Inverter????

[Kestrell]

Anyone running an inverter/charger in their "stream? I've got an '05 CCD and I'm thinking about putting one in, was wondering if anyone else had had the same thought and weither it was worth the effort.

[mkeith54]

We have two small ones in our trailer, one for the TV and Sat Box and one for the laptops. For everything else we have a 5KW genset to power AC appliances. Generator sits in the bed of the truck and as it's a Honda it makes very little noise, only about half again as loud a a Honda 2KW.

[SilverRanger]

I also have two small ones. One for the laptop (240 watts), and one for the LCD TV (600 watts) that automatically shuts itself down should the battery voltage drop below 10.6 volts. Am considering a small generator.

[Inland RV Center, In]

There are inverters and there are inverters.

Small inverters are great, "for small jobs".

There are two types of inverters.

The first is a "full, pure sine wave" type.

The second, and much cheaper, is a "modified sine wave".

If your going to power a small TV or a lap top as an example, you must use the pure sine wave type.

If you want it for other small jobs, then the cheaper version is OK.

As and example, if you power a small microwave oven, with a modified sine wave inverter, your wasting your time.

We tested, by attempting to boil water, a very good microwave using a modified sine wave inverter After 15 minutes, the water temperature was so low that you could drink the warm water. It never would get hot.

Andy

[SilverRanger]

Hi Andy,

You're right about the pure sine wave inverters being the best for big jobs and for certain types of electronics, but I've been sucessfully using modified sine wave inverters to power my laptops for years and, more recently, my 15" LCD TV. There are some known issues with modified sine wave inverters powering certain electronics such as battery chargers, digital clocks and some microwave ovens. Regarding microwave ovens, I have heard of some people confusing cooking wattage with the actual operating wattage consumed by the microwave, which is considerably higher than the cooking wattage.

[74Argosy24MH]

There are actually 3 types of inverters. Square, modified, and pure sine wave. Square wave are the ones to avoid with many electronics. Modified doesn't seem to be a problem from my experience, I have a Xantrex 3012 and it runs a microwave with no problem, along with a tube and lcd tv, and a couple of different computers.

The power rating of a microwave is generally the tube output power, actual power the microwave consumes is considerably higher and the inverter needs to be rated for that. You also need one heck of a battery bank to run a microwave. An 800 watt microwave might actually require 1200 watts to operate, (100 amps at 12 volts, plus inverter efficiency, 94% on the Xantrex 3012, so another 6 amps). Drawing over 100 amps for 15 minutes and still maintaining a useable voltage at the end requires large batteries and cables.

[adobehome]

Does anyone have a suggestion for installing an inverter so that one could run the 2-way Dometic rerigerator (propane & household, only) off the 12 volt while towing, thus allowing foods to stay cold and with the propane off? I know that many folks tow with the propane on, from the tanks, so that the refer can stay cold. But, this freaks hubby out & he feels it is very dangerous to do so. He is probably right.

[bhayden]

There was another recent thread about running the fridge from the batteries. Even DC operation is going to be hard unless you've substantially beefed up the batteries. Hard to pin down the exact specs but at least 12-15 amps continuous DC, a little higher with the inverter effeciency. While a good charging system on the TV would be able to keep up you'd really have to watch that the wiring was up to the task.

As a newbie I too was leary of running the fridge off propane while running even though all my neighbors with RVs said that's what they do. A poll question about this showed 70% of the forum members do exactly that and the appliance manufacturers seem to think it's OK. Driving down the road with two 30# bombs on the front of your trailer isn't safe but the added risk possed by the fridge on propane doesn't seem to be all that great.

Here's the kicker for me. My mother in law had a a trailer fire a few years back driving though Missoula. Cause of the fire was determined to be over heated wiring from running the fridge on 12V! I think there's less risk of fire running on propane than from all the hoops you're going to have to jump through to run the fridge on AC. If that's not an acceptable risk then just use the fridge in ice box mode when traveling.

[adobehome]

Well, that makes sense! Thanks for the reply. Propane it is.

[Chuckles]

When I bought my 310 I purchased two inverters from Camping World at the same time, 600 watt and 3000 watt - Inverters for 115vac are a lot cheaper in the USA than in the UK.

The 600-Watt runs the fridge/freezer during travel. It is hooked up to the chassis battery and is switched on by a relay powered from the ignition. That way the inverter is shut down when the engine is not running, saving the risk of a dead starting battery. There is an override if required, after all there is the "Start-Assist" circuit if necessary.

The 3000 watt modified sign wave inverter runs all the rest from four 6v, 225 amp/hr batteries. Unfortunately the rating for the inverter needed to be scrutinised a bit more. It is 3000 watt peak (Start-up) and rated at only 2500 running. That means that the inverter will not run the roof AC for long, so I will have to go shopping again! I intend to runn all appliances from batteries as I removed the generator. Apart from the AC it works fine.

The generator died big time so the space now houses all the 'electrical gubbings-or-what-ever-you-call-them' See photo. Also http://www.airforums.com/forum...es-7632-3.html

[lewster]

The important thing to remember when considering an inverter is that it will need a 'fuel tank' to create that 120VAC from the 12VDC battery source. If you want to run a 1000W + inverter and boondock, then you'll need a battery bank large enough to run the appliances you want for whatever length of time you desire. You have to look at the amp-hour rating on those batteries, the power requirementsof the appliances and the rate of discharge to determine your capacity. By the time you aquire the inverter, maybe 4 batteries and the assorted wiring, you just might be better off with a small PROPANE POWERED generator to provide your 120VAC and keep your batteries (1 or 2) fully charged. 4 AGM batteries and the inverter will probably cost the same as the generator!

The big MOHO's that I regularly work on all have inverters, but they also have at least 2 4-D sized house batteries to power it, and they also have rather large alternators to keep those batteries juiced while traveling down the road.

Just a thought....................

[bhayden]

And keep in mind that charging batteries isn't the safest thing in the world either. Over charging, easy to do if something gets a little out of wack (and isn't that what electronics do best ;-) releases hydrogen gas. Add spark and kaboom. Not a real likely occurance but what does happen a lot is a gungy white or slightly yellow "precipitate" from the batteries that is about the most corrosive thing you can imagine. A recent thread on "three way" Yamaha generators has me thinking about writing to Santa. It really would be nice to get by with the 2400 70# unit rather than the 150# 3000 watt job. Maybe even worth the effort engineering an inverter to help with startup current for the AC.

[john hd]

here is food for thought about inverters and microwaves.

i have a dorm sized microwave, 800 watts in my truck at work. it is powered by a 2500 watt full sine wave inverter.

the truck is an international 4700 it has a huge alternator and 3 batteries.

when i heat up a bowl of chili for lunch it takes 6 min.

when i jump back in the truck to eat lunch the chili is hot and the truck's low voltage alarm is going off.

it recovers in about 30 seconds.

john