What Is A Power Inverter Generator?

A power inverter generator is a device that generates AC electricity with similar output from the outlets of your home. Traditional generators also does the same. 

So what makes it different from the traditional generators?

The difference is the technology of the equipment. To explain things better, let's discuss how it exactly operates.

The equipment is actually composed of a generator and an inverter. It's a two-in-one equipment.

When turned ON, the generator works by producing high voltage of "multiphase AC power". This AC power is immediately converted into DC. 

And from the DC, the inverter is put to action by converting it back into AC power as the final output.

The main purpose of the inverter is actually to smoothen and cleanse the power induced by the generator making it into high quality. 

With the help of the equipment's advance microprocessor, the entire process is properly controlled especially when it comes to the speed of the engine.

What is so special about a high quality of electrical power?

When you are using a high quality of electrical power, you will experience stable and consistent power without suffering from "fluctuations".

An electrical fluctuations is an unstable condition of electrical power wherein the power randomly goes up or down. This problem can cause serious damage to any of your electronic equipment.

Through a power inverter generator, the power it produces are filtered making sure that the output generated is perfectly suitable even for the most sensitive electronic equipment that you have.

Characteristic Of A Good Power Inverter Generator

Upon knowing the benefits of a power inverter generator, you are now probably planning on buying one for your use. But before you do, it is important that you have to choose the right product.

Here are the following "must have" characteristics of a power inverter generator:

1. Suitable High Quality Output

High quality of electrical output has already been discussed above.

2. Small And Lightweight

Most power inverter generators that are available on the market today are now small and lightweight which allows you for easy handling or carrying.

3. Higher Fuel Efficiency

The generator's engine speed is automatically being adjusted by its microprocessor component in which it only produce the right amount of power that is needed by the application that is in use.

4. Quite Operation

Traditional power generators are extremely loud and noisy that it hurts your ear when exposed for some long duration period of time near its area. With the invention of power inverter generator, the engine is a lot much quieter while running at constant full speed.

5. Parallel Connection

If you have two power inverter generators that is of identical models, you can connect them in parallel connection to produce a double power capacity. Such output is comparable to the output of a much larger sized generator.

Overall, a power inverter generator offers you the best protection for any electronic applications around your house.

Comparison of Voltage Between Battery and Power Lines

You might have already performed a simple experiment of making a small bulb light up by using a battery to power it up. 

All what you need is a bulb, two wires and a battery. What you have to do is to connect the ends of the two wires into the battery's terminals then the opposite ends into the bulb.

When you have managed to light up a bulb with a battery, what actually happens is that the battery produces the current which pushes the electrons from the wires. 

If the battery's current is high then it will be strong enough to drive the electrons to flow along the wire at a faster rate period of time. 

As a result, the electric current will heat-up the thin wire inside the bulb to glow which generate a brilliant form of light.

The strength of how the current pushes the electrons is scientifically measured in terms of 'volts'. 

You have to know that the higher voltage rating of a certain battery the stronger that it has the capability to push the electrons around the circuit. 

To tell you something about the discovery of the volt unit, it was actually taken from the name of the popular inventor, 'Alessandro Volta'. He was the person who invented the first battery.

Batteries are manufactured in different shapes, size and voltage ratings. The common voltage rating standards are 1.5, 3.0, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9 and 12 volts. 

You should be able to find the voltage rating of a battery printed somewhere on one of its side.

Why do battery vary in shapes?

Common batteries are cylindrical in shape but you will also encounter other kinds of shapes. It is actually an intended design by the manufacturer to suit with their electronic product. 

This is the reason why there are so many gadgets and devices that are slim such as mobile phones. With well designed shapes, you have the best comfort of handling your devices.

Why do battery vary in size?

The size of the battery is dependent to the size of the electronic component it is meant to be used. Anyway, large batteries tends to last longer while smaller sizes are shorter.

Voltage from the Power Lines

In comparison to the voltage from the power lines that goes right into your house, the voltage ranges from 110 to 220 volts. 

Take note that a voltage that is more than 100 volts is extremely dangerous when it flows through your body. 

If it happens that you made contact with such amount of voltage, you will most likely going to suffer electric shock that can lead to an immediate death. Thus, its always best to use batteries in all of your electrical experiments.

How Are Electrical Wires Connected Around your House?

If you go outside your house, there should be one long wire which originated from the power-lines then it goes right into your house. 

Try to follow where that wire is connected and you will find out that it is connected to a meter. That will be your house's electric meter which is a device that tracks and measures your electricity consumption.

From the electric meter, the wire is connected into another device called 'circuit breaker'. 

The function of a circuit breaker is to automatically turn OFF the electricity around your house when something went wrong with the wires. 

Common incidents are plugging broken or inappropriate electronic components into the outlet. If in case that you plugged a broken electronic component, there are chances that it will 'short' the outlet.

The term short means, the two opposite wires of the power-source will get connected. If this happens then the circuit breaker will immediately cut-off the supply of electricity from your house.

Plugging an inappropriate electronic component into the outlet is when you are trying to plug a 110 volt equipment into a 220 volt outlet source. 

If you accidentally did this kind of mistake then your electronic item will be badly damaged.

Another common incident for a faulty wire are when rats bite and chew on them. If this happens then chances are, the wires will be shorted.

What if the wires does not pass-through a circuit-breaker?

If the electrical wires around your house are not connected into a circuit-breaker then a faulty wire will result into a hazardous fire. 

You have to know that electricity from the main lines are dangerous and quite powerful enough to set your house on fire in just a matter of few minutes. 

Thus, circuit breaker is very important where you have to ensure that it is perfectly functional at all times.

The circuit breaker is also where the electricity has been split into several wires with each having different purposes. One of the wire is intended for the lights while the other wires are for the outlets and so on...

Aside from the circuit breaker, electrical wires also offer an extra-added protection. If you are going to look inside the wire, you will find three wires. 

In most cases, one of the wire has a black cover while the other is red. The third wire is normally bare or uncoated and it is referred as 'ground wire' or 'earth wire'. 

This third wire is intended to be connected outside your house. 

When it happens that something went wrong into the electrical wires around your house and your circuit breaker had failed to function, what the ground wire does is to take the electric current safely away from your house disposing it on the ground.

Why Are Electrical Wires Covered?

Did you know that electricity travels the same way as the water travels on pipes?

Electricity are being generated from a huge power-station and the way how it is distributed into people's houses are through 'wires'. 

Wires comes in many different shapes and sizes. It is often best describe as a long and thin piece of metal. 

If you are able to check a wire's internal part, you may find one single strand of metal or multiple strands of thin metals that are twisted together. 

Some wires can be thick wherein they are quite hard to bend while others are thin that you can easily snap it apart with your hands.

In the previous post, we had already discussed about conductors and inductors. From that discussion, we found out that any materials that allows electricity to flow through them is called a 'conductor'. 

On the other hand, a material that prevents electricity from flowing through them is called an 'inductor'.

The best type of material used as conductors are metals. But, there are several types of metals wherein some kind of metals are better conductors than the others. So what's the best metal conductor around?

Silver is the best conductor among all other metals. However, not many industries are using it because it is quite too expensive to be used as wires. 

Thus, everyone had settled into the use of copper which is also a very good conductor and a lot much cheaper than silver.

What If Electrical Wires Are Not Covered?

It is important not to use bare or uncovered wires to conduct electricity. You have to know that the current flowing from the bare wire can flow though other conductors that made contact with it. 

And this includes humans. Take note that when electricity goes through into your body, you will suffer extreme shock that can be fatal. Thus, this is the reason why wires are covered with 'insulated' type of materials.

Insulated materials are the same as inductors. The most common type of insulated materials used in covering wires are rubber and plastic. They are then referred as 'cable' or 'insulated wire'.

Electrical Survey to Conserve Energy

If it happens that you are paying huge amount of electric bills then there could be something wrong about the way how you use your electricity. 

There is only one way for you to be able to sort it out which is by making an electrical survey.

On this survey, you will be making a list of all the electrical appliances and other electronic devices in your home. 

There are probably a lot of them especially when you live along with a huge family. If you do then perhaps you can make a separate list for each room.

One good way to organize your electrical survey is to categorize them into three different groups based on how importantly needed they are. 

To give you an idea, you can categorize your electrical appliances in the following three criteria:

1. Importantly Needed

On this group, you have to list your home's electrical equipment that are importantly needed to be used. Some examples are lights, refrigerator and phones.

2. Not Necessary

On this list are the electrical equipments that are not necessarily needed. Some examples are Personal Computer, TV and Radio.

3. Not Important

This group are the list of electrical components around your house that are not important. 

Some examples are video games, electronic rechargeable toys and all sorts of other electronics components that are basically not needed on your day-to-day activities.

After completing your list, you can now filter out the equipments that needs to be minimized or replaced. 

If it happens that video games is on your list, perhaps you can lessen the time that you spend playing on it. 

If it happens to be an appliance then think of an alternative replacement that doesn't use electricity. An example is the electronic can opener which you actually replace it with a manual can opener.

The Discovery of Static Electricity

Back in the very old period of time, an ancient Greek named 'Thales' has been playing around with some pieces of ambers, straws and a cloth. 

He then discovered 'static electricity' when he rubbed a piece of amber right into the silk cloth. And when he did, Thales had noticed that the amber got attracted into the small pieces of straw.

Unlike the electricity that powers your equipments at home, static electricity is a type of electricity that only stays in one place.

How about if we are going to simulate how Thales discovered static electricity?

We won't be using amber, straw and silk cloth just like what Thales did but ordinary materials which you can easily acquire around you home. What we need are the following items:

1. A Plastic Comb

A plastic comb actually works better.

2. Small Pieces of Paper

Look for a paper that you no longer need then tear them apart into small pieces. You can either tear it with your hands or use a scissor but be extra careful enough not to cut yourself.

How to perform the experiment?

Before you perform this experiment, it is important that your current weather condition is dry and not humid. If not then this experiment might not work. 

Now, the first step is to use the comb on your own hair. Comb it quickly for about 10 to 15 seconds then immediately bring the comb near the small pieces of papers.

You should notice that the comb will attract the small pieces of papers like a magnet. Some kind of force will pull them up to cling on the comb and the scientific explanation into this is that the comb is electrically charged.

Other than the small pieces of papers, you can also put the comb near your hair and you will notice that you hair can stand on one end. Again, its because the comb is full of static electricity that attracts your hairs.

Another different experiment that you can perform is to rub a piece of wool or silk cloth of a balloon. Doing so will enable the balloon to cling to the flat surface of your room's ceiling. 

The rubbing procedure is what makes the balloon charged with static electricity and the reason why the balloon sticks on the ceiling. 

Anyway, the electrical charge will soon wear out and your balloon will soon fall down.

Electricity from the Lemon Fruit

Don't you know that fruits like lemon can interestingly generate a slight amount of electricity? 

If you think that this is impossible then keep reading because on this post, you will get to learn and experience the proof via an easy-to-perform experiment.

Here are the following items that you will need on this simple fruit experiment:

Lemon Fruit

A ripe or nearly ripe lemon fruit works best.

One Short Piece of Copper Wire

You will be needing a short piece of copper wire which measures about 5 cm long.

One Long Piece of Plastic Coated Wire

A long piece of plastic-coated wire measuring about 1 meter long is required. Both ends must be trimmed to expose its bare ends.

Galvanized Nail

You can actually use any type of nails as long as its a conductor.

Compass

This is a tool used by travelers to guide them for directions in terms of Earth's polarity (North, South, East and West).

Electric Lemon Experiment

Step 1:

Hold the lemon fruit on your hand then press it hard on a wooden surface of a table. Your intention of doing this procedure is to make it juicy inside. 

Actually, the chemical components of the lemon fruit are the once that will generate a form of electricity. By squeezing the fruit, the chemical components of the fruit will become more active.

Step 2:

Take the long plastic-coated wire then wind it around the compass for a few number of times. 

The compass will be our indicator which will tell you about the presence of an electricity that flows through the wire. 

I do suggested that you test this experiment first on a battery. By connecting both bare ends of the wire on a battery, you will notice that the pointer of the compass will point at a different direction. 

This should also be the result when a lemon fruit is to be used.

Step 3:

Twist one of the end of the copper wire around. This will allow you to connect the plastic-coated wire's one end into that twisted end of the copper wire. 

When its done, push the un-twisted other end of the copper wire into the lemon fruit.

Step 4:

Connect the other end of the plastic-coated wire into the nail then sink it into the lemon fruit. You should notice that the action you just did had caused the compass needle to move.

Light Bulb Experiment - Positive and Negative Terminals

This topic is in relation to the post about previous topic entitled 'Positive and Negative Terminals'. On this post, you will get to learn a simple experiment about lighting a bulb.

Before we proceed on this experiment, you need to prepare the following items:

2 Pieces of Plastic-Coated Wires

The length of these two wires must be at least 20 cm long with bare ends.

Screwdriver

Use a screwdriver in tightening the two screws on the bulb holder. This is to ensure that the wire connected into them are tightly gripped.

4.5 Volts Battery

You can use other voltage rating of a certain battery as long as it is capable of making the bulb light. However, never use a battery with a voltage rating that exceeds the required rating of the bulb. If you do then the bulb will get damaged or worst, it will ignite or explode.

4.5 Volt Bulb with a Place Holder

Take note: The voltage rating of the bulb that you are going to use must be equal to the voltage rating of the battery that you will be using.

Lighting a Bulb Experiment

This simple experiment will show you how an electric current flows around the battery, wires and bulb.

The first experiment is to perform the three wrong setups which are the following:

1. Connecting a single wire

Using a single wire to connect on either one of the two battery terminals into the bulb will not going to work.

2. Connecting the two wires into the positive terminal of the battery

Assuming that the wires has been properly connected into the bulb's holder, but the other two ends are both connected into the positive terminal of the battery - the bulb will not going to light up.

3. Connecting the two wires into the negative terminal of the battery

The same setup as the above but the only difference is that the two wires are both connected into the negative terminal of the battery. As a result, the bulb will never going to light up.

The Correct Setup

Provided that the two wires are properly connected into the bulb's holder, the other two ends of the wires must be connected separately at the battery's terminal. 

One of the wires should be connected into the positive terminal while the other wire is to be connected into the negative terminal of the battery. Upon setting all up correctly, the bulb should light up.

Identifying Conductors and Insulator With Simple Experiment

If you have been reading my previous posts about the conductors and insulators then you should probably have your own idea on how to test them. But for those new visitors or guest of this blog, here's what you need to know about conductors and insulators.

Conductors

These are any types of materials where an electric current can freely flow. Such common materials are copper, metal, steel and gold.

Inductors

Inductors are the complete opposite of the conductors wherein an electric current is not capable of passing-through. Such common materials are plastic, ceramic, wood and rubber.

Here are the following materials that you need on this simple experiment:

3 Pieces of Plastic Coated Wires

You will need exactly three pieces of plastic coated wires with an approximate length of 20 cm long. Each of the wires must be properly trimmed to expose their bare ends.

Screwdriver

This tool is to be used for tightening the two screws on the bulb-holder.

4.5 Volt Battery

You can actually use slightly higher or lower voltage battery but it is important that the bulb to be used meets the required rating of the battery's power.

4.5 Volt Bulb with a Bulb Holder

Take note, the battery's voltage must be equal to the voltage rating of the bulb.

Collection of Various Objects

Collect objects such as toothbrush, coins, ruler, nail, paper and etc...

Procedure on Conductor and Insulator Experiment

Step 1: Connect the two pieces of wires on the bulb's bulb-holder. Ensure that bare ends of the two wires are tightly clipped on the bulb-holder by tightening the screws with the screwdriver.

Step 2: After connecting the two pieces of wires on the bulb, connect one of the wire into one of the battery's terminal.

Step 3: Connect the third unused wire into the other battery terminal and you are done.

Step 4: Time to test if your tool works. Try to connect the bare ends of the two loose wire and the bulb should light up. If it doesn't then you have to go over through your connections.

Step 5: You are now ready to test the objects that you have collected to determine if they are a conductor or insulator. 

What you have to do is to take an object from your set of collection then connect one of the bare end of the loose wire into one end of the object being tested. 

Then connect the other bare end of the second loose wire into the other end of the object.

Two Outcome of your Test Result:

1. If the object tested made the bulb light up then that object is a conductor.

2. If the objected that has been tested does not make the bulb light up then it is an insulator.

Can you Live without Electricity today?

If you are going to read about the discovery of electricity and the period when it has been fully utilized, it’s somewhat like just a few years ago. 

Now, can you imagine those people who lived before this time without relying on electricity?

During the night, we use light bulbs or flash lights to keep us doing our actions on the dark. Before, people relied on candles or gas lamps to brighten their night. 

Now, the following are the common troubling situations when you suddenly experience a temporary brown-out in your home:

Your hair-drier doesn’t work

You might be one among those individuals who often takes a bath during the night. After taking a bath and you are about to dry your hair, your hair-drier suddenly stopped working. 

The result is that you have to stay awake the whole night managing on drying your hair manually.

Alarm

Most clocks are powered by directly plugging its power cord to the wall-outlet but there are also some that are powered by batteries. 

If your clock uses battery then there won’t be a problem at this condition. 

The only trouble that you can have is when the battery started to weakens that you might not be aware that your clock’s time is no longer accurate. 

As for the clock that’s being directly plugged on the wall outlet, the brown-out period also makes the time inaccurate. The result is, you will most likely going to be late.

Computer and Television Set

You just brought the latest edition of your favorite video game but you cannot try it because your computer or TV is temporarily not working. 

If you are a blogger like me then it makes you feel that you are losing a lot of your previous time.

Electric Oven and Fridge

Have you tasted eating raw meat?

I’m sure that most of you have the negative reaction about how does it taste. Anyway, this may only happen if you only use an electric oven as your primary cooking tool.

Refrigerator or fridge is an important appliance inside our home. It is used to store foods keeping them fresh and making them last long enough not to be rotten. 

Actually, not all refrigerators are powered by electricity where some runs with the use of gas or a fuel called “kerosene”.

Those are just a few examples of troubling situations when power failure had suddenly occurred. How much more when those large establishments or industries had unexpected experienced such condition. 

The result is that the owners and investors of the company are losing a lot of their money.

Now, to answer the question “Can you live without electricity today?”.

Yes you can by going back to the old ways of life. Instead of using light bulbs, you can make use of candles or lamps. 

Watching television or playing video games is impossible but there are a lot of alternative for of entertainment. You could read a book or call your friends and play those interesting board games.

How do Circuit Breakers Work?

It is highly important that any structure that uses electrical power needs to be have a Circuit Breaker because this device protects any problems especially when the wires are short-circuited for some reasons. Rats are one of the primary causes of electrical failures because they can bite or wet the active wires. This will cause power-failure and the worse part is when it accidentally shorted which can generate fire.

To fully understand how Circuit Breakers do work is that you must understand the three characteristics of electricity which are the Voltage, Current and Resistance. The voltage is the pressure or the power of how strong the electric charge contains. Electricity travels through any conductors and wires are the most commonly used material for distribution. The behavior of how electricity flows on the wire is known as the Current. Finally, the resistance is the opposing effect of the conductor-material that reduces the effect of both Voltage and Current.

Circuit Breakers will automatically turn-off the power when it is able to detect any sudden increase of current that flows through the wires. It’s for this reason why they have current rating which specify the level that they can support. If the power is intentionally used for the lighting purposes then you can use lower rating such as 15 Amperes. But for those appliances or equipment that use excessive amount of power then you will need a higher rate of Circuit Breaker.

There are other electrical devices that can protect your safety against unexpected power accidents. One of them is the Power Surge that helps protect any of your Electronic Components from sudden fluctuation of electricity. Electric fluctuations can be caused by lightning or any technical maintenance.