alt Hacker NewsGood read.
"Since that time, I’ve learned that small heaters (like coffee makers or kettles) can be kryptonite to an inverter, and that this is common folk knowledge among solar installers."
Is there any more on this? It can understand inductive loads maybe challenging inverters but resistive loads should be easy? Is it an issue of cheap inverter design, or something more fundamental?
Replies
aidenn0 • today at 4:05 AM
Assuming the heating element has a positive temperature coefficient (which seems likely), there will be inrush current greater than the operating current.
As an extreme example, a tungsten filament in a lightbulb would rise to 1500C (2700F) which with even a small temperature coefficient can mean inrush current 10x higher than the operating current.
From a quick Google that kinda makes sense, it’s just the strong, _sustained_ power draw that gives them issues. So I’d say fundamental AND inverter design — imagine pushing 2kW continuously through an inverter.
It’s funny, power use can be really unintuitive. Try convincing someone that using the big air conditioner for heating is more efficient than using that little plug-in bar heater. Or yeah, a power board with 8 tiny wattage wall-warts isn’t using a lot of power.
I could probably run my big fridge overnight off my portable battery generator, but it wouldn’t run my small electric kettle without putting it into a special mode and for nowhere near as long.