instructables
250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter
by Nick_Zouein
This is a heavy duty design of a Pulse Width
Modulator DC/AC inverter using the chip SG3524 .
I've been using it as a backup to power up all my
house when outages occur since aprox. 6 years non
stop.
If you like the work and intend to build the circuit
don't forget to click on the "I made it" button so I
know how many people bene t from the design,
Thanks.
No t e s :
1> The schematic circuit design is for a 250 watt
output, while the pics are of my 1500 watts inverter
that i built, to increase the power of the circuit you
have to add more of the Q7 and Q8 transistors in
parallel, each pair you add will increase your power by
250 watts, ex: to get 750 watts of power from the
inverter you need to add in parallel 2 of Q7 and 2 of
Q8 to the original design.
2> If you increase the power transistors you have to
enlarge the T2 transformer to match the new needs,
the circuit's transformer is rated 25 amps to handle
250 watts of 220v, for every 1 additional amp you
need on the 220v side you have to increase 10 amps
on the 12v side, of course there are limits to the
thickness of the winding so if you need more than 750
watts i recommend that you use a 24VDC supply
instead of 12 volts:
DC v o lt a g e a nd Tra ns f o rm e r " T 2" s iz e
re co m m e nda t io n:
( Po we r) ( Supply) ( Tra n sfo rme r Win d in g)
(750w) (12VDC) (P:24V "12-0-12" / S:220V)
(1500w) (24VDC) (P:48V "24-0-24" / S:220V)
250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 1
(2250w) (36VDC) (P:72V "36-0-36" / S:220V)
(3000w) (48VDC) (P:96V "48-0-48" / S:220V)
(3750w) (60VDC) (P:120V "60-0-60" / S:220V)
(4500w) (72VDC) (P:144V "72-0-72" / S:220V)
(5250w) (84VDC) (P:168V "84-0-84" / S:220V)
* The transformer should be "center tapped" at the
primary side.
* * You can make the secondary 110v if needed.
* * * The transformer in the pic is a custom made (48V
center tapped / 220v ) 2000 watts, weights like 10
kilos.
Note15-Feb-16: (48V center tapped means: P:48V "24-
0-24" / S:220V)
Note18-Feb-16: Test your transformer before doing
this project. Disconnect the transformer from
anything it is attached to, connect the 220v Secondary
side directly into a 220vAC outlet and test the Primary
side with your voltmeter, you should get exactly the
voltage necessary for this project as per the table
above. If not then don't waste your time building the
project, it will not work.
****Do not supply the driver circuit with more than
24VDC max. because the voltage regulator "7812" will
burn. Look at the pic of how to connect the batteries
and where to take a 24vDC wire from.
3> R1 is to set the PWM duty cycle to 220v. Connect a
voltmeter to the AC output of your inverter and vary
VR1 till the voltage reads 220V.
4 > R2 is to set the frequency to 50 or 60 Hz (R2 range
is between 40Hz to 75Hz), so guys that do not have a
frequency meter are advised to blindly put this
variable resistor mid-way which should drop you in
the range of 50~60 Hz.
If you want you can substitute the variable resistor
with a xed resistor using the following formula: F =
1.3 / (RxC)
in our case to get a 50Hz output we remove both the
100K and the variable 100K both from pin 6 and we
put instead a 260K xed resistor and we leave the
0.1uF (the 104 cap) as it is, this change should give out
a xed 50Hz as per the formula :
1. 3 / (26 0 , 0 0 0 o hm x 0 . 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 f a ra d) =
50 Hz
But in reality it will not exactly give 50Hz because the
260K resistor has a speci c error value margin so does
the capacitor, that's why i recommend a variable
resistor so that accurate calibration can be achieved.
5> Use either tantalum or polyester lm "as in pic" for
the 104 caps, ceramic disc caps are heat sensitive, they
change value when hot and this in turn changes the
frequency of the inverter so they are not
recommended.
6 > Pin 10 of the SG3524 can be used to auto shut
down the inverter, once a positive voltage is given
instead of negative to pin10, the SG3524 will stop
oscillating. This is useful for persons wanting to add
some cosmetic makeup to their inverter like "overload
cut-o ", "low battery cut-o " or "overheating cut-o ".
7> Wiring connections on the power stage side
should be thick enough to handle the huge amps
drain from the batteries. I marked them with thick
black lines on the schema also I included a pic so you
see how thick those wires must be. (You can make the
driving circuit section on a breadboard for testing
purposes but NO T the power stage).
8 > The design does not include a battery charger
since each person will be building a custom version of
the inverter with speci c power needs. If you are
ordering a custom made transformer you can ask
them to take out for you an additional output wire on
the primary side to give 14v (between point 0 and this
new wire) and use it to charge a 12v battery, of course
this needs a separate circuit to control charging auto
cut-o . But anyway this is not advisable because it will
shorten the life of the transformer itself since using it
as a charger will toast the enamel coating layer of the
copper wires over time. Anyway .. YES can be done to
250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 2
reduce cost.
9 > A cooling fan will be needed to reduce heat o the
heat sinks and transformer, i recommend getting a
220v fan and connecting it to the output T2
transformer, when you power up the circuit the fan
will start this will always give you a simple way to
know that 220v is present and everything is OK.. You
can use a computer's old power supply fan if you like.
Note that the fan must suck air out from the inverter
case and NOT blow inside, so install it the correct way
or it will be useless.
Also note how I xed both the heat sinks and where
the fan is, in a way that the fan sucks hot air from like
a channel between the 2 heat-sinks.
10 > 2 circuit breakers are recommended instead of
fuses, one on the DC side and one on the AC side,
depending on your design
Ex: for a 24vDC ( 1500 watts design ) put a 60Amp
breaker on the DC side and a 6Amp on the AC side.
For every 1amp of 220vAC you will be draining like 8
to 10 Amps from the 12v battery, make your
calculations !
11> The 2 Heat sinks should be big enough to cool
the transistors, they are separate and should NO T
touch each other. "see the pics"
12> Im po rt a nt : If you're building a big design that
uses more than 24VDC as power source, make sure
not to supply the driver circuit with more than 24v
maximum. (EX: If you have 4 batteries 4x12 = 48v ,
connect the v+ supply of the driver circuit to the
second battery's (+) terminal with a thin 1 mm wire
which is more than enough. (This supplies the driver
circuit with +24v while supplies the power
transformer with +48v) "see the batteries pic example"
13> "Optional" : Deep Cycle batteries are your best
choice, consider them for best results .. read more
14 > Be cautious when building this circuit it involves
high voltage which is le t ha l , any part you touch
when the circuit is ON could give you a nasty painful
jolt, specially the heat-sinks, never touch them when
the circuit is on to see if the transistors are hot !! I ate it
several times :)
15> The optional "Low voltage warning" is already
embedded in the PCB layout, you can disregard it and
not install it's components if you do not need it. It
does not a ect the functionality of the main circuit, it
just sounds a buzzer.
16 > The Motorola 2N6277 is a durable heavy duty
power transistor, it is used in many US tanks for it's
reliability but unfortunately it is a very hard to nd
part, instead you can substitute each 2N6277 with 2 x
2N3773 or any equivalent, and yes equivalents work
too.
17> I've included an optional "Battery level indicator"
circuit diagram that has 4 LEDs, you can see it
installed on the front panel of my inverter pic, it is
functioning great and shows precisely how much
juice the batteries still have. I have included a small
relay that is powered by the last LED to auto shuto
the inverter once last LED is o .
Update 18-Feb-16: There are cheap readily available,
professional looking Voltage, Current, Frequency
Meter these days for a couple of $, consider them in
your project. LED meter
18 > Also included an optional "Overload circuit", it is
very easy to build and can be calibrated to the desired
overload current threshold cuto point through the
potentiometer VR1.
R1 is rated 5watts for inverters upto 1000 watts. For
bigger versions of the inverter like 1000 to 3000 watts
inverters, replace R1 (1 ohm, 5watts) with (1 ohm,
17watts) which should handle loads upto 10 VA.
Make sure you install a proper relay to handle big
current drains.
19 > Ple a s e g uy s t a ke y o ur t im e t o re a d a nd
unde rs t a nd m y no t e s , bro w s e a nd re a d t he
po s t s a nd que s t io ns a s ke d by o t he rs
be ca us e t he re a re m a ny us e f ul inf o rm a t io n
lis t e d in re plie s . T he m a in re a s o n f o r m e no t
a ns w e ring y o ur que s t io n is be ca us e it ha s
a lre a dy be e n a s ke d be f o re a nd a ns w e re d
upo n.
20 > It w o uld be nice a nd ins piring f o r o t he rs
if y o u t a ke s o m e pho t o s a nd s ho w us ho w
250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 3
you built your version, any additions to the circuit are
mostly welcomed to be listed here, we can all bene t
from them.
21> Please click on the "I've made it" button/icon if
you did build the circuit so I know how many people
bene t from this design.
22> Testing the circuit on a bre a dbo a rd w it h
cro co dile clips o r t hin w ire s W ILL NO T W O RK
! Yo u' ll g e t w ro ng v o lt a g e re a ding s . Do n' t
co m e ba ck cry ing t ha t y o u' re g e t t ing a
150 v a c o ut put o r s o.
23> (20-Apr-2020) Why do we have a feedback
voltage to T1 and R1? explained:
Let's presume we built a 12vdc/220vac inverter, we
connect it to a 12vdc battery source and everything is
working great.. we got ourselves a nice 220vac output.
But what happens if the inverter is still running "ON"
and we connect a charger to the batteries?? in other
words we need the inverter to be always ON no
matter the main electricity of the company is present
or not, like we have some equipment that needs
constant steady uninterruptible 220vac supply.
In this case: The 12vdc inverter gives out 220vac but
when you turn on the charger the 12vdc will rise to
13.5vdc which re ects on the 220vac making it
dangerously 248vac on the running equipment, here
comes the function of the feedback section, it
regulates the duty cycle that is generated inside the
IC to maintain a steady regulated 220vac.
250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 4
250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 5
250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 6
The circuit is working very well,..

Hi Nick, I made it...

Do you have PCB design?

250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 7

Hi Nick.
Seeing that i'm not the sharpest pencil in the box...just one stupid question. The auxiliary
transformer in your circuit, is that to control the output voltage.? Let's say i have 48volt setup but i
connect the system to 60 volt will that control the output voltage to a standard 220volt or will I fry
my trannies or something.? I want to use a 120v dc supply but i need to keep the primary very
close to between 90 and 100volts.
Awaiting your response.
Hi PhilipB109,
No. If you have a 48v setup you can't connect to 60v. you'll burn the main transformer and probably
all the power section.
The main purpose of the "auxiliary" transformer is to maintain a stable 110v or 220v output when a
charger is charging the batteries.
ex: A 12v gives out 220v but when you turn on the charger the 12v will rise to 13.5v which reflects
on the 220v making it dangerously 248v, here comes the function of the auxiliary.
Hello Nick,
is PWM inverter same with pure sine wave inverter? and, can the power transistor be replaced with
IGBT ? thanks
Hola amigo si se puede reemplazar los mosfet por igtv pero sería mucha fuerza con un par de
mosfet estaría con 100w pero con IGTB sería el triple saludos
Hello Mr Nick, what are the voltages of the electrolytic capacitors in these schematics?

50v

Hello Broo pcb PDF sendmee

can i buy some your inverter mr nick

Hi zaalahareeth,
Sorry i don't sell ... everything is listed for free.
Hi nick i made it your inverter design thanks its working my inverter now

Hey sir,am politely asking for a PDF,my email is nyasakakevo@gmail.com,thank you

Anyone know how to make this circuit output a sine wave instead of square wave? Because
square wave isn't good for sensitive electronic households like: electric fan, TVs, etc. I read
somewhere that you could use 4017 IC to output a modified sine wave. Please reply thanks
Hi Nick, it's me again. I finally built my first inverter based on your schematic (the one with
MOSFET) but I replaced the IRFP250 and use IRFZ44N instead. I also removed the feedback
transformer and connect the bridge rectifier (I used KBP307, with 3A ratings and 600V max.
voltage) directly from the main transformer.

The problem now is the inverter didn't work. I measured the voltages across the MOSFET without
the transformer connected to it. The probes connected at the 'Drain' pin of the MOSFET and the
others at the CT input of the transformer (or the Vcc which is 12 V in). The results are both of them
had a different voltage, one MOSFET shows 10.1 V and the other one shows 5.78 V.

When I connected the transfomer to the terminal block (which contains two MOSFETs and 12V
Vcc) to the the transformer primary windings (12-0-12). I measured the voltage drops at the main
250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 8
input terminal and it shows about 8V-to-11,1V while the battery is measured at 12,67 V.

And also the MOSFETs seem only work alone (The ones getting very hot and sometimes the two
getting hot together) these conditions can be swapped, I mean it can be the upper MOSFET
connected to the pin-14 or the MOSFET at the pin-11 of the SG3524 that getting hot while the
other stays cold.

Here's my schematic diagram compared to yours.

there is reason he is using feedback transformer. if you don't like the additional transformer, you
can use separate power supply 12V. the ones you are using with (resistor 220K) giving you about
only 3V output (simulated with everycircuit) just look at the output bridge, he is using 10uF that's
why peak voltage dropped and down to 3V with 12V 30mW load. that's why you never reach any
point to turn this IC on.
you can't "hacking" circuit with only voltage divider resistor. try with author intention first design if it
works, then you can try to build "custom" as you like.

Problem solved. I accidently shorted the power stage and it causes the FET to generates high heat
due to the high current drain. Thanks for your answer anyway.
Dear Nick,
Would please be so kind to email me all the schematic diagrams for this project as I'm not able to
view it on instructables please sir, my email address is clivaro@gmail.com. We have a lot of power
outages here, please help.
Hi sir
I made it and works vry well
But i have a quastion
Is true 300v for regulation

Hi Ali akl,
Nice to hear that you made the inverter.
Thanks a lot

It's working fine good job author

Hi I may like to learn from you please

250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 9

Pls did you make any changes? Is the output voltage regulating?

hi sir , i have a question regarding about the transformer, i want to rewind a transormer 12- 0- 12 to
230vac 5000 w or 10000watts, instead of rewinding 84 -0 -84 v to 230 vac 5000w to 10000w . my
question is what is the difference between low voltage in the primary at higher wattage output ? is
there any effect to my power output transistor? i decide to rewind a 12v in the primary section
because if you rewind a higher voltage in the primary section, more batteries are needed and its
expensive, please give me an idea. thank you very much sir.
Hi ArnelD6,
From your question it's very obvious that you don't know what you're doing :)
1- A single 12v battery can not give 5000w by itself.
2- There is no enamel copper wire gauge that I know of to wind it as 12v/5000 w.
Stick to the original design and only to the original design and charts !
I made 1000watts inverter circuit with a feedback modulation 12v DC to 220v ac.
Without load 220v I plugged fan of 35watts the voltage of the battery is dropping out faster and
mosfet getting hot. I seriously need help. Thanks
Hi PhilipO36,
Please show us your setup, specialy your battery size, wiring between battery and transformer.
750watts inverter drive board
With pwm feedback.

500watts inverter drive board

With pwm feedback

Hi. I made this project. It gave me 220v AC without any load and there was no problem. But when I
take a little load(about 60 watts) the voltage reduces about to 150v. My projects 1000 watts.
Piease help me.
Hi amiresmaeeli.5959,
Please upload some photos showing your design, transformers and battery.
Hello All !!

Great to see a collaboration here literally developing a power inverter together. Congratulations
Nick for your simple design. I am also offering everyone a possible improvement regarding the
paralleled output transistors. I recommend that each transistor have a series resistor say 100 ohms
in series with the base connection. This is because each transistor junction conducts differently to
another and one transistor will conduct more than the others, which will starve the others of current
. This can cause unequal collector currents, resulting in more stress for one transistor over another,
resulting in less longevity for that transistor. The series resistor will drop a certain voltage allowing
the transistors to share better. Any engineers care to comment on the value of resistor I
recommend? Maybe 47ohms instead? Thanks and Regards, .............. Edward Novotny

250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 10

Hi eeezygoing,
Thanks Edward for you collaboration, any advise to enhance the design is highly appreciated, I
encourage anybody who have ideas to come forward.

Best Regards,
Nicolas Zouein
Hi Nick. After some research, I have found that it is better to put the low value resistor in series
with the emitters rather than the base because importantly, .......... it protects for thermal runaway at
the same time as balancing the current in the output transistors. As the thermal runaway current
goes up, due to constantly increasing transistor temperature, the resistors in the emitters will
decrease the 0.6 volt junction drive voltage, which then decreases the collector- emitter current to
safe levels. Resistors need only be 0.1 ohm, wire wound 5 Watt.
Thanks alot for your useful project!

Hi Sir. Is the transformer that used in your cercuit, is a special type for inverter? Or any transformer
with 220v secondary and 12v primary can be used? What type transformer I must prepare for this
cercuit??
Thanks alot
Hi amiresmaeeli.5959,
"any" transformer no does not work. I listed the specs of the transformer in details and even
included pictures and weights. read the notes properly, regards.
please I don`t understand what is meant by (E I type) choke

sir thanks for your good did. Please can give separate transformer for the charging system?

may i ask sir., is it okay to use higher amps battery for 1500w or depends., is the higher amps
battery is the better sir? what is your recommendations and sir what is T2 transformer amps for
1500w.? Thanks sir.,
Yes no problem with higher amps, actually the higher the better.
Higher amps affects the length of time that the inverter runs, it does not affect the 1500w T2.
Hi,and Do not be tired.
Please I need 5kva complete circuit schematic diagrams, my email is electronic.sima@gmail.com
Thanks.
Jokar
High, I can Help you, for more info , kamal.ok19@yahoo.com.
you want pure sine wave? or SQ wave?
Hi everyone, i made it. some parts on the board are not at the actual parts list, and also some parts
are salvage from old ups, like output tranny, and the feedback tranny. on R1 i use 2ktrim instead of
2.2ktrim because my feedback tranny only got 10vac on it that is why. i use bc557 instead of bc327
also i use 7812 regulator with 470-ohms going to sg3524 and bc337. driver output is 2.2v,
schematics 2.5v. im very happy with the result, thanks to sir NICK. soon i will upgrade this 3kva
when custom made tranny arrive. also the frequency is @ midway stock because my mini
oscilloscope order still on its way. thanks

250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 11

Hi TCWS, nice to know that you have successfully constructed this project. I intend to do the same
and during doing so, I want to benefit from your experience, I hope to get favorable response from
you. My first question is, whether to use Junction Bipolar Power Transistors or MOSFET's in this
project and what are the pros and cons of using each, thank you.
Hello Liaquat_Ali im very sorry for the late reply, so bz at work. to be honest for now i dunno the
pros and cons of each mosfet because im only using mosfets. no idea for the JBPT. as of now im
running x12 mosfets P75NF75 6 mosfets each side with 2000VA/1200W transformer 15-0-15
running 24v with that SG3524/feedback driver, it handle my 1HP waterpump, drill, mini drill, lights
and some minor stuff on my garagge. im very sorry i no have answer on your question cuz im still
on the process of using JBPT. cheers mate..
Hi TCWS, hope you are doing well. Great to hear from you, nevermind I shall do some research to
know preferably which transistors to use. Anyway, when I start to build this project and face some
difficulty of any kind, would you please help me out? By the way, another question. Whether this
project outputs square waves, sine waves or pure sine waves since I am intending to make pure
sine wave inverter so that I could use it on delicate electronics equipment as well. See ya mate !
how many input voltage will you use for 5000w driver

250 to 5000 Watts PWM DC/AC 220V Power Inverter: Page 12