We'd like to thank all of the great responses we received when we asked about septic systems. We've also found lots of great information here on alternative energy. We will shortly be moving to our "raw" 15 acres and have decided to use batteries and an inverter to power our minor eletrical needs. The one thing we haven't been able to get a good grasp on is will a regular inverter be OK to power our computer? Funds require a cheaper inverter to start with, but we don't want to take a chance of blowing up our computer. The things we've found on the internet mention "sine waves" but don't really explain if a sine inverter is the only thing appropriate to use with a computer. Will a regular inverter work? Would a surge protecter take care of possible problems if we don't get a sine inverter? Any info along these lines would be helpful. Thanks very much for your help.

-- Fred and Rosemarie Morrison (fredandrosemarie@juno.com), January 30, 2000

Answers

Although I can't speak from personal experience, from everything I've read in homepower magazine a modified sinewave or square wave invertor should be ok. At home power central, way out in the boonies in northern calif.,they've been off the grid from the git-go and have done all the magazine publishing from there, on computers, long before the "true" sine wave inverters were commonly available. www.homepower.com I believe is their url and you can access their archives from there. I'm pretty sure they have a search engine and you should be able to get a definative answer to your question.

good luck

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), January 30, 2000.

All of our power comes either from an inexpensive generator or inexpensive inverters; no problems from either running the computer. The generator has even burped a few times and shut down the computer in the middle of something, but didn't seem to cause a problem, although I have heard that this is not good for it. I bought a prowatt 800 from Damark ( a mail order company) for about $150.00 I think, and so far it has been fine. Hasn't affected any other electronics either, except for some slight lines in the TV, but hardly noticeable.

Hope this helps.

Rod

-- Rod Perrino (redjouster@aol.com), January 31, 2000.

Supposedly it is not the inverter that is most sensitive to non-sine-wave power, but some types of printers, especially laser types, I think.. I can't speak to this from experience as we have a true sine wave inverter for our house.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), January 31, 2000.

I personally run my computer of off a mod wave inverter. It is only 300 watts but it is made in america. I know some of the cheaper ones like the ones from Damark, most work but occasionally you get one that makes the computer run faster. So you have to replace the fans more often and the computer might not last as long, due to over heating. My computer works great. I have heard of screens and laser printers not working on mod waves. You can get a true sine-wave inverter made by Exceltech for a couple of hundred. I have an older computer so I didn't mind testing it out but I don't know about brand new computers. Let me know how it is going so I can pas it to the renewable energy people. hope this helps. REMEMBER TO STAY ENERGIZED

-- Aur Beck (power@midwest.net), February 03, 2000.