Steve,THat is all true, modern true sine wave inverters are a wonderful thing in terms of how well they run things, and are probably 3 times as efficient as a square wave one if you take into account the lesser efficiency of the inverter, and also the lesser efficiency of the load itself running on a funky wave form.
Note, however that 36 volt inverters are rare, and the only one I have been able to find is a tripp light "modified sine wave" inverter (read somewhere between square wave and sine wave) and in the past their products have been a little behind the curve in design. They probably made the inverter you are talking about. I found the tripp-lite 36v inverter by goggling that exact phrase. I think it was $900 for a 1,500 watt unit, which would run an electric chainsaw, weed whacker, etc.
Using an inverter of a different voltage will cause problems with the pack, since it is a large draw and will not be balanced in the pack.
I am actually trying to figure out a way to switch a 36 volt pack to series/parallel to easily reconfigure it to 12v so I can use the inverter I already own, but I will need some pretty large and esoteric switches. Any ideas?
anton Fixinguys aol com wrote:
Hey, folks,A square wave inverter does indeed cause problems for a lot of stuff. Lights and motors will not last near as long when being used with a square wave inverter. Basic power tools, cheap lights, etc, will be ok if used intermittently, but I wouldn't plug my laptop into it or anything sensitive like that. For long term use of sensitive electronics, spend the extra money on a true sine wave inverter (not a modified sine wave- this is just a square wave inverter modified to simulate a sine wave. Still has quality issues). They will run around $500.00 to $1000.00 for a 600 to 700 watt unit.Home Power has a great article on a 700 watt unit in this months issue Take care! Steve Anderson e-15 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Elec-trak mailing list Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mailman/listinfo/elec-trak