Skip to main content
3 of 4
added 386 characters in body; deleted 4 characters in body

What's the proportion of energy received on an overloaded generator?

I'm trying to understand the underlying physics with how generators work. I found this question which had some interesting answers, but it does not include all the details I'm after.

Suppose I have a generator that can output 100 watts. I connect a device that draws 50 watts. If I then connect a device that tries to draw 100 watts, what kind of energy does each device receive? More importantly, if the second device instead tries to draw 200 watts, does the 50 watt device receive less power?

My intuition says that they'll sort of "fight" for what's available and settle on an in-between value (before the generator overheats and seizes), but I'm hoping for a slightly more mathematical answer.


Edit: I understand that different systems will have different tolerances / behaviors, but is it reasonable to ask for an "average" case? If not, at least an ideal case? Approximations are acceptable; is there something that prevents us from generalizing? My assumption is generator design is based on certain fundamentals, and what I'm really interested in is understanding how we can expect such systems to function if they don't have protections in place.