPS power units which transfer immediately, thus nothing is lost.
The generator does a few smart things. It monitors line voltage and dips or momentary loss of line power is not unusual. Therefore if a loss of mains is detected it waits a few seconds to see if it returns. If not it initiates starting the generator and once up to voltage initiates transfer. It wants to make sure it does not respond to a dip of power but make sure there is a total loss for a few seconds. Hold that thought.
Now let's look at what you propose. You have a 5 KW generator and a 10 KW generator for openers. You closely monitor the demand on the load. If the load exceeds 5 KW you want to switch the load to a 10 KW generator. This looks simple and good on paper but has problems. First, you don't want to run a 5 KW generator under full load constantly, you don't want an instant transfer at 5 KW of load. The 5 KW could just be a spike in demand. You want a delay in there. Maybe like if the load demand exceeds 4.5 KW for several seconds then transfer. Lacking a delay the transfer will freak out (OK get confused) and bang back and forth. Things will get ugly! Additionally if the load is phase sensitive bad things will happen.
Now if the load exceeds 10 KW your options are to bring a 15 KW generator online or combine the 5 KW and 10 KW generators. Remember we are assuming all these generators are up and running. Actually if all the generators are up and running I would just have a single 15 KW generator and be done with it, however, moving along...
Someone mentioned the phasing. You may rest assured that if you have a 5 KW generator and decide to parallel a 10 KW generator lacking perfect sync and control really bad things will happen. You will see sparks, fire and smoke like you never dreamed of.
There are a few considerations in what you want to do or propose and you need to be aware of every one of them. That is what I am saying.
Ron