In a time when almost everything runs on some kind of electricity, most of us have the need to have access to power wherever we are. This is evident from the fact that even those of us looking to escape the urban jungle have an electrical cupboard that we have in many of our trailers and caravans. These electrical cupboards are filled with fuses, switches, gauges, cables and gizmos, and of course, they’re all enabled with the help of an in-car inverter 12V to 240V.
Most people know that the entire purpose of an in car inverter 12V to 240V is to convert 12V DC from your vehicle’s battery into AC to power your appliances. But how exactly does an in car inverter 12V to 240V work? Modern inverters use oscillator circuits and semiconductors or transistors to revert current direction. When a current is run through a coil, a magnetic field is formed. When another coil is placed right next to the first one, the magnetic field from the first (primary) coil will force the current to flow into the second coil.
If the secondary coil has twice as many windings as the first one, it will induce a current which has twice the voltage that’s applied to the first coil. This allows you to step up the voltage with the help of a transistor-mediated switch. However, worth knowing is that this switching of current direction can produce rapid changes in current flow. And while some appliances are fine with these rapid changes (such as angle grinders, drills, etc.), equipment running off a transformer (such as audio or visual equipment, scientific equipment, laptops, etc.) can experience problems.
That being said, when shopping for an inverter, you’ll come across modified and pure sine wave inverters. Modified sine wave inverters are the ones that have rapid changes in current, whereas pure sine wave inverters produce a stable current that can safely power all appliances. Nowadays, modified sine wave inverters are slowly being pushed out of the market, and most inverters you’ll come across are a pure sine wave.
Most low wattage inverters are simple plug-and-play devices. You simply plug them into a 12V socket and connect your devices to the inverters. However, inverters with over 400W output need to be connected using a properly rated Anderson plug, or directly to the battery. Make sure your inverter is placed in a well-ventilated area as it can produce quite a bit of heat, and make sure it’s connected with a cable with an adequate gauge to prevent voltage drops.