A power inverter is a device that shifts direct current (DC) into alternative current (AC). It takes power you have from either the electric company or natural sunlight and turns it into power for home use. With a power inverter, you would have no way to make this power function in your home.
Today, we will review six of the most popular inverters you can find for your home or business. To determine the best quality inverter, you would need an inverter to provide you with a decent amount of power, be easy to use, and more. Here are the following inverters that we will review in detail:
Best Power Inverter For House – Quick Links
- Samlex 1500W Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter
- GoWISE Power 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter
- Xantrex Prowatt 1000W Power Inverter For Home
- Renogy 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter
Top-Rated Power Inverters for Home Comparison Table:
|
NAME |
IMAGE |
WATTS |
PRICE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Samlex 1500 Watt Power Inverter |   |
1500 Watt | |
| 2. GoWISE Power 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter |   |
3000 Watt | |
| 3. Xantrex Prowatt 1000 Watt Power Inverter |   |
1000 Watt | |
| 4. Renogy 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter |   |
3000 Watt |
The 6 Best Power Inverters for Home Backup Reviews
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1. Samlex PST-1500 Series Pure Sine Wave Inverter – 1500 Watt
The Samlex PST-1500 Pure Sine Wave Inverter is hands down one of the absolute best on the market today. It delivers consistent performance and quality which is unusual for inverters of this power level. The Samlex brand is well-known as one of the most reliable, and the PST-1500’s industrial-level design and durability will allow it to power appliances throughout your home with ease.
What’s great about Samlex products is that you know you can count on actual high-performance power output. There’s consistent output under both low and high-level loads, and there’s no indication of any struggle or flinching with power transfer. It’s fairly low volume and won’t bother you even if all else is quiet at home.
Even under intense conditions or demand, this Samlex 1500-Watt inverter performs mightily well. It’s a great choice to help power your home and will give you great peace of mind and performance. I can’t recommend this one enough!
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2. GoWISE Power 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter
GoWISE is one of the best power inverter brands on the market and for good reason. They have an amazingly high level of quality at a very reasonable price, which makes them attractive for folks looking for a great balanced inverter for their home. This GoWISE 3000-watt pure sine wave inverter is a great option all around for both emergency and regular use.
This GoWISE 3000 Watt inverter comes with 4 total output sockets which makes charging all kinds of devices a breeze. It has a variety of built-in protection systems that enable you to use the inverter stress-free, including temperature protection and under and over-voltage alarms. The GoWISE doesn’t get too hot and is a reasonable volume, which makes it a good choice for those who don’t want a super noisy or high-temperature option.
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3. Xantrex Prowatt Sw1000 1000W Power Inverter For Home
The Xantrex Prowatt 1000 SW Inverter is a little less powerful than the Samlex inverter as it provides 900 watts of continuous power. Regardless, while you can attach a 12V battery to it, there is also an ethernet port and a USB port, which are two ports that a device like a Sunforce inverter is severely lacking.
The cooling fan inside the inverter is thermostatically controlled, and while it’s not silent, it certainly isn’t loud either. While it is light in weight at 8 pounds, it is not ideal for travel and is better suited to be mounted in a certain part of the home.
A 25-foot cable is included with this inverter for the home, which is a very useful feature. If your electricity is controlled by a service panel in your basement, you can put this inverter in a closet upstairs and have the cable travel down into the basement and connect to the circuit breaker.
A remote switch is sold separately for 23 dollars. The switch is not attachable to a keyring, however, and should be mounted to a wall. The switch bundled with the inverter would have been a nice bonus, and it seems like it is a scheme for the manufacturer to get you to spend more than what should be necessary.
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4. Renogy 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter
This Renogy 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter is another excellent choice for those hoping to power their home using clean energy or other sources It’s immensely reliable, and comes from the Renogy brand which specializes in this kind of clean-energy power products. Whether you’re beginning on your solar journey, or are simply looking to upgrade, the Renogy 3000 Watt is a great choice in which you can have confidence.
With a fully certified 3000 watts of power and up to 6000-watt surge power, this unit can handle powering a variety of appliances. As a pure sine wave inverter, it’s also qualified to handle finer-tuned electronics, unlike modified sine wave inverters. This Renogy unit has built-in ground-fault protection as well as overload handling, which is key for safe use. The built-in cooling fans are also key to keeping ventilation high and at low volume so as to not disturb you.
Let’s talk about the outlets available in this unit. You get three standard AC outlets, as well as a USB power slot that can charge up your phone or other portable device. This should cover most of your bases for home use.
Overall, I love this unit, and there’s a reason it topped our list of the best power inverters. You should feel confident getting the Renogy 3000-watt unit for your home!
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5. 1500W Power Inverter DC
This next inverter is said to be very versatile, for home use, outdoor use, and car use. It is 6 pounds, making it slightly lighter than the EasyFocus inverter.
This inverter costs only 89 dollars, but it is surprisingly 33% more powerful than the Sunforce inverter, at 1.5 kilowatts of continuous power. That makes this inverter sound like a steal.
This inverter comes with two electrical sockets, 2 USB ports, and battery terminals with black and red cables, making it just as useful as the other batteries in this review.
To prevent the unit from getting burnt out, four external fuses are also included. While these fuses are nice extras for any inverter, this should be a cause for concern that it might not last long if you are not careful enough.
You can always buy more fuses after these four have been used up. Regardless, for just 40 dollars more, you get more than four times the power of the Schumacher XI41B ‘X-Line’.
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6. Xantrex 81-2022-12 Inv/chgr
This inverter costs almost 13 hundred dollars and weighs a whopping 40 pounds. But don’t let the price and weight turn you off, as you might be won over with mighty and worthwhile upgrades.
It provides a 2-kilowatt output of continuous power, so it is very capable of providing power to large homes with little to no complications.
The Xantrex 2000W inverter is surprisingly quiet. This is due to its aluminum base that reduces the noises coming from inside the inverter as it works.
Its exterior aluminum casing also ensures that the inverter is corrosion-free and will last a very long time. As you can tell, the high price is completely justifiable, since this is a power inverter that is built to last.
In a span of 10 to 20 years, you can either buy one inverter after another after it dies, or you can buy this and manage to keep it going for as long as possible. Because this inverter is not recommended for travel, it does not feature USB ports for charging gadgets.
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For people who are inexperienced with power inverters, and still don’t think they know enough about them, here are several things to consider:
7. Jovers Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter for Home
This first inverter from Easyfocus comes with a bright yellow body, making it easy to identify from other devices you might have in your home, garage, or shed. Weighing in at just seven pounds makes it a fairly adequate inverter to transport and carry around.
With over 26 thousand milliamp hours (mAh) of lithium power, it acts like a large battery. With three electrical sockets, four DC ports, and four USB ports, it’s ready to use for computers, phones, and other electronic devices and equipment. It has 500 watts of continuous power
This is a decent inverter for home and outdoor use and can be charged from the main power, with a car battery, or even from a solar array. Great for emergencies and outages, this inverter also has a built-in flashlight so you can navigate around in the dark or at night time.
The caveat to this inverter is the lack of cooling. Because the fan is just too small and insufficient, it will drain more power that what has been advertised. More power does not always mean you have that power for longer.
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8. Schumacher XI41B 410 Watt DC to AC Power Inverter
At only 45 dollars, the Schumacher XI41B ‘X-Line’ 410W may seem like a very economical option for receiving backup power for home use, but how does it hold up?
It is surprisingly lightweight, first and foremost. This 2.2-pound inverter is easy to take with you. Included with this converter are terminals for volt batteries and a USB port.
One unique feature of this inverter is its alarm that sounds when its battery life is low. You are sure to know when your inverter is running out of power so that you can recharge it later.
It is a great way to automatically notify you of a low charge, rather than find out the hard way after experiencing a power outage or looking to charge a device that needs more power.
However, at just 410 continuous watts of power, it is an inferior version of the best-quality inverter. This may not be capable of supplying power for an entire home, but perhaps for a small apartment or dorm room, or just for powering handheld gadgets and devices.
Aside from all this, it does not provide much else. If you want the cheapest inverter in this list, understand that you get exactly what you pay for.
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Best Inverter for Home FAQ
What power inverters are for
Power inverters are used to power households, cars, devices, and solar energy systems. Outside your electrical supply, it serves as an alternative in giving appliances and electronics sufficient energy needed to run.
Wherever and whenever you might need an alternative power supply, a power inverter can help you. Inverters draw their power from either a 12-volt battery or many smaller batteries that are wired in parallel.
When the inverter power is depleted, it will need to be recharged with an electrical supply, a car motor, a gas generator, wind turbines, or solar panels. Other power inverters can also come with proprietary batteries that you plug into a wall socket in order to recharge them.
What makes a capable power inverter
Power inverters are available in various brands, sizes, and capacities. The size you pick will depend on the wattage of what you want to run.
The Sunforce 11240 inverter provides 1000 watts of continuous power. In a given house or room, you will need to find the watt capacity of each object that runs on electricity.
When you add up all the watts your home or room needs, you will find out whether or not the inverter you want to buy is capable of giving you enough wattage or not.
When all is said and done, you will likely want a power inverter that can supply more than the watt capacity of every appliance in your room or home.
If you add up all appliances in your home and get a number such as 1150 watts. You can either buy an inverter with more continuous power than the Sunforce 11240 or unplug appliances that you do not need before you turn the inverter on.
The difference between continuous load and peak load
The continuous load is the wattage that the inverter always runs at. The peak load is the starting load, necessary in order to get the appliance up and running. Almost every inverter has a peak wattage that is twice its continuous wattage.
The EasyFocus inverter, for instance, has 500 watts of continuous output, and 1000 watts of peak output. The peak wattage necessary for each appliance may tend to vary, however. Some appliances require more than twice the output of their wattage, and some require less.
How to set up an inverter for charging?
All of these inverters in this review have to be hard-wired to a 12-volt battery or higher. Smaller inverters can be powered directly from a car cigarette socket.
As you connect your power inverter to your battery, always be sure to use a fuse or circuit breaker as a way to protect the device. For cables connecting the battery to the inverter, be sure you are using the thickest, shortest cable possible.
Safety tips for using power inverters
- Place the inverter on a flat surface, whether on its bottom or on its side. This way, you will make sure that the inverter is steady wherever it may lie.
- The inverter should not be installed inside an engine’s compartment, because of interference from water, acid, oil, electricity, or fumes. It is highly recommended that you charge an inverter in a cool, dry place at a reasonable distance from the electrical supply or car battery you are using to charge it.
- Do not place the inverter by a source of heat, for example, a vent or radiator. Do not also expose the inverter to broad sunlight. It must be in between the temperatures of 50 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Keep the inverter adequately ventilated. Depending on where the fan is located inside the inverter, make sure that that fan has plenty of room to blow out heat. Do not cover these fans up, or line up other devices or equipment alongside the inverter.
Why is a power inverter for home necessary to own?
A power inverter for home use can help you get access to supplemental power in the event of a blackout. This way, you can still use appliances and lights as normal.
An inverter can also be used as an external battery for travel. If you are out camping, you can get extended battery life out of portable devices including laptops, phones, and gaming consoles.
You never know when you’re going to need another source of power, so having a power inverter can be a lifesaver.
Final verdict
We recommend the GoWISE Power 3000 Watt Power Inverter as the best quality inverter to buy. The key fob is a wonderful addition that allows you to turn the inverter on remotely and will spare you lots of time and effort.
As for the lack of USB cables, you can always buy adapters that enable you to plug a USB device into an AC outlet. This inverter gives you adequate amounts of power at an adequate price point.
If you want the best balance of power, durability, and quality, the GoWISE inverter is your best buy.
