You can see the output current from each type of generator in the chart on the right. Air Conditioner Alternators Picture: An alternator is a generator that produces AC (alternating current) rather of DC (direct present). Here we can see a mechanic getting rid of the generator from an outboard motor boat engine.
What if you want to generate rotating existing (AIR CONDITIONING) rather of direct existing? Then you require a generator, which is merely an air conditioner generator. The most basic kind of alternator resembles a DC generator without a commutator. As the coil or magnets spin past one another, the present naturally rises, falls, and reverses, providing an air conditioner output.
Generators are mainly used for producing electrical energy from lorry engines. Cars and trucks use generators, driven by their gas engines, which charge up their batteries as they drive along (the AC current is converted to DC by diodes or rectifier circuits). Generators in the real world Picture: The generator on a wind turbine sits simply behind the rotor blades.
Image by Joe Smith courtesy of NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory). Generating electricity sounds simpleand it is. The tough thing is that you need to put in a big amount of physical effort to generate even little amounts of power. You'll know this if you have a bicycle with dynamo lights powered from the wheels: you have to pedal rather harder to make the lights glowand that's just to produce the small quantity of electrical power you require to power a couple of torch bulbs.
At the opposite extreme, in genuine power plants, massive electrical power generators are powered by steam turbines. These are a bit like spinning propellers or windmills driven using steam. The steam is made by boiling water using energy released from burning coal, oil, or some other fuel. (Note how the preservation of energy applies here too.
The energy that powers the turbine originates from the fuel. And the fuelif it's coal or oiloriginally originated from plants powered by the Sun's energy. The point is basic: energy constantly has to come from someplace.) Just how A Reliable Source does a generator make? Generators are rated in watts (a measurement of power that shows how much energy is made each 2nd).