1958 Shasta "Penny"
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1958 Shasta Airflyte 16
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Post by 1958 Shasta "Penny" on Mar 19, 2014 19:02:09 GMT -8
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John Palmer
Senior Member
Hi, From a vintage trailer guy located in Santa Ana, CA. It's good to see lots of activity here.
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Post by John Palmer on Mar 19, 2014 20:40:25 GMT -8
So.....how many pots of coffee will your inverter brew, before you kill your 12 volt battery source?
I have not seen a need for an inverter yet, so I would put the value at zero.
I like to use a separate 12 volt, a 110 volt, and propane systems.
Wire the seven way plug to charge the trailer battery while towing, and use a battery maintainer plugged into the 110 volt system. When stored, leave the 110 volt system plugged into your house current. The battery likes a constant voltage, not deep drain and charge cycles. It will last much longer on a maintainer.
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Post by vikx on Mar 19, 2014 21:38:48 GMT -8
John Palmer and I do the exact same thing on systems. Works well and very simple.
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pathfinder3081
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1971 Shasta Loflyte
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Post by pathfinder3081 on Mar 20, 2014 7:25:12 GMT -8
I could not open your link there 58. so.. You might get a wide range of opinion on what size 'Watt" you might need in converting the battery to AC. Then there is the "Sine" thing. I trust that is what you are inferring to. I started with a 1000 watt. It has a nice little meter that tell me the drain rate, amount being consumed and it shuts down when I get to the bench mark. (11.9 to 12) I have not been shut down in the field yet. My off-grid gigs have been 4 nights maximum so far though. I use it for lights, A fan in the summer nights, my party lights on the canopy and a cd payer. I keep my eye on it and it has been good so far. I have a few "led" get around lights that are wired straight to my battery via a fuse panel, so I can push around the shut down feature in a pinch. The led lights drag almost nothing but I am still in the testing phase. Then there is the other thing; are you camping or are you touring the country in a mobile retirement facility?  There are some pretty sweet setups available out there now. You have the generators, the 300 pound golf cart battery lockers w/ the solar panel, moon ray rigs that can give you lots of juice. It just depends on what you need and what you want to pay.I bought one from Northern, I think I paid $100 w/ a $20 dollar coupon last year at about this time. And you know that I am just kididng about the retirement thing..  |
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cowcharge
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Post by cowcharge on Mar 21, 2014 12:56:28 GMT -8
I got my Xantrex 1000-watt inverter for $70 on Ebay 3 years ago. I use it all the time for laptop and TV, have even run my microwave, shop vac and power drill from it. $139 seems like a good price for one with 1500 watts continuous. Three of the four reviews on the website said they had to return them, though. I would probably search out more reviews on this model before I bought one.
As for "needing" an inverter, as I see it, there are four ways to go about your electrical lifestyle, with three of them making an inverter unnecessary:
1. You're always plugged in to shore power, therefore you don't NEED a 12v system at all.
2. You're always off-grid, in which case you don't NEED a 110v system at all.
3. You camp both on and off-grid, but don't mind losing all the 110v stuff when you're off-grid. Inverter unneeded.
4. You sometimes camp off-grid and want to still be able to use 110v appliances like computers, TVs, electric razors and microwaves. Get the inverter. Get one big enough to handle all the appliances that you will run at once, plus a little more.
If you want to use 110v while unplugged, you obviously have to either use an inverter or a generator.
12v appliances are expensive, so replacing everything is way beyond my reach, dunno 'bout yours. But any 12v appliance that does the same amount of electrical work as its 110v cousin, especially when heating, (i.e. heating up a 12v toaster element to the same temp as its 110v cousin) is going to use basically the same amount of energy, so buying all 12v appliances would really only help by allowing you to omit the 110 completely. It won't make your batteries last much longer, if at all.
Laptop chargers pull significant amps. They are not like charging your phone.
John's right about the need to be aware of the electrical draw of each of your appliances. To run a 1500-watt coffee maker for an hour requires a battery of at least 250 amp-hours, because 1500w/12v=125a out of your battery, and since you never want to run your battery down below 50%, you'd need 250ah of capacity JUST to run the coffee maker. For an hour. Once. Use a percolator for coffee, it tastes better anyway.
The electrical losses (wasted juice) during DC-AC conversion become higher the larger the inverter is, so if you plan to spend a lot of time just charging phones and MP3 players as opposed to powering "real" appliances like microwaves, get a cheap 300-watt inverter at the auto parts store to maximize your efficiency for the small stuff. Save the big inverter for power tools and other high-amp appliances that need the watts. Charging a phone out of a 1500-watt inverter is like using a Hummer to deliver the mail. It works, but what a gas bill.
The way I figure it, buying and installing an inverter isn't that expensive, considering the versatility it gives you, as long as you size your battery and charging system properly to keep up with your usage.
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