V8Aggie said:
Surge protectors have zero to do with THD.
Correct, sorry if I gave this impression. I was presuming that an off-the-shelf surge suppressor would also have some filtering in it to help with THD ("harmonic distortion" which means a non-sinusoidal power supply).
But really, jenn96, the worries about a "dirty" power signal are overblown IMO. Your surge suppressor will probably protect against major malfunctions of the generator, lightning strikes, etc. If you have analog speakers, you will hear a pronounced 60-Hz hum when powering them from the generator. For everything else, does it work? If so, it's fine. If not, just unplug it until you're back on mains power.
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Also a UPS provides a clean sine wave only when on battery power.
Didn't know this. Is that true of all UPSes? It doesn't seem to be an inherent requirement of the design. Aren't there units with inverters that keep the input and output isolated?