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Sine wave inverter/charger for small solar backup system | 18 comments (18 topical, 0 editorial)

Re: Sine wave inverter/charger (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by ghurd on Sun May 11th, 2008 at 12:39:34 AM MST
(User Info)

Maybe it's just me?
I am confused, you are confused, or we are both confused.

"I would like to purchase a pure sine wave inverter and power it with the batteries". Yup, batteries are the best choice to power an inverter.

"Not trying to run much with the inverter... fridge/freezer, TV and computers."
"(less than 200W)"?

"I suppose it would be OK to use the inverter full time and simply charge the battery to cover the load"?

And everyone would love to heat their house with a single AA alkaline battery this winter.

Most of my inverters are red, like 75%. Some of the smaller ones are blue. The really small ones are black. The larger ones are also black.

The red ones are Vector. The Blue ones are Statpower, Portawattz, or Freedom (a joint venture between a couple major players that didn't work out). The black ones are Prowatt or Tripp Lite. I certainly missed a few colors.

My truck is arguably purple or blue. The wife's car is "Champaign" but I say it is gold. SUV is black.
All the batteries in them have Exactly 6 caps and Exactly 2 terminals.
What spark plugs do I need? Oil filters?
What radio station do you suggest?

That is not even touching on the full time / gen set 120/24/120 UPS thing.

After thinking about all that, and reading a lot more,
I would suggest...
"My current 1500W will do the job"

Re: Sine wave inverter/charger (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by brkwind2 (mcool61@nspamyahoo.com) on Sun May 11th, 2008 at 07:02:28 AM MST
(User Info)

My inverter is red. My wifes hair is blonde. I plan to use her to power the whole house.
Rover, stop it.
[ Parent ]

Re: Sine wave inverter/charger (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by cujet (cujet@aol.com) on Sun May 11th, 2008 at 08:24:03 AM MST
(User Info)

Not helpful.

I must admit that my communication skills are lacking, sorry. Can you point me in the right direction on how to edit my previous post.

Please understand that my inability to verbalize my thoughts properly really has nothing to do with my level of understanding.

Understand this: I GET IT. I understand inverters, solar and electrical power in general. Again, sorry for not being clear.

I'll try to be more clear.

What "pure sine wave" inverter/charger would function as either a UPS or full time unit, provide a peak of about 3000W and a running load of 500-600W, be reliable, quiet, reasonably priced and well made? Are the Taiwan ones on Ebay any good? Or should I only consider a Xantrex?

In my case, after a hurricane, I run my DIY Lister genset during the day. At night, I generally shut it down. The inverter would carry the fridge/freezer at night.

Take a look at my website, I trust that will clear things up a bit. I do have a home machine shop, I am skilled in welding and fabrication. I generally can engineer and construct anything I put my mind to.

http://www.cujet.com/html/other_projects.html

Feel free to look around my website at my work. And yes, I built the header, the bicycle, the turbo miata, the Listeroid. All DIY.

[ Parent ]

Re: Sine wave inverter/charger (3.00 / 0) (#11)
by ghurd on Sun May 11th, 2008 at 06:43:23 PM MST
(User Info)

The 120 AH isn't going to run much stuff very long.
That's about the same watt hours as a pair of golf cart batteries.

With a 600W load, that's about 25A. That's about an hour and a half.
SLAs won't last long with that kind of abuse.
I am not sure they will supply 3000W (125A) without the inverter going LVD.

A 3000W pure sine inverter waiting for a load might drain the batteries before morning.
Some units have a "sleep" function. They wait for a load before turning on. Not sure how that fits with the fridge.

I don't get the "function as either a UPS or full time unit".
The plan is to run it 24/7, even when the grid is on?
That's a lot of wasted power, like noticably jump the bill kind of wasted power.

The 24V and pure sine limits the choices.
G-

[ Parent ]

Re: Sine wave inverter/charger (3.00 / 0) (#12)
by kurt on Sun May 11th, 2008 at 06:52:47 PM MST
(User Info)

most inverter/chargers will act as a pass through UPS and charge the batteries when connected to grid power..... i think that is what he wants.....

http://www.reresource.org/

IRC
[ Parent ]

Sine wave inverter/charger for small solar backup system | 18 comments (18 topical, 0 editorial)

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