More and more often now, people will bring an inverter with them when dry-camping. These inverters basically take the 12VDC from batteries and converts it into 115VAC that can be used by your appliances and electronics from home. You can’t run an air conditioner from them, but you could run a microwave. This short article will explain the basic types of inverters available today, and which ones you should consider…
First, a history lesson. The very first attempt at turning DC into AC was with the square wave inverter. It took DC from a battery and converted it into a very crude two-level alternating voltage. It was messy, and it didn’t work with most products. You’ll have a hard time finding these today – they’re obsolete because of limited usefulness.
The next step in the evolution of inverters was the sine wave inverter (or sometimes called the quasi or modified sine, or modified or quasi square wave inverter). These newer devices took the basic design of the square wave inverter, added some additional wave shaping and filtering, and produced a much cleaner AC waveform. A waveform good enough for most of your electronics and home appliances today. The downside to this design is that the input voltage level is tied to the output levels. So if your battery runs down, the output voltage drops – not a big deal for today’s electronics with regulated power supplies. For the most part, unless you specifically need the next step in inverters, this is the type for you.
The most recent type of inverter is the pure sine wave inverter. This device is better still than the sine wave inverter in that it’s wave shaping and filtering is even cleaner. Actually, the waveform coming out of a pure sine wave power inverter is likely better than that coming out of your wall at home. The major downside – price. It will be larger as well for the same number of watts as the sine wave inverter.
Bottom line – use the sine wave inverter by default, and upgrade to the pure sine wave inverter if you know you have the need. Simple, huh?