Inverters convert DC power to AC signal - this is useful in lots of situations, especially say converting power from solar (DC) to the usual grid DC, or using a car battery.

As far as I know all inverters use only one polarity in DC. Since AC goes to both polarities, it needs to switch the output. Inverters have efficiencies of about 80% I think.

It is common in a larger system to have two sets of batteries, one set could be used as the positive source, and one as the negative source. By providing both polarities to a specially designed inverter, the conversion efficiency might be increased, since there is one less thing to do (switching polarities).

Improving inverting efficiency could be important for electric cars, fuel cells, solar power, etc.
-- Janik, Apr 26 2006

I dont think that this would change things in any way. All an inverter does is ramp up the voltage then out put a Sine wave. The power is lost in the process of Ramping the Voltage and not in the switching(OK a tiny bit is lost in the Switching) Extra batteries or Polarities do nothing to improve the process. The extra power is lost as heat in the wiring and electronics and in the step up process.
-- jhomrighaus, Apr 26 2006


Using a split-supply push-pull amplifier (which is what you're really talking about) has some advantages and disadvantages.

The good:

Electricity only has to flow through one switching device instead of two, and only two switching devices are needed instead of four.

The bad:

The split supplies are presumably half as big as a single supply would have been. If they each have the same voltage as the single supply, each will have to supply as much current as the single supply would have, half the time. Since the supplies are smaller, source ESR (effective series resistance) losses are thus likely to be higher.

If the split supplies have half the voltage of the single supply, they would have to supply twice the current half the time. As above, source ESR losses would likely be higher.

If the split supplies each have the same voltage as the single supply, each switch will have to have twice as high a breakdown voltage as would be required in a single-supply system. If the split supplies each have half that voltage, the switches would have to handle twice as much current.
-- supercat, Apr 27 2006


Just earth the center of the transformer secondary.
-- Ling, Apr 28 2006



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