Installing a pure sine wave inverter

Discussion in 'Off Grid Living' started by Nadja, Jan 19, 2011.


  1. Nadja

    Nadja RIP 3-11-2013 Forum Leader

    Yesterday, I spent the entire day helping my generator/electronic guy install my new (used) 2512 sine wave inverter. Almost all the wiring had to be changed from the mod sine wave inverter to the sine wave as the power leads are all on the oppisite ends. Go figure as both were made by Trace/xantrax. But, after all the grunting etc (heavy) got it mounted etc and all the wire redone. By the way, at the solar stores #2.0 heavy stranded wire with ends runs an average of about 10.00 per foot. Then when hooking up my gennie to the inverter, the inverter rejected the gennie. Tried my 5k back up and the same thing. They are finiky to say the least. Ron, had to change the govener positions, adjust the carb and speed for cycles and voltage. Then after getting it dialed in about as perfect as you can get, he had to then dial in my little 5k backup gennie. All is now well, working well and I am a happy camper.

    So , can now add a little something to installing in inverter/gennie system. Your generator needs to be a fairly good unit, hold power consistantly and deliver enough amperage to power the bat charger in the inverter. If you go for a small unit especially made in china, your likely to have some problems.

    Now, Ron is making me a relay to give me a five second hold on the power to use the off function. The on or start will be fine, but the turn off system on the generator needs power to hold the button in for a couple of seconds and then it will be automatic as the inverter needs it. Also he is building me a duel fuel conversion carb so I can run it on propane and or gas.

    Just a little info to give you something to think about should you find yourself in this same position sometime down the road. Nadja
     
  2. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Way cool Nadja, you will like the SW Series Trace unit... and it is a lot quieter in the local Am/SW Broadcast Band and HF Radios than the DR/TR Series Inverter/Chargers. Yep, you will find that the Gensets governors will need to be tweaked for the most stabile settings as you can get for a Trace SW Series to accept their power. Vary the Frequency to much and they will just drop Off-Line. If the Firmware in yours is like my SW 4024 and SW 4048, there is a Setup Setting in the Charger Section, that allows you to set the Maximum AMPS that the Unit will pull from the Genset, so you can use it with a smaller unit. what happens is, If the local Loads become to large, while the Battey is charging, and exceeds the Maximum Amps Limit, the Unit limits the Charging AMPS, until the local Load, drops back, or can if needed, drop the Charging Cycle, completely, and boost the local Loads, until they drop back below the Maximum Amps input to the Unit, and then it will restart the Charging Cycle, again. Those Trace, now OutBack, Engineers really understood the Off-Grid World, way back the,n when the SW Series was designed.
     
  3. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    iam going to ask a stupid question about the sine wave inverter system and radio system ..but why does the socalled sine wave have the problems with the generator running and causeing problems with the power to operate radios in a normal fashion like 110.volt power does ....
     
  4. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    The only Stupid question, is one not asked. It has to do with Harmonics, and the sharp Square Wave edges, and AC Transmission Theory. If an AC Wave has very sharp edges, and steep, short Rise and Fall Times, these generated Harmonics, which are waves of current and voltage that "Ring" on the wires, and have multiple Frequencies that start at the 60Hz on the original Wave, and then double, and triple, and triple, and double, again until they reach frequencies clear up into the VHF Range. these waves are then propagated down ALL the wires connected to the Device generating the Waves, and the wires act as antennas, thus generating Radio Noise in the vicinity of the device and its associated wiring. True Sine Waves have no edges as they are curves, and therefor generate much less harmonic energy, and therefor much less Radio Noise. This same principal, is why you hear Spark Plugged engines in AM Radios and as you speed up the engine, the noise gets higher, in tone.... sparks were the ORIGINAL Radio Waves... ie spark Gap Transmitters of the Marconi Radio Era....

    The Trace SW Series Inverters use a system to generate the sine waves, that keeps the edges very small, and limits the harmonic content of the output power. the DR/TR Series Inverters are use Straight Square Wave generation with Time Domain Pulse Width Modulation of the wave, to keep the voltage regulated to 120 Vac. this leads to LOTS of Harmonics and Radio Noise....

    It is all in the Physics.....
     
  5. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++



    i was thinking that but i was not sure on that reason behind the socalled peaks and valley type voltage as it goes through the wireing when the unit is beening powered by a gen set ..thanks for the info ..
     
  6. Nadja

    Nadja RIP 3-11-2013 Forum Leader

    Well, this will be day three with the new inverter and also the generators set to work on the inverter. Seems to be going great so far. One of the side things that is good, is that this inverter takes less power then the old mod wave inverter over the night. More effiecient in other words. According to Ron, who can repair this inverter or any other for that matter, this one is exactly like the 24 v 4kw pure sine wave inverters, the only difference being that it only puts out 2500 watts and of course is all built for 12 volts. Same 3 large transformers etc as the big guys.
     
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7