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Power
Inverters
Power inverters are used to harness the power from a battery or bank of
batteries and convert it into useable 240AC power enabling us to run all
sorts of household appliances from Hair dryers to Televisions and more. In
today's society inverters are responsible for a huge change to the way we
utilize time, either away on holiday, at work or around the home.
Power inverters currently sold can be divided into two groups, Modified Sine
 (also
known as Square Wave, Modified Square Wave and Quasi Sine Wave) and Pure
Sine Wave. Modified Sine Wave inverters are substantially cheaper than Pure
Sine Wave inverters and do not represent true AC power that you would
normally acquire from the utility power delivered to your home. Pure Sine
Wave inverters produce the same grade of power that you would normally
receive from the utility grid in your home. Both Styles of inverters can
operate all sorts of AC equipment, however items such as Microwave ovens,
bread makers or any sensitive equipment that is controlled by a digital
clock will only run of a True Sine Wave Inverter.
As previously mentioned there are substantial price differences in inverters
found in the market place, not only between Modified and Pure sine wave but
also between different brands. Due to the market for such items becoming
more competitive a big problem we are now facing is a large number of
products on the market that are made for the lowest possible price with no
regard to over all reliability or actual performance. At the cheaper end of
the scale a consumer would expect to pay around $500 - $1200 for a cheap
1000 watt inverter. A consumer after a good quality unit could expect to pay
$1800 plus for a 1000 watt inverter. When shopping around for a power
inverter ask yourself if you want a cheap inverter that, over the long run
will end up costing you more and possibly damage your valuable equipment, or
a good quality unit that may cost a little more but will give you many years
of faithful fault free service? Bear in mind that in a situation where you
rely on batteries for your power, an unreliable inverter could cost you a
lot more money than you expected.
Being able to correctly choose the right size inverter for your need is also
an important consideration. To determine the power requirement to run your
appliances use this calculation Volts x Amps = Watts
An example of this would be a small microwave that according to the back
panel could draw 5.5 amps to operate effectively would require an inverter
of at least 1265 watts (230 x 5.5 = 1265). Remember that this draw is only
for the microwave and if you wanted to run other things at the same time
like a fridge than you must be prepared to look for a much higher rated
power inverter, and one that can sustain that rated power output.
So please research all of your possible power requirements prior to choosing
an inverter, and look deeply into the attributes of the actual inverter
before handing over your hard earned cash, or you may regret it later.
Article written by
Michael Day
Advance Trident Ltd
The Team at
Motorhomes Australia would like to thank Michael for contributing this
article
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