Let there be uninterrupted power supply in your home
– Photo: H. Vibhu
A necessity: A power backup system at an apartment complex in Kochi.
A power backup is generally one of the most common facilities in an apartment complex. Instead of looking at it as an additional facility, flat buyers take it for granted these days. Even in flats where there is no lift, the buyers would generally like to have a power backup.
Power breakdowns continue to be a problem even when power cuts have become rare. A generator has become a necessity rather than a facility these days. With lifestyle changing over the years, when a computer has got into perhaps every possible middle-class home, an uninterrupted power supply is in great demand.
Common feature
While homes go in for inverters and UPS for computers, builders provide a generator backup as part of a flat sale. It is not even mentioned in the brochures of the builders that they will be providing a generator backup. The facility is now integrated into a necessity item of a flat.
Earlier, apartment complexes which did not go beyond three floors (ground plus two floors), it was not considered a necessity, but now builders are providing it even when there are no lifts to be operated.
Installing a generator needs technical expertise and the safety and environmental aspects need to be checked first. There are a number of automatically operated systems, which switch on as soon as the electrical supply goes off. Earlier, when such devices were not so advanced, the hand-operated system was preferred to avoid any mishap. Even now, some people prefer the hand-operated system.
Your requirement
The size of the generator depends upon the need. Buying a generator mainly involves considering the minimum wattage required in each household along with lighting of common area, running of water pumps and lifts. The wattage given to each household would be what is left after the common needs are met first in a flat.
In a house, one has to calculate the wattage requirement by taking the maximum wattage required to start an appliance during a power failure.
For example, if one has to keep the refrigerator on during a power failure, the wattage required to start the appliance has to be considered.
Usually, most of the electrical and electronic devices require more wattage to start than to run. It helps first determine what all appliances one needs to run before providing the connection in a house.
It is also advisable to use a generator or inverter that has a higher capacity than your needs by at least 20 to 25 per cent.
This would lessen the chance of a trip in case some of your equipments are on at the same time. Most likely there are less chances of all the high-wattage requiring devices to be run concurrently.
Safety aspect
On the safety aspect, builders require to ensure that maintenance is taken up by the residents association formed in each apartment complex. They had to install the generators in an enclosure to muffle the noise it creates to suppress the air pollution. The exhaust from the enclosure should be let out in a pipe above the height of the flat.
The residents association needs to have a contract with the dealers to service their generator sets annually to keep the set running smoothly.
SHYAMA RAJAGOPAL
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Property Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
