You might have heard of the sine wave, square wave, and modified sine wave inverters – what are these?
Inverter/UPS is a device that takes DC from batteries and converts it into AC because 98% of our electrical equipment is made to run on AC.
Direct current (DC) is produced from the source of energy such as batteries or solar panels.
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Why AC – alternating current?
Unfortunately, Direct current can’t be carried to over long distances – that is why the main electricity supply we get in our houses is in AC – alternating current.
All of our electronic equipment is made to run on AC because that’s what we get in our main power supply.
AC and DC look something like this:
As you can see, direct current is really like its name.
DC is so direct that it just flows in one direction whereas the alternating current is more like a sea with waves – it goes high and low.
All inverters/UPS either give a square wave or sine wave to power our electrical equipment during the power cut.
Simply put, square wave inverters give output in waves that are square looking in shape whereas sine wave looks more like a beautiful sine curve.
Which waveform looks more like AC?
Yes, you’re right – it is sine wave.
If that is the case which wave is better to power your electrical gadgets?
Answer: Sine wave! Pure Sine Wave inverters/UPS are made to give good quality power to all electrical equipment connected to it.
As you can clearly see, the sine wave is very close to the AC power that we get in our main grid supply.
Why Sine Wave is Best?
Sine wave inverters are much better than square wave inverters.
You would hear an irritating humming noise if you are powered with square-wave inverters and may also notice that your equipment gets heated up.
You would also notice that your sensitive electrical devices carry a warning that they shouldn’t be powered on square wave inverters.
Why is that? Because square wave is a bad fit – go for sine wave.
You’ll be able to enjoy power without any noise and your equipment will remain safe.
Also Read: 3 Most Common Myths About Pure Sine Wave Inverters
What about the Modified Sine wave? is that Better?
You may have also heard people talking about modified sine wave inverters – what’s that about?
We can tell you that please don’t be fooled into buying modified sine wave inverter thinking that they are like sine wave inverter and cost a little less.
Understand one thing clearly – it is either a sine wave or it is not – how does it matter?
Just like you can’t a little bit pregnant, you can’t have a modified sine wave.
Sine wave needs to be pure in order to be a good companion to your sensitive electronics.
Look here and you’ll see that modified sine wave is not very different from square wave so why even bother calling it modified sine wave?
Just like buggy became obsolete when cars came in. The square wave became ancient when the sine wave was launched.
Square wave inverters, although cheap, are actually harming the electronics and are even banned in European countries.
You can also read: 4 Reasons Why Pure Sine Wave Inverters Are The Best
You guys really explain well. Thank you for the quality work.