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[No]Should I design an inverter?

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mtdoc:

--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on June 27, 2016, 10:06:05 pm ---
Is there one that would be efficient at just 150W load?

--- End quote ---

You'd want an inverter generator which will allow power output to be independent of engine RPM. They do cost more.

Honda EU generators are the standard. The smallest is 1000W.  Google EU1000.

Yamaha and other companies also make similar models.


NiHaoMike:
I'd be surprised if it would be as efficient as an inverter running from a battery and running a generator part time to charge it. It's pretty difficult to make a very small engine efficient. Not to mention it would be yet another device to maintain.

Also, where in the US does the grid regularly go down for more than 4 hours (or even one hour) at a time? If a single deep cycle battery can cover most of the outages, it might not be worth the cost to improve the efficiency of the second level backup solution.

TheSteve:
Honda EU1000i or EU2000i - both wonderful options. I ran my EU2000i on the weekend in Eco mode(powering 100 watt amateur radio transceiver) for 13 hours on 1.1 gallons of gas. The bonus with an EU2000i is you can run the fridge/freezer/microwave if needed during a longer outage.

Not as much fun as building your own inverter of course.

NiHaoMike:

--- Quote from: blueskull on June 28, 2016, 09:54:24 pm ---It turns out my 96% efficiency estimation is quite bold. The DC/DC stage shows quite high efficiency, as well as the output HEMTs. The problems lie in the LC tank. They consume more power than I thought if I insist to squeeze things into a small flat box. Low inductance simply does not cope with high efficiency.

--- End quote ---
That's more or less what I found when I worked on a 2kW inverter. A large portion of the idle losses are in the output inductor. (Same goes for many audio amplifiers.) One trick to reducing that loss is to period skip near the extreme duty cycles, lowering the effective switching frequency. Or just output a trapezoidal wave at low output power so there would be no switching over much of the waveform.

HVDC eliminates that loss. Not to mention significantly lowering cost and complexity at the expense of making it only work on electronic loads.

If you just want an off the shelf solution, here are more reviews than you could ever imagine existed:
https://www.youtube.com/user/knurlgnar24/videos
Keep in mind that if you want fancy features like V/Hz control, expect to spend a lot. But for the uses you listed, that would be irrelevant.

rx8pilot:

--- Quote from: TheSteve on June 28, 2016, 10:01:39 pm ---Honda EU1000i or EU2000i - both wonderful options. I ran my EU2000i on the weekend in Eco mode(powering 100 watt amateur radio transceiver) for 13 hours on 1.1 gallons of gas. The bonus with an EU2000i is you can run the fridge/freezer/microwave if needed during a longer outage.

Not as much fun as building your own inverter of course.

--- End quote ---

I had a few of those for my business and loved them. Really fantastic for gas options.

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