Posted on 08/01/2013 6:42:18 PM PDT by onona
Hi fellow freepers. I want to buy a DC power inverter for camping and for potential power outages.
Any success stories to share ?
Thanks Onona
Any success stories to share ?
Thanks Onona
We need to know the battery volts, how many battery watt-hours you will have, and how long you want the batteries to last.
12 volt marine deep cycle battery. Need to run it intermittently for a week. probably 12 hours max over a weeks time.
Buy a sine wave inverter to be able to run motors (like a refrigerator or furnace fan motor).
We need to know the input power requirements of the device under power. Aggregate if using multiple devices.
How much stuff do you need to run & for how long?
I have used Trace equipment, but I'm not so happy with the new stuff.
/johnny
The only high quality power inverter I have is built into this Honda lightweight 2000W generator. I would recommend it.
http://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/models/eu2000i
I’d really like to invert the power structure in DC, so let me know if you find something that works.
This would require more citizens to take more responsibility for their personal lives and their local communities.
I believe you can find information on these theoretical "power inverters" listed alongside the stats for cold fusion power generators and perpetual motion machines.
I’ve got a spare President that’s AC-DC who is now in DC. Does that work?
Garage sale.
Dude had an inverter sitting there, it looked kind of beat up. Asked him how much, he says five bucks.
Got it home, some disassembly, high pressure air, elbow grease, got it back together for testing.
Cobra CPI 1550, 1500 watts continuous, 3000 watts peak. On/Off lamps, stair-step power draw meter, works like a champ!
Just beware with the larger output inverters, etc to pay attention to making sure you have heavy enough gauge wires on your extension cords, etc.
1500 watts is almost enough to run my whole house, but I don’t have enough batteries, etc. to get the DC to it it would need.
You must have a really small house.
With a deep-cycle marine battery, and you want 12 hours of use, your power demand is limited to a very small appliance - like a tablet computer, cellphone or maybe a laptop.
Look at the watt-hour rating of the battery, and realize that only about 1/2 of it is really available for your use. It’s a complicated affair. Yes, you can buy an inverter and a battery, plug it in and go - but not for as long as you may need.
Back to your initial question - I bought a Xantrex true sinewave inverter and found it quite well-built. Also, the it is critically important to have very large cables and high-quality (low resistance) connections between the battery and inverter. This can represent a large part of your cost of getting set up.
Almost 2000 sq feet.
But my summertime power usages comes in around 25 KWH per day, which is a little more than a KW an hour...
that’s averaged out, though, not peak.
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