Design and Implementation of a Viable Power Inverter

Abstract

In the last few years, people in the Gaza Strip started to rely on power inverters as part of a backup power system due to frequent failure of the mains utility. The simplest backup system consists of a battery, a battery charger, and an inverter. At least one house out of four in the Gaza Strip is equipped with such a system. In a previous work, a method for building a simple and applicable power inverter was presented. The used components and employed technology respect special conditions found in Gaza but also many other developing areas. However, the embedded battery charger is primitive and needs development. Moreover, the device has not been evaluated for induction motors loads such as fans or refrigerator compressors. In this work, the device charger is modified to run in a three stage charging algorithm. This is achieved by incorporating a TRIAC in the primary winding of the power transformer and controlling its firing angle according to the battery voltage as well as the charging current. Moreover, the inverter performance is investigated for running induction motors