Warpspeed
Solar Wizard
Welcome to the Forum Varta !
I agree with the others, best to keep it as a variac.
Variacs are designed to have a single layer winding (obviously), and to keep the size and cost and weight down, they are always run at a quite high flux density. The quality of the steel is usually not that good either, particularly in very old variacs.
That will create an unfortunately high no load idling current and not very high efficiency, which is fine for a variac, but a disaster for an inverter.
See if you can get your hands on an old blown up grid tie inverter. The transformer will usually be fine, and you can then rewind the primary to suit your particular battery voltage. You might get lucky finding people in your country that install solar systems. They may have some blown up grid tie inverters that cannot be repaired for one reason or another. Try scrap metal dealers in your area as well, they may have some transformers they have not yet stripped for the copper. These large transformers occasionally come up on e-bay and auctions.
If you can get two or three similar sized cores, its possible to stack them for increased power. For example, if you can find three old identical 1.5Kw inverters, you can then stack three cores and rewind it as a single 4.5Kw transformer.
Whatever you finally decide to do, we here can help you to design your new transformer. How many turns, what sized wire, and the best way to go about actually putting on the windings. There are some very knowledgeable and experienced people on this Forum that will be glad to help.
I agree with the others, best to keep it as a variac.
Variacs are designed to have a single layer winding (obviously), and to keep the size and cost and weight down, they are always run at a quite high flux density. The quality of the steel is usually not that good either, particularly in very old variacs.
That will create an unfortunately high no load idling current and not very high efficiency, which is fine for a variac, but a disaster for an inverter.
See if you can get your hands on an old blown up grid tie inverter. The transformer will usually be fine, and you can then rewind the primary to suit your particular battery voltage. You might get lucky finding people in your country that install solar systems. They may have some blown up grid tie inverters that cannot be repaired for one reason or another. Try scrap metal dealers in your area as well, they may have some transformers they have not yet stripped for the copper. These large transformers occasionally come up on e-bay and auctions.
If you can get two or three similar sized cores, its possible to stack them for increased power. For example, if you can find three old identical 1.5Kw inverters, you can then stack three cores and rewind it as a single 4.5Kw transformer.
Whatever you finally decide to do, we here can help you to design your new transformer. How many turns, what sized wire, and the best way to go about actually putting on the windings. There are some very knowledgeable and experienced people on this Forum that will be glad to help.
