Under the Choko Tree By Nevin Sweeney

Inverters

A couple of years ago I purchased a little Zurich DA-100 inverter for less that $100 and the price of inverters seems to be coming down all the time. It is a small inverter providing 100 watts of 240 volt AC power and is a square wave not sine wave inverter, this results in a hum when I use it to run my CD player. Theoretically 100 watts is enough to run the TV and video but my experience seems to suggest that it is either/or and not both. I have been trying to find out if running my computer on a square wave power source will do terminal things to it but any computer techo’s that I ask just go quiet and walk away muttering something about weirdos.


100 Watt Inverter

I also have a 500 watt invertor and my brothers old 1400 watt monster that will handle 5kw in short bursts, both are modified square wave invertors. While they do produce 240volt AC it is not the same as the stuff delivered to your house by the power company, you have to be a bit careful, I killed the charger for a cordless drill with it, but it does power the charger for my electric bike (mind you I contacted the bike manufacturer first and asked if it would be OK). I use the big one to run my power tools, a whipper snipper and an old Hoover twin tub washer that also uses water from the rainwater tanks pumped in by a little 12 volt pump.


500 watt inverter

If you are wiring up your own system and intend to include and inverter, please be aware that the stuff that is produced by the output sockets of the inverter is every bit as lethal as you house current and deserves the same amount of respect. Any permanent wiring of the 240 volt output must be carried out by an electrician.

If you still want to get an invertor to run some of your 240volt gear from your solar or wind system, the theory on how they work needs to be understood and it took an electrician friend several goes in very simple language to explain it to me. Even then I wasn’t sure I believed it until I took some independent measurements and confirmed it was exactly as he said.

Industrial sized, old technology 1400 watt inverter

Say you want to run a 100 watt, 240 volt AC appliance, at 240 volts it will consume 100/240 or 0.4 amps but when run through the invertor at 12 volts it will consume 100/12 or 8.3 amps which is a pretty solid drain on the batteries. As you can see if you want to run a 1000watt 240 volt heater it ain’t gonna happen with a small stand alone power system like mine.

There is one more kicker when sizing your inverter. Electric motors will consume up to 5 times their running load when they start up. They do this for only a short time but unless your inverter is sized correctly for any electric motors you wish to run, the inverters' life will be nasty, brutal and short! My 1400 watt inverter is rated up to 5000 watts for short periods to take this effect into account, so make sure you ask before you buy what the ultimate capacity of the inverter is.

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