In the event of a power outage, your home standby generator will turn itself on automatically. But what happens when your generator becomes overloaded?
First, let’s talk about what causes a generator to become overloaded.
The main culprit is running too many appliances at once. This can cause your generator to overextend itself in an attempt to use power it just doesn’t have.
Each generator is designed to power a certain wattage, so the amount of appliances you’re able to run will depend on how much power they use as well as what size generator you have.
If your generator does become overloaded, its circuit breaker will trip, disconnecting the generator from the load.
Your generator should automatically shut off once overloaded, but if for some reason, it doesn’t, you can tell a generator is overloaded when the cooling fan shuts off, it begins to overheat, or soot starts to appear in the exhaust of your generator. If your generator is working excessively, this will cause the generator to become very loud and make a humming noise.
Once you notice that your generator has become overloaded, how do you fix it?
First, you’ll need to correct the overload, meaning you’ll need to select the appliances that are worth running and the ones you can live without. After you’ve ensured you’re running only what the generator is built to handle, the breaker will need to be reset.
Your owner’s manual will explain in detail how to reset the breaker on your specific generator, so always check there first.
However, the breakers for your generator will be located in the control box. You’ll need to turn the generator off and then back on using the power switch. This should reset the overload button.
Basically, compared to home circuit breakers, resetting a generator’s breaker is not much different.
If your generator still isn’t running correctly after you’ve balanced out the load and reset the breaker, there could be a bigger problem. Give us a call at 501-315-7213and we’ll send one of our trained technicians out to fix the issue!