Posted: 9/2/2009 7:48:01 PM EDT
| If a genny is wired to the grid via a 12-2 romex for the battery charger and block heater, can it get zapped through the backdoor i.e.battery / starter? |
|
Not too likely.
The charger might not survive, but the battery is capable of absorbing just about any voltage spike that made it past the charger. Lead-acid batteries are great at filtering out sudden changes in voltage, which is exactly what EMP causes. Your biggest concern might be that the charger could fail in a shorted mode, which would quickly discharge the battery - but even if that happened, you could probably jump-start the generator with another battery and a set of booster cables. The block heater is nothing more than a big, beefy resistor, and could withstand a huge spike - particularly if it wasn't operating at the time. |
|
Concur. The diodes or voltage regulator might have a problem, but nothing will make it past the battery of any significance. I'd suspect the charger would eb OK also, since those are power electronics, and wired in such away that the load (battery) should take most of the surge.
Remember, EMP is a low energy/high voltage pulse, and is mostly dangerious to high impedance circuits where it can burn through a PN junction. |