Pure sine wave inverters

[SolarCity]

I wonder if anyone has used any pure sine wave inverters - or even knows of any that are G83 certified? I have a potential customer that is keen on one if such a thing exists.

I have checked the sine wave of an SMA inverter at a previous customer's house on an oscillator and the sine wave was very good. Therefore I'm not convinced it would be an issue but it would interesting to see if anything is about.

 

[jason121]

Can you explain a little more, bit over my head

 

[Steve_rutland]

I have a 1kw Mascot pure sine on my off grid. Got it mainly as a standard inverter didn't like running tube lights.

 

[yorkshiremike]

I thought that all the grid tied (G83) inverters are true/pure Sine output (at least as good as the grid), it's just that they need the grid to be there (and within specification) to output.

 

[jason121]

Just found this
A grid-tie inverter has to be a pure sine inverter that also does all this:

1. match the phase of the sine-wave to the grid
2. match the voltage of the sine-wave to the grid.
3. match the freqency of the sine-wave to the grid.

To do all 3 of those makes it more expensive. It's not marketing hype, it's extra circuitry to do all of that stuff.

If you just throw a plain sine-inverter on the grid and you aren't matched to all three (voltage, phase, frequency), your sine-inverter will burn up very quickly, possibly in a righteous display of melted metal and sparks.

 

[Gavin A]

yes, all grid tie inverters are pure sine wave - the only ones that aren't are some of the more basic off grid inverters that are stepped or modified sine wave and only suitable for a few purposes - certainly not powering a PA at a festival, as we learnt one time back in the 90s when this was all very knew to me.

 

[grantr37]

I wonder if anyone has used any pure sine wave inverters - or even knows of any that are G83 certified? I have a potential customer that is keen on one if such a thing exists.

I have checked the sine wave of an SMA inverter at a previous customer's house on an oscillator and the sine wave was very good. Therefore I'm not convinced it would be an issue but it would interesting to see if anything is about.

did you mean Oscilloscope?

 

[grantr37]

yes, all grid tie inverters are pure sine wave - the only ones that aren't are some of the more basic off grid inverters that are stepped or modified sine wave and only suitable for a few purposes - certainly not powering a PA at a festival, as we learnt one time back in the 90s when this was all very knew to me.

a rough equivalent sine wave generated as a kind of ramped trellice, it's stepped squarewaves, not really a sinewave at all.....very cheap to manufacture in fact you can build the circuit used in a cheap inverter for about £20 as opposed to the one in a pure sinewave of similar output that would come in at about £90 manufacture cost....the higher the output the bigger the increase in price difference...


i.e 1500 watt ramped square purchase price £100.00
or a 1500 watt pure sinewave purchase price £600.00, this one won't obliterate your electrical goods, the other one is only good for cheap radios and lights, maybe a cheap TV in a Caravan....

 

[Earthstore]

A little over my head but do you get a true sine wave from an inverter?
I thought that inverters produced an electrically modified sine wave, they are all stepped however the better quality inverters produce a sine wave that is grid compatible.
A true sine wave is produced by rotating energy, ie a generator.

 

[SolarCity]

My thinking was along the same lines as Earthstore. I thought that inverters generally produced a modified sine wave which could be problematic with some equipment.

And yes, I did mean oscilloscope.