How Does A Power Inverter Work? Power Inverters Explained

!±8± How Does A Power Inverter Work? Power Inverters Explained

A power inverter converts your car's direct current (DC) battery power into conventional alternating current (AC) power which can then run a range of household products such as microwaves, power tools, TVs, radios, computers etc when an AC outlet is not available. Particularly useful for camping or long road trips.

Just connect the inverter to your car battery, and plug your AC devices into the inverter and you've got power on the go. (Smaller inverters will connect directly via the car's cigarette lighter)

The Technical Bit...

Two factors determine how a power inverter works: wave output and wattage output. Wave output describes the physical appearance of electrical signals as they move across an oscilloscope. Square waves appear exactly as their name specifies: like squares on a grid. Pure sine waves, also called true sine waves, appear as visible waves on the screen.

How do I know which Inverter to choose?

The first step in selecting a power inverter is to match the inverter to the voltage of the battery you'll be using for power. In the majority of cases, you'll be using a standard 12-volt car battery, so you would want to select a 12-volt inverter.

The next step is to identify which devices you plan to power with the inverter. Each device should carry a label which that tells you the wattage it requires to operate. The wattage rating of your inverter must surpass the wattage of the highest wattage device or the total wattage of all the devices you plan to run simultaneously, or of the largest device.

Some devices draw a higher wattage than their normal operating wattage rating when they first start up. This is known as peak or surge, and this information should also be listed on the device's label. Most power inverters also have a peak rating, so make sure the inverter's peak rating is higher than the peak wattage of the device you intend to power. Microwaves are a special case. As an example, you may know that your microwave is a 400-watt microwave. This is actually the cooking wattage. The power wattage might be twice that amount. Again, check the label on the device to make sure.

Power inverters which run through your car cigarette lighter are designed for lower wattage devices - laptops, phone chargers etc. In fact, if you try to pass more than about 400 watts through a cigarette lighter connection, it will fail -- and it might even start a fire in your vehicle.

How Does A Power Inverter Work? Power Inverters Explained

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Having a Gas Powered Generator is Now a Necessity

!±8± Having a Gas Powered Generator is Now a Necessity

Power outages are all too frequent these days and they always seem to happen at night and when your in the middle of your favorite TV show. They can last for a few hours or several days depending on what caused it. When this happens, your gas powered generator instantly becomes your most cherished possession because as soon as it gets up and running the lights go back on, you don't have to worry about all your food spoiling and life begins to return to normal again. But what about those who don't have one? You can bet that most of those will be thinking about getting one soon if they have the means to do so.

The choices are many and can be confusing. A good choice for powering the necessities during an extended power outage would a model in the 10,000 watt range. These will power your refrigerator, heater, TVs, computers, washers, dryers and some if not all of you lights depending on the size of your home. If you are on a well this should power your pump too. Good models of this wattage can be had for about 00 or so.

A good gas powered generator will come with convenience features like electric start, a large gas tank (this is important because you don't want to get up in the middle of the night to re-fuel), an hour meter so you can do your maintenance on time and an auto shutoff feature for when the oil is too low. And if you choose a larger model, heavy duty wheels and handle are important too for moving it around.

If you have a large home and want everything running hassle free during an outage you might want to look into whole house generators. These behemoths look like a giant AC compressor and kick on automatically when the power goes out. There is a slight delay of a few seconds and then everything is powered up again. These generators typically have a car engine as the power source which is fueled by either natural gas or propane and pump out 10 to 150 kW of electrical power tied in to specific circuits. The higher end of these units can run ,000 or more not counting installation.

On the low end, you can always pick up a unit for about 0 to 0 that will power your TV, coffee pot and fan just fine. It all depends upon what you want and can afford.

One thing for sure though, power outages/blackouts are becoming more and more frequent and a gas power generator has become more of a necessity than a luxury item.

Having a Gas Powered Generator is Now a Necessity

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