The Maui Electric Company is a public utility company on the island of Maui, in Hawaii. Many inhabitants of the island are tying into the public utility grid, using inverters. Because of this, MECO has defined standards for inverter based generating systems. These standards include producing a frequency range of 57 to 60.5 hertz. A hertz is one cycle per second. The standards set are for inverters above 30 kilowatts only. A kilowatt is 1,000 watts.
As part of his doctoral thesis in electrical engineering, researcher Tiefu Zhao investigated solid state transformers for his inverter based project in 2010. Every inverter needs a transformer. Conventional transformers rely on coils of wire to transfer electricity. Zhao investigated using solid state components to transfer electricity, which is a far more efficient method than conventional transformers.
Engineering professor and professional engineer Mark Csele developed an inverter based project that he shares freely with the world. This is a component-level project, meaning it is built from scratch, and a electronics technician will have to obtain all the parts. Csele states the inverter is capable of producing 2 kilo-volt-amps. This is sufficiently large enough to power a 1/3 horsepower motor, or a 1,500 watt appliance. Many room heaters draw 1,500 watts of power.