How Generators Work: Alternator Fundamentals

On this page you will learn how generators work, especially those powered by an internal combustion engine.

You have seen a generator at work if you have ever:

• Owned a home standby generator
• Worked in a facility with an industrial backup gen-set
• Been to a factory that generates its own 3-phase power
• Visited the basement of a hospital with an emergency generator
• Been woken up in your apartment when the commercial gen-set exercises in the middle of the night

Most of these units are powered by a Diesel engine.  But Natural gas, propane, and gasoline are also possibilities.

On a different page I discuss how engines take fuel energy and turn it into rotational power.

Here on this page, I am going to give you the introduction to how generators work on the electrical side of things.