Sine vs. loads [RE-wrenches]

[Kurt Nelson]

Greetings once again Wrenchers,

I'm not sure where to begin here but I've been following the rest of the
mod/sine debate and simply have to pipe in and probably put my foot in it
again.  If we leave a light on all night to keep an SW awake, or even if we
get creative and turn the search watts to off (0), we are still buring up to
half a kilowatt of electricity daily (depending on SW model) just to power a
tiny timmer circuit in a bread machine (that's just the timmer, we still
haven't baked any bread yet!).  Apparently I haven't been selling as many
sines as the rest of the dealers out there, but I gotta tell you the first
conversation I have with my clients isn't about wave form, its about LOADS.
I can't imagine installing systems in New Zeland where components cost
almost twice what they do in the States, but here in Wisconsin where
inexpensive modified square wave inverters can easily power electric coffee
pots and electric toaster ovens (resistive loads), no such load has ever
remained on a client's load profile worksheet.  I have an electric toaster
(although I often toast my morning slice on top of the woodstove during
low-light winter months) and I have many clients with nuke ovens, but short
of shunt loads designed to charge regulate, those would be about the only
electric heating loads I want to power with PV's.  I really feel that a
large part of my job is making a client's home as efficient as possible.
They hire me for my knowledge on phantom loads and my experience in
creatively making them vanish while still having as little an impact on
their quality of life as is possible.  I often get the pleasure of working
with clients who are still in the design stage of their dream home and then
we can really accomplish things.  Not just applicances, home heating, water
heating and water pumping that are energy efficient and easy on the PV's and
inverters, but daylighting, insulation, low flow toilets, and TV's and VCRs
that don't go stupid when you really power em down.  I'm sorry if I'm
sounding preachy, but I really see a trend in this industry away from the
golden rule I learned at the first Bob-O workshop I attended many, many
years ago.  It is always cheaper to save a watt than to produce one.  I'd
say that it's not only cheaper, but way better as well.  

Sincerely, Kurt Nelson, SOLutions

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