So Chris just explained a sine wave to me (he just read my previous posting and eliminated some of my ignorance). All is clearer now.

For those of you who also did not know what a sine wave was (and those of you who did, but laughed at me), it is the wave pattern of electricity (alternating to be exact). If Chris’ precise, engineering finger-in-the-air demonstration is anywhere near true, it looks like ocean waves. Not the waves that look like cursive “c’s” over and over again but the rolling ones…

Regardless. Apparently inverters that change DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current) can be really good inverters or crappy ones. The crappy ones “clip” the sine wave. Again, according to Chris’ graphic finger-in-the-air demo, this would look like the top of a rook in chess. Good inverters most closely mimic a sine wave.

So an inverter changing direct current from my solar panels has to feed the proper alternating current (sine waves) to my new washing machine, of which I’m starting to become extremely protective (I love it).

I can now see a research project on inverters sometime in my future…