3000W inverter enough for a shop vac?

[ericpeltier]

Quick Question - Do you think a 3000watt inverter like the one below will power a Shop Vac (8-10 amps continuous)?

3000 Watt Continuous/6000 Watt Peak Power Inverter

Long version - I'm rebuilding a Streamline, and the lot it's stored at has no power available. My other trailer is parked nearby, though, and has 2 group 24 batteries and a solar recharging system. My thought was to pull power from that setup to run the vac and the occasional power tool. Then, I could just install the inverter in the Streamline later on (even though it might get scant use).

Thoughts??

[idroba]

Sure, it would work, but remember that the group 24 batteries don't have a lot of capacity, maybe 1000 watt hours usable. You are not going to run a shop vac which probably takes close to 1000 watts for a long time. (one hour).

[ericpeltier]

Originally Posted by idroba

Sure, it would work, but remember that the group 24 batteries don't have a lot of capacity, maybe 1000 watt hours usable. You are not going to run a shop vac which probably takes close to 1000 watts for a long time. (one hour).

I understand. Short uses of just 1-5 minutes. Nothing sustained.

Do you think 2000 watts would cut it?

Eric

[mayco]

Amps x volts = watts

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by ericpeltier

Quick Question - Do you think a 3000watt inverter like the one below will power a Shop Vac (8-10 amps continuous)?

The math is pretty simple. 10 amps at 120vAC is 1200 watts. A 2000watt inverter will do the job.

Where you run into trouble is that you're not really using 120vAC from shore power, your ultimate source is 12vDC. That means with volts divided by 10, amps is multiplied by 10 to get the same watts. Or to put it another way, for every 6 minutes you run the shop vac, you will drain 10 amps from your house batteries. Plan accordingly.

[akflyer]

I am running a 4 hp shop vac on mine using a 2000 watt inverters with no problems.

AJ

[ericpeltier]

Originally Posted by akflyer

I am running a 4 hp shop vac on mine using a 2000 watt inverters with no problems.

AJ

Thanks AJ!

[JCWDCW]

My shop vac uses 6.8 amps so maybe 750 watts. Battery watts will be a bit more due to losses in the inverter. Say 800 watts which calculates to 66 amps at 12 V. Say 10 minutes of use = 66 amps x 10/60 = 11 amp hours of battery capacity. Most batteries fully charged have about 100 amp hours capacity.

Think I've got this right!!!! Weigh in if I'm 'out to lunch'.

JCW