Electronics > Power/Renewable Energy/EV's

How difficult would it be to make a simple 5kw inverter?

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Robert Smith Eco Warrior:
Hi All,
We live off grid and I use two Victron 3kw inverters.
The sun is out today so I have our water pump going and water distiller going. My inverter fans are roaring away keeping them cool while water is being pumped and distilled.
The water pump is just a motor (about 400w, The label fell off) and the distiller has a heater element and a cooling fan so there are no clever electronics to be too concerned about.
I am wondering how easy it would be to make a 5+kw inverter (5kw to take the motor start up load) to convert 50v DC into 240v AC in a quite roughly approximated sine wave?

Seekonk:
I think the answer to a problem is stepping back and thinking about what you want to accomplish.

I live off grid and have fridge, hot water, dishwasher, clothes washer and everything else with only have a car battery. Why would you ever use an inverter to heat water?  You can run that right off the panels with a power point controller and not even need a fan. Use power when it is there. Heating water controller is well within the capabilities of electronics neophyte. Energy management is the future.

fordem:
Get a water pump with a DC motor to match your battery voltage, and eliminate that as an AC load, you should also be able to find "solar stills" that use no electricity, they require only the heat of the sun to operate.

Robert Smith Eco Warrior:
The pump is 300m down the field so 240v AC is far less current than 48v DC would be. I don't want to buy 300m of very thick copper cable.

I also have other motor driven projects I wish to do. An automated wood chunker for processing our biomass willow and maybe other projects. That wood chunker would be 3hp or a bit more and also 100m from the batteries so wanting to get the voltage up and the current down. I am not wanting to drag our biomass willow to the machine and want the machine near the willow.

dietert1:
Why don't you buy one? A 5 KW inverter is about US$ 700 and you can't make one for that money.

Regards, Dieter

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