I have been keeping my on the inverter subject for a while. As a 'reasonably' educated electronics technician (mostly digital) I feel I can comment on this.
Most inverters are notorious energy wasters. Energy waste is proportional to energy drawn. For example (not accurate) a 100W inverter wastes 5% while a 500W inverter wastes 20%. Transformers can of course give you a better sine wave. However, 60hz is such a low frequency that you need a huge transformer. Solid state produces the noisier sine wave and depending on the wattage you require, can be very difficult to keep the output devices cool. Many of the new inverters have improved on efficiency, but are expensive. I bought a 1800W Tripp-Lite unit for $1200 CDN. And it doesn't take long for a pair of 500W quartz lamps to drain 2 deep-cycle marine batteries. It might be better to use a few smaller individual inverters for smaller loads and a couple of heavier duty ones for heavier loads. IE; use the size necessary to get the job done. If you used one huge inverter to power most of your house, it would have to be on constantly and waste a lot of power (they do consume energy even when the load is off). Better yet, you can get almost every electrical device you desire in a 12 or 24 volt version. Why not convert everything to low-voltage (24 being more efficient than 12). You will get a lot more time between recharges over using inverters. PS: I know I didn't really solve any problems here but hope to have imparted a little knowledge for Patrick. Cheers, -----Original Message----- From: martin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 2:06 PM To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [biofuel] Homemade inverters. I got pretty excited about plans for a 1200 watt inverter, then I saw that it was square wave, and used a transformer that probably weighs a couple Kg. Switch-mode design comes to mind, but that is a fairly complicated subject that I don't know a lot about. I am thinking about trying a "Class-D" style design, a pulse-width modulated switcher that doesn't require a large transformer. kirk wrote: >Don't use a square wave with a HP laser printer. Probably the other brands >too. >Don't use square wave with magnetics -- transformers and motors. The higher >frequencies manifest as heat. > >Kirk > >-----Original Message----- >From: martin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 10:42 AM >To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com >Subject: Re: [biofuel] Homemade inverters. > > >A square wave inverter brings up the interesting question of how the >comparatively noisy wave form will affect sensitive things. >Do you have any knowledge with a square wave inverter versus a sine wave? > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
