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From: Jason Pringle (Accenture) ("Jason)
Date: Wed Dec 01 2004 - 20:18:30 EST
Don't know if a microwave loses efficiency over time, but take a look at
the two articles on Ample Power's website regarding inverters and
microwave ovens (http://www.amplepower.com/pwrnews/index.html).
Apparantly microwave ovens don't like modified sine-wave AC, and are
very sensitive to the DC input voltages (ie - they are much less
efficient at lower DC input voltage levels and thus require longer to
heat stuff).
Is your oven's AC supplied via an inverter circuit (ie - even when on
shore power or generator the AC is coming through the inverter)? Hmm,
which raises a question - when an inverter is "passing through"
shore/generator AC power, is that AC "converted" to MSW or does the
sinewave of the source come through?
I know the oven on SHIBUI takes much longer to heat stuff when running
on battery-fed inverter power rather than generator/shore power supplied
AC (still through the inverter).
-Jason Pringle
-----Original Message-----
From:
[mailto:] On Behalf Of
Faure, Marin
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 4:36 PM
To: trawler list
Subject: T&T: Microwave question
Does a microwave oven lose efficiency over time? In other words, will
it take more and more time to boil a cup of water as the unit gets
older?
You would think I would know the answer, microwaves being the ubiquitous
element in our lives that they have become, but my idea of gourmet
cooking is to use a platinum can opener. When it comes to kitchen
appliances, I might know how to operate them but that's it.
Our boat has a very small microwave in a cabinet. I have no idea how
old the thing is. We've owned the boat for six years, and from
appearances, the oven is considerably older than that. It works, but it
seems to take a long, long time to heat something as simple as a cup of
water for tea. I would not normally notice something like this, but
when we're using the inverter I'm very much aware of the power
requirement of the microwave, which seems like an awful lot just to heat
water. I was under the (probably) mistaken impression that heating a
cup of water to near boiling in microwave took less than a minute. But
maybe not.....
Anyway, I'm wondering if this particular unit might be nearing the end
of its useful life and that we'd get much more efficiency with a new
unit. This is just about the smallest microwave I've ever seen-- it's
not much larger than a toaster oven-- but I don't know how much of an
effect the physical size of a microwave has on its ability to heat
stuff. It doesn't seem to heat things any faster when we're on the
generator or shore power.
______________________________
C. Marin Faure
GB36-403 "La Perouse"
Bellingham, Washington
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