~ Pure Sine Wave Inverters

[orbital]

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Since there wasn't a thread on Pure Sine Wave Inverters, I figured why not start one here in good 'ol CPF.

Recently picked up a SamlexAmerica {PST} Pure Sine Wave unit,
to be honest, I can't believe I'v waited so long to get such a functional piece of hardware.

Samlex is very high quality, the company is solid with actual tech's on hand

remember, make your our cables:thumbsup:

PST-600-12 ^

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

I believe in pure sine wave systems. While they're not as efficient for certain types of loads, they don't produce loads of harmonics and EMI like the square wave or modified sine wave devices do. This matters particularly if you're powering sensitive radio equipment from it.

 

[BVH]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

Been thinking of getting a 2000 Watt, 24 VDC input Samlex. Id like to periodically cycle my 30 Volt, 100 Ah Lifep04 and not waste the power with a dicharger. Plus il need it to power the Nightsword. Id not consider a modified Sine wave unit.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

The MorningStar Sure-Sine 300 watt inverter is really nice for smaller 'tech' loads. Mine has been going for years. It is silent and cool when not driven brutally. No fans. No problems whatsoever. It is heavy for its size.

 

[orbital]

I believe in pure sine wave systems. While they're not as efficient for certain types of loads, they don't produce loads of harmonics and EMI like the square wave or modified sine wave devices do. This matters particularly if you're powering sensitive radio equipment from it.

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The 600W unit I picked up is rated @ 85% efficiency at full load
Samlex doesn't seem like a company that needs to puff their specs

Maybe a bit obvious,, super flexible #4 welding cable works very well for your cables of less that 6'

 

[sledhead]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

The MorningStar Sure-Sine 300 watt inverter is really nice for smaller 'tech' loads. Mine has been going for years. It is silent and cool when not driven brutally. No fans. No problems whatsoever. It is heavy for its size.

Great unit - wish they would make a bigger one. Sure the technology is there.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

Great unit - wish they would make a bigger one. Sure the technology is there.

Yeah, went ahead and got a Xantrex Power Watt (?) with, I think 600 watts, to comfortably charge the battery on my Stihl chainsaw at our remote cabin. They both get power from photo-voltaics.

 

[Illum]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

I love the morning star design, toroid transformers, I'd say pretty darn close to a weatherproof design... and its cute looking.
Guts: http://www.mavericksolar.net/misc/morningstar/suresine.htm

I have a Samlex PST30012 300W Sine [here somewhere :thinking:] that I bought to run my mothers medical equipment while we are on road trips. For PV/Green applications, I'd go for the 24V version instead, saves A LOT of copper

 

[braddy]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

is it 'perfectly' safe to run electronics that we care about, like our laptops, Maha Chargers, and home refrigerator, off of a pure sine inverter from the car?

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

A true sine wave inverter is safer than a simulated (or stepped) inverter because it more closely resembles the power that comes out of your wall socket, and those devices are designed to be happy with sine waves. A stepped or square wave inverter contains additional harmonics which can wind up being dissipated as additional heat in your loads, or show up as erratic behavior in some electronics because of the transient noise.

An anecdote -

Many years ago I was working at a job site where I had to use an oscilloscope for something. The site had a generator for AC power. The generator was a good quality name brand unit but it had an issue where it was putting some spikey noise in the AC waveform, similar to what can happen with stepped-sine inverters. When I plugged the scope into the generator, it blew out! It turned out that the regularly-occurring spikes on each crest of the sine wave were enough to push the scope's power supply over the edge. It probably took out the scope's MOVs.

The manufacturer of the scope repaired it at no cost, stating that there was a known issue with the design of the power supply that made it overly sensitive to power line noise, but that incident made me wary of all power sources that don't produce a nice clean smooth sine wave.

 

[braddy]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

I know it's better than the non-sine inverters, I was meaning the comparison of it to what we are used to coming into the home.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

It can actually be cleaner than commercial power. Your home wiring is a shared network with other homes in your area, all of which have electrically noisy things connected to them - fridges, A/C units, hair dryers, etc. It's even acting as a long antenna for EMPs from nearby lightning strikes. On the other hand, an inverter has very few noisy loads connected to it.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

It can actually be cleaner than commercial power. Your home wiring is a shared network with other homes in your area, all of which have electrically noisy things connected to them - fridges, A/C units, hair dryers, etc. It's even acting as a long antenna for EMPs from nearby lightning strikes. On the other hand, an inverter has very few noisy loads connected to it.

Additionally, the electric coop that supplies grid power in this area is known for distributing fairly lousy AC electricity. Anyone else have that experience? (High end stereo folks use power conditioners with wall power)

 

[BVH]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

Picked up the Samlex 1500 Watt SA model with 24 Volt input (up to 32 Volts). The SA is better suited to driving high inductive loads such as ballasted equipment vrs the PST so the Samlex site says.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

Additionally, the electric coop that supplies grid power in this area is known for distributing fairly lousy AC electricity. Anyone else have that experience? (High end stereo folks use power conditioners with wall power)

Exactly. The fact that power conditioners and surge/transient suppressors exist is evidence of how funky the commercial power can get. Throw in some nearby heavy industry and it can get downright chaotic.

 

[orbital]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

Exactly. The fact that power conditioners and surge/transient suppressors exist is evidence of how funky the commercial power can get. Throw in some nearby heavy industry and it can get downright chaotic.

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truly a perfect post by P.W.

 

[brevard95]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

Can someone verify a pure sine wave inverter will in fact operate the run of the mill APC brand UPS ( i guess any brand is good enough) that my computer is plugged into. my modified sine wave inverter doesn't.
the UPS is not happy and will not simply re-charge its battery even with computer off.

thanks

 

[blah9]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

Sorry, brevard95, I don't have any experience with these so hopefully someone else can respond about that. But welcome to the forums!

I just wanted to thank you guys for mentioning these models so I can look at them later on. I might want to pick one up sometime.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Re: Pure Sine Wave Inverter discussion

A pure sine wave will operate any commercial load as long as the inverter has enough current capacity to drive it. Your UPS is probably looking at the stepped-sine output of your inverter and thinking that the power input isn't really there, or isn't clean enough to use. Worst case scenario is that it's causing the input of the UPS to overheat due to the harmonics present in the stepped-sine waveform.

 

[ericnj]

I have been using my UPS with my pure sine wave inverter by Staticon for 3 years now. No issues so far. So I guess it is either pure luck or as long as both UPS and inverter are of pure sine wave, then there won't be any problems. That is my just my experience with pure sine wave UPS and pure sine wave inverter. I have heard that modified sine wave inverter won't run UPS well.