I may start to dabble with some solar panels and was wondering, as I'm completely out of touch on this one.....
What is the efficiency factor on a state of the art 12vdc to 120vac inverter?
Also, is there an IC option available for inverter guts that you can build around? I know there are some chip mfrs that specialize in power control stuff.
THANKS kindly.
85% is good for store-bought.
90% is reasonable if you're designing it.
95% or higher is getting really good.Dunno if there's a single-chip AC inverter, but this would be a snap with one of the modern DSP chips that has PWM generation built in with some gate drivers and some herky FETs.
-- Tim Wescott Wescott Design Services http://www.wescottdesign.com Do you need to implement control loops in software? "Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" gives you just what it says. See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
The International Rectifier IRAMS modules contain all the power components required, and you can connect it to a PIC that has a PWM module. It is designed for three phase, and you need a high voltage bus supply. So you will either need to boost the voltage from the solar panels and batteries, or have enough in series to get about 350 VDC.
A better option for solar power may be to have lights and appliances that run directly on fairly low DC voltage (48 VDC). That would probably be the most efficient overall. Most high-tech electronics itemsm such as TVs, computers, printers, and such convert the AC to DC for a switching supply that could run just as well, or better, on pure DC.
Paul
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