Blog posts tagged with 'Automatic Transfer Switch'

The United Kingdom is an advanced, high-income economy, which means that almost every commercial campus needs a continuous supply of power to ensure that every business runs smoothly and steadily. This is important not only to keep the lights on and attract footfall but also to stay within safety and fire regulations and ensure the integrity of certain continuous manufacturing processes. Whether short or long, a blackout can be a major headache; in such cases, your very own backup generator frees you from the vagaries of the grid for good. 

While getting new generators for sale in the UK, it is recommended that you do your research and note exactly what your requirements are to ensure that you make the perfect choice. Some criteria you should pay attention to include:

1. Fuel Source: generators can run a wide variety of fuel sources, such as kerosene, gasoline, natural gas or diesel. Choose a fuel source that is easily and cheaply available in your area to ensure cost efficiency. 
2. Safety: Fire safety is no joke, and it is imperative you make sure that the generator complies with fire regulations and comes with basic safety features like a fuse.
3. Noise: Make sure the generator isn’t too loud to disrupt your business or sleep!

Places Where You Can Find New Generators for Sale in the UK

While there are many retail options in the UK where you can browse and buy a new generator, it is highly recommended that you choose a dealer who has a good reputation and whose products are known for their safety, cost, durability and fuel efficiency. This is because a new generator is an expensive and complex piece of machinery that you will likely want to buy and keep in your basement for a long period. It should instantly provide electricity in a jam and not require constant maintenance, repair or checkups. 

Finding a seller who meets these criteria can be difficult, and sometimes it is hard to avoid getting scammed. That is why we recommend Blades Power Generation as our choice. They have a large selection of new generators in various sizes and capacities, and all of their products are known for being high-quality workhorses that are market leaders in terms of cost, efficiency, durability and safety. Not just new generators for sale in the UK, but they also stock a range of other ancillary products, such as automatic transfer switches, metres, and wiring. Click here to start browsing!

A dedicated backup generator is a must-have for any house or business to handle power outages. However, the process of switching from the primary supply to the backup generator is often a cumbersome process that takes much time and sweat. To tackle this problem, many houses and offices have installed an automatic transfer switch to automate this entire process. 

An automatic transfer switch is an electrical device that switches between primary and emergency power sources in the event of an outage. It does this without any human intervention and ensures a continuous power supply. With one of these, you never need to move a finger when the power goes out. 

Installing an automatic transfer switch can prove very helpful in emergency situations for - 

1. Protecting Equipment - Power surges or sudden outages can often damage appliances and electronics. An automatic transfer switch avoids this and thus greatly lowers money spent on repairs.

2.  Safety - By removing the need to switch supplies manually, oftentimes in darkness, an automatic transfer switch drastically improves safety and reduces the risk of injury or fire.

3.  Eco Friendliness - One of the most persistent problems with renewable energy, such as rooftop solar panels, is the constant interruption of power. Since solar panels don’t work at night, when it’s cloudy or during a storm, they often become a hassle since one has to keep switching the power supply. But with an automatic transfer switch, rooftop solar suddenly becomes much more feasible, as the switch seamlessly transfers supplies. This allows you to generate power even from small periods of sunshine and is a big part of any home-based renewable energy system. 

4.  Continuity - Since an automatic transfer switch works instantly and seamlessly, there is no interruption of power to the device in an outage. This enables continuity of operations. For example, someone working on their computer won’t lose all their work in a sudden outage. 

5. Convenience - Most of all, an automatic transfer switch is simply convenient and lowers the hassle and disruption to you when the power goes out. You no longer have to go down to the basement in darkness to fiddle with switches. 

An automatic transfer switch is a crucial part of any backup generator system. At Blades Power Generation, we provide not just switches, but cater to all your power generation and power backup needs for your residential and commercial properties. So if you need to buy a new generator in the UK, you’ll find those too here.

Do you also hate power cuts? They are sure annoying, especially when 24/7 connectivity has become the way of life. ATS or automation transfer switch can come to your rescue during  load shedding. But what is an ATS? 

ATS is a switch that automatically transfers power from a standby system to the main source during power outages. These switches are connected between the primary and backup power sources. Hence, they act as an intermediary between the equipment and the power supplies, acting as an electrical relay. It can switch & control between the two power sources within a few seconds.

An ATS can also start up more long-term backup power systems, such as local diesel generators, to run electric equipment until utility power is restored. These switches are simple and reliable equipment that ensures an uninterrupted power supply. There are three types of ATS, namely, contactor ATS, compact ATS and circuit breaker ATS. 

Additionally, an automatic transfer switch includes built-in sensors that identify the power outage and fluctuations within the frequency of the main power supply & voltage. It also helps start a standby generator automatically whenever there is a power outage from the main supply. Although these switches are expensive and high-maintenance, the ample advantages make them a worthy investment. 

Where is an ATS used?

 The uses of an ATS are as follows:

1. ATS is used in essential public facilities to ensure unhindered operations, such as schools, malls, hospitals, restaurants, warehouses, factories, medical buildings, etc.
2. It is used to protect telecommunication & data networks, industrial processes & critical installations like financial transaction centres & healthcare facilities.
3. Other electricity switching applications, like three-source, generator-to-generator, and utility-to-utility systems, also use ATS.
4. Finally, ATS is used to transfer power from two sources, such as the primary and backup sources. 

The use of an ATS is not limited to commercial spaces. You can also use an automatic transfer switch at residential properties. 

Wrapping up:

Whether you are starting a cafe or opening a new factory, a constant power supply is a must. However, there could be periods of prolonged power cuts, and it is always better to be prepared than sorry. Blades Power Generation provides the best emergency power source in the UK. Several homeowners and organisations rely on us for emergency power during blackouts. Now it is your turn! Get in touch with us to learn more. 

The manual transfer switch simply connects the home circuit to the generator. In the event of a power outage, the operator should turn on the backup power supply so that the backup power supply turns on all loads connected to the circuit. This switch can be easily used indoors and outdoors. You can manually connect the number of circuits based on the generator power. 

A Lifesaver in Disguise

Manual transfer switching (MTS) is a lifesaver when you need a safe and very fast power supply. Therefore, choosing the right size manual toggle switch can be difficult, especially when the supply capacity required for the building is unknown.

Selecting a manual transfer switch mainly depends on various parameters, such as an amplifier, circuit, and power supply. Take a look: 

Amp

The use of this switch mainly depends on the size of the generator and the properties you have, so a small or large manual transfer switch is used. Larger switches draw more amperes, and smaller switches draw fewer amperes. 

For example, a large company with large stores with multiple systems will need a larger manual transfer switch due to the use of larger generators.

Circuit

Some business owners may choose to power more circuits than their competitors during a power outage. Regardless of the cause or duration of the power outage, there is a need to power a variety of systems critical to daily operations. So manual switches handle a lot of dedicated switching.

Wattage

The wattage required for a generator to operate safely depends primarily on the electrical capacity of the building and the number of circuits it runs. If you need to control more circuits, you need maximum wattage

Watt meter

Many manual switchers have built-in power meters that track what is being powered. Without a power meter, the system can be overloaded and damage your device or generator.

Things to Remember

Do not connect the generator directly to a household outlet. It is called back feeding. It may cause an electric shock or a house fire. Proper installation of these switches can therefore eliminate these risks. 

Take away 

Several options are available for automatic changeover switches, but using manual switches has many advantages. They ensure better security, easier powering of wired devices such as air conditioners, and connectivity across service panels. 

Visit Blades Power Generation for a variety of manual transfer switches and build your understanding of the product based on your needs and budget.

Do you remember the summer, when the days were non-stop sunshine, and it didn’t rain? It suddenly seems like a very distant memory, doesn’t it? Here we are, in the depths of winter, although as yet it hasn’t got really cold in some parts of the country. However, in the last few days, some places in Scotland have been around minus 15C. That’s no fun whatsoever if it happens that you also have a power cut.

Unfortunately, the possibility of power cuts is also on the cards. What with the shortage of gas and the horrendous increase in the cost of electricity, those bills are going to get ever bigger. If you think that is only temporary and the price may come down, think of this: when was the last time you saw prices of anything going down? Never mind electricity. Once they go up, they stay up.

This is why more and more people are thinking of investing in their own generator as the best emergency power source in the UK. And not just as an emergency power source, but as an alternative. Let’s face it: it is going to be a lot cheaper to run your own generator rather than pay inflated electricity bills. So rather than using a generator as the best emergency power source in the UK, a lot of people are considering saying goodbye to those bills by using one all the time. And why not?

Similar To Using Your Own Car

It is similar to having your own transport. Rather than using the trains (if you are lucky enough to find one running!), it is cheaper and far more convenient to drive your own car. And once you have your own car, you don’t need trains or buses. Goodbye, Mr Lynch.

If you invest in a generator, you will need a transfer switch. You have a choice of a manual or automatic transfer switch, but although a bit more expensive, an automatic switch is the way to go. If you have a manual one, you have to go out into the garden and fire up the generator yourself (no fun if it’s pouring with rain) before you can manually switch over to the generator from the mains.

An automatic transfer switch does it all for you. Fires up the generator as soon as the power goes down, and then when it’s up and running switches over to it. The lights will be back on in seconds – and you won’t spoil your dinner cooking in the oven. 

Open any newspaper over the last few weeks and you will have seen dark threats about the possibility of power outage in the coming winter. What with the war in Ukraine and other factors, undersea gas pipes being cut by – well, your guess is as good as anyone’s.

But it all adds up to the fact that if we have a cold winter – and most winters get cold, and we need to turn the heating on – there could well be a shortage of electricity resulting in power cuts. 

What’s the perfect answer? Generate your own electricity! If you do that, you won’t have to worry when the power goes down because you will still have all the electricity that you need for your home. Your lights will stay on, you will be able to cook, and you can have as much heat as you wish. Oh - and you will be able to power up your laptop and mobile which are essential pieces of technology today. Where would we be without them?

Obviously, you will need to install a generator in your home, but it is by no means as costly as you might think. At Blades Power Generation, we have used generators for sale in the UK.

You might ask why you should find used generators for sale in the UK. Why wouldn’t you buy a new one? 

The Same As Buying A Used Car

The answer is very simple. It is exactly the same as buying a used car in the UK, which many, many people do. It saves a lot of money! OK, you don’t have the latest swanky, luxury leather seats and so on when you buy a used car, but when it comes to a generator, you are going to put it outside in the garden where you may hardly ever see it. For many families it makes total sense.

You will need a transfer switch so that you can switch to the generator when the power goes down, and you have the choice of an automatic transfer switch or a manual one. An automatic transfer switch does cost more than a manual one, but it has one great benefit. When the power goes out, your generator will fire up automatically and the lights will come back on in seconds, your TV will be on, and your dinner will be cooking in the oven. It makes sense, doesn’t it? 

Good question. But a lot of people are thinking along those lines today because of climate change and the race to get to carbon neutral.

Just remember this. In 2030 there are going to be no new petrol or diesel driven cars in the UK. They have to be all electric after that. Sure, you can still use your “old” petrol or diesel vehicle or a hybrid.

But 2030 is only just over 7 years away! This means that, other things aside, there is going to be a huge surge in the demand for electricity in order to power the all-electric vehicles as well as the hybrids. Either that, or it’s back on your bike!

Owing to several political reasons, nowadays there is much less gas coming to produce electricity. So, it may be the right time to look for new generators for sale in the UK, such as the ones we supply at Blades Power Generation. This will keep you going when the power goes down.

If you search for new generators for sale in the UK, you need to ensure that you get one that is the right size for your home. They have different outputs, so you need one which will produce sufficient power for your needs.

You will also need a transfer switch because this is a legal requirement. There are two types – a manual switch or an automatic transfer switch. This is necessary so that you cannot have mains power and generator power at the same time because that can cause serious problems. If the generator is running and the mains comes back on, it can burn out your generator. Not good. Equally, the generator can push power back down the mains which can cause injury to workers.

If you have a manual transfer switch, it means that when the power goes down you have to start the generator and then switch over to it once it is up and running. That’s OK if you happen to be at home at the time.

However, an automatic transfer switch does it all for you. When the power goes down it sends a signal to the generator and starts it up. Once it’s running, it automatically switches over.

Equally, it works the other way around too, so when the mains power comes back on it will switch off the generator and transfer you back to the mains. So much easier than doing it manually.

You can hardly open a paper or switch on the TV news these days without seeing all the doom and gloom. What is, in one respect, fascinating about the cost of electricity and heating this coming winter is the fact that it seems to go up by a few hundred pounds every day. Only a couple of weeks ago the energy price cap was going to be £3,200 or so. Then it went to £3,500. Then £4,250. And then at the weekend, it was quoted somewhere as £5,500!

No matter which set of figures you believe, one thing is for sure, and that is that energy bills are going to skyrocket over the next few months. This is why more and more homeowners are considering buying a generator because there are two main advantages. First, you have a standby power unit if the electricity goes down – which does seem as though it is becoming more likely. Second, it may well now be a very considerable amount cheaper to generate your own electricity rather than use the usual supplier.

Of course, you do have to take into account the cost of buying a generator in the first place, and to a large extent that will be decided by the amount of power that you need to produce for your home or business. That is a subject for another day.

You Don’t Necessarily Need A New Generator

However, you don’t necessarily need to buy a new generator because you can find used generators for sale in the UK. It is very similar to buying a used car. Very often businesses that use generators will need to upgrade and get a larger one as they expand, and so they trade in the old one. As one of the foremost generator suppliers in the UK, at Blades Power Generation, we always have a stock of used generators for sale in the UK that customers have traded in with us.

You will also need a changeover switch for when the power goes down, and you can get a manual one or an automatic changeover switch. If you have a manual switch, it means that when the power goes down you have to fire up your generator and then switch over to it.

An automatic changeover switch does this, well, er, automatically! So, when the power goes down it will fire up your generator and – boom! – the lights are back on in a matter of seconds.

When it comes to the electricity that we use today, things have changed quite a bit in just the last few months. What with the war in Ukraine and the cost of electricity going through the roof, more people are certainly considering their options.

It used to be that a generator for the home was merely used for those occasions when the power goes down. This was not all that likely to happen in our big cities, but today, who knows? Not only that, but we may be coming to the point where electricity is so expensive that it is actually cheaper to produce your own using a generator! Something nobody would have even considered only a year ago.

If you are seriously considering buying a home generator, you need to make certain that you have one that is big enough to produce the power that you need. You can either work this out yourself, or better still have a qualified electrician do the calculations for you because you need to be certain that you are covered and add a little on top as a safety precaution.

The bigger the generator you need, the more it will cost, but there is also some good news and that is that you can buy used generators in the UK. This is much the same as buying a second-hand car. It still works, but it may not look as “flash” as a brand new one. In fact, if you are considering the option to buy used generators in the UK, at Blades Power Generation we always have some in stock. This is because some firms who use generators expand their businesses, and so need a bigger generator and then they will trade in their old one with us.

You will also need a changeover switch to start the generator when the power goes down. You can buy a manual transfer switch, but an automatic transfer switch, although more expensive, is always the preferred option.

This is because an automatic transfer switch does what it says on the tin. When the power goes down, it will automatically fire up your generator and then transfer over to it. This means that you will only be without power for a matter of seconds.

If you have a manual transfer switch, you have to be on the premises and do it manually. If you happen to be on holiday and the power goes down for four or five days, you will come home to a freezer full of unfrozen food. Not ideal!

In another very recent article, we wrote that now is the perfect time to get yourself a standby generator for your home because of the serious threats of more and more power outages in the not-too-distant future.

However, while we mentioned climate change and the loss of Russian gas causing issues with power generation, and power outages as a result of more frequent and worse storms, there is another thing that is about to happen any day now, and that is rail strikes caused as a result of decisions taken largely by the RMT Union.

This union has announced rail strikes on June 21^st, 23^rd, and 25^th across the whole of Britain with some 50,000 employees going on strike. (This is despite the fact that the average rail worker has an income of £46,000 compared with £37,000 for teachers and £32,000 for nursing staff). The result will be that because of varying shifts, there will be virtually no trains for a week, and in turn that will affect delivery to power stations, leading to further disruption and more power outages. Not only that, but the union has stated that if the employers do not accede to their wishes, this will go on all summer!

Just another very good reason why you need to consider buying a standby generator for your home or business right away!

Look No Further

If you are looking for new generators for sale in the UK, then look no further than Blades Power Generation. We have a huge range of different new generators for sale in the UK, from very small ones to those that can power a large business when the electricity goes down. Look at it this way: things regarding electric power are only going to get worse, not just in the short term but for the long term.

When you install a standby generator, you need to be aware of certain legal requirements. Chief of these is that you must install a transfer switch.

This can be an automatic transfer switch or a manual one. When you have a manual transfer switch, as the name suggests, you have to start your generator by hand when the power goes down and then switch over from the mains once it is up and running.

On the other hand, an automatic transfer switch does the job for you. It detects when the power has gone down, fires up your generator, and then when it is running at full power, automatically switches from mains to generator. The result is that you will only be without power for a matter of seconds before the lights come on again.