120v Feedback from Appliance to Inverter?
Wondering if the PSW inverter can "see" what is plugged into it. Never mind between inductive and resistive--I mean between different resistive appliances. Does each appliance have its own feedb...
Forum Discussion
There is a feedback of sorts, and it actually becomes a problem at industrial levels and for power generation utilities.
The one I know the most about is power factor, which is volt-amps versus watts. Resistive loads are 1.0 or 0.99 PF so a 1000 watt space heater needs 1000 volt-amps to run, motors are more like 0.8-0.6 but poorly made "switching" regulators or capacitive droppers (LED lighting) can have power factor as low as 0.2.
I don't have any data on how power factor affects small inverters, but I'm guessing you could over-draw an inverter on volt-amps well before reaching its rated wattage by running lots of poor power factor loads like cheap LED bulbs, or inductive motors.
More info on PF here:
Wikipedia Power Factor
The one I know the most about is power factor, which is volt-amps versus watts. Resistive loads are 1.0 or 0.99 PF so a 1000 watt space heater needs 1000 volt-amps to run, motors are more like 0.8-0.6 but poorly made "switching" regulators or capacitive droppers (LED lighting) can have power factor as low as 0.2.
I don't have any data on how power factor affects small inverters, but I'm guessing you could over-draw an inverter on volt-amps well before reaching its rated wattage by running lots of poor power factor loads like cheap LED bulbs, or inductive motors.
More info on PF here:
Wikipedia Power Factor
