inverter generators have a gasoline engine turning a dc generator whose output
is smoothed or an ac generator whose output is rectified and smoothed to dc. an electronic
inverter circuit takes the dc and chops it up to form a psuedo-sin wave ac output, this output
is further filtered to produce a very good pure sin wave. the output load is monitored
by a controller. the controller varies the speed of the gasoline engine so that the
energy output of the generator matches that of the load instead of the motor running
at high speed all the time. the output frequency is control by electronics and not the
speed of the gas engine.
regular generators need to run at a constant rpm so you always get 60Hz out of them.
when you apply a load the engine immediately slows a bit, dropping the output frequency,
while waiting for the speed governor to catch up the rpm.
inverters are thought to be more fuel efficient than regular generators because their
standing losses (the losses incurred while NOT driving a load) are significantly less
because they are not running the motor at full speed all the time.
both have voltage recovery issues when applying or removing loads. the inverter can
store energy in a capacitor and use that stored energy to recover faster than a gasoline engine
can recover. they both have benefits and downfalls. under heavy continuous loads the
standard generator has less loss for example because it is turning engine work into energy
that goes straight to the load whereas the inverter takes rotational energy turns it into dc,
then into ac so it can have higher losses.
hows that?? :thumbsup: