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by ck2 199 days ago
isolation transformers are way cheaper than double conversion and should work as well?

well they used to be cheaper, not sure what is going with prices these day, I remember this being around $100 a decade ago

https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/146730/Tripp-Lite-500...

https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/493958/Tripp-Lite-100...

2 comments

It's not about isolation though - it's about line noise. An isolation transformer will let that pass straight through (minus the usual filtering due to any transformer being an inductor), whereas the AC->DC->AC conversion gets rid of all of it by effectively acting as a perfect low-pass filter.
A 1.5kva isolation transformer is about $600, that fits with today’s pricing.