Power inverters are electrical devices that can power household appliances that run on 240V AC from a 12V DC battery or vehicle that has a 12V system. They convert 12V DC battery power to 220/240V AC mains power and as you can imagine have a large range of applications and uses. Inverters are compact and often lightweight making them an ideal source of portable mains power for those on the move who need to power electrical equipment while away from mains power.
Thanks to their portability they are commonly used in cars, caravans, motor homes, RV's, boats, 4WD's and other utility vehicles. Using a power inverter with standard 240V household appliances is a much cheaper and more practical option than purchasing specialised 12V appliances for times when main power is not available, and the cost of an inverter will easily pay for itself.
Power inverters are available in many different power output levels to suit almost any type of appliances that you would want to power. Small low powered inverters are designed for powering one small low power electrical or electronic appliance whereas larger more powerful inverters can be used to power multiple small appliances or one much larger appliance that has a very high power requirement.
Generally speaking power inverters are not a particularly efficient way to run appliances with very high power requirements such as electric heaters, stoves, kettles and air conditioners due to their high current draw and battery consumption.
There are two different types of inverters, modified sine wave power inverters and true sine wave power inverters. The difference between the two is how closely they replicate mains power. A modified wave inverter produces a far choppier AC wave and a true or pure sine wave inverter will create almost perfect AC mains power.
As the process used in a true sine wave inverter is far more complex than a modified wave inverter they are lot more expensive and generally reserved for equipment that will only run on them. The good news is that most electric appliances will happily operate unaffected on a modified sine wave inverter and so modified wave power inverters are far more common.
A pure sine wave inverter is generally used for medical equipment and sensitive or very expensive electrical appliances that require a very high quality power output to function correctly, but offcourse they can be used to power any device that would run from a modified wave inverter as well.