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Power Inverters??

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binsky3333

binsky3333

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Hi,
I just have a quick question about power inverters and was wondering if anyone could help me? I plane on getting a 800watt power
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4965459
Possibly something like that. I was wondering if for power inverters there was a amp requirement, Or do i just need the right amp to run my appliances. What i mean by this is say i have a 200watt appliance(18.3AMP) can i just use a 20amp battery and still be able to run it or does my invertert need a power requirement such as 80AMPS.
 
The inverter must meet the power requirement of the device drawing(pulling) the power.

:toast:
 
A car's battery has a reserve capacity rating. A typical rating is 70 minutes, which means the battery can supply 25 amps at 12 volts for 70 minutes. If you consume 120 watts continuously, that means that you are draining about 11 amps from your car's battery continuously. A typical car battery can supply power at that level for perhaps three hours. A deep-cycle battery can supply power at that level for six or eight hours. Then you will need to recharge the battery However, if you are running a 60 watt bulb, total consumption is about 5 amps at 12 volts. A car battery can supply power for about 12 hours at that level.Your best bet is a deep cycle battery with about 800 cca even than you need to recharge. So it all depends on how long you need to run your 200 watts 20 amp battery may go a full 2 minutes:rolleyes:
 
strick94u said:
A car's battery has a reserve capacity rating. A typical rating is 70 minutes, which means the battery can supply 25 amps at 12 volts for 70 minutes. If you consume 120 watts continuously, that means that you are draining about 11 amps from your car's battery continuously. A typical car battery can supply power at that level for perhaps three hours. A deep-cycle battery can supply power at that level for six or eight hours. Then you will need to recharge the battery However, if you are running a 60 watt bulb, total consumption is about 5 amps at 12 volts. A car battery can supply power for about 12 hours at that level.Your best bet is a deep cycle battery with about 800 cca even than you need to recharge. So it all depends on how long you need to run your 200 watts 20 amp battery may go a full 2 minutes:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

you deserve a thanks for that, quite informative.
 
WARNING: as the battery weakens you will end up underpowering the appliance running off of it. it is intended to use in vehicles when a generator or other power source isnt available and you should only be running something off of it with the car running so it has a steady supply of power to the inverter. running it off of a battery thats not in a vehicle being feed by an alternator will be problematic as well as probably result in the appliance going bad later on due to damage from undervolting. it would only be advisable to use a remote battery to power the inverter if it was for a small device that did not draw much power and only for a limited time.

Important note about 12v batteries: cca stands for cold cranking amps, these are short high energy outputs you get for starting engines but this is not what a battery can give you as a steady power supply, the regular continuous amps tell you what you will get from the battery and for how long. but usually the higher the cca the higher the regular constant amps will be, but the cca number is not the one that matters most in powering devices.
 
Last edited:
WOW,
All of those replies were excellent and i really appreciate it!!!!!


THX
 
keakar said:
WARNING: as the battery weakens you will end up underpowering the appliance running off of it. it is intended to use in vehicles when a generator or other power source isnt available and you should only be running something off of it with the car running so it has a steady supply of power to the inverter. running it off of a battery thats not in a vehicle being feed by an alternator will be problematic as well as probably result in the appliance going bad later on due to damage from undervolting. it would only be advisable to use a remote battery to power the inverter if it was for a small device that did not draw much power and only for a limited time.

Important note about 12v batteries: cca stands for cold cranking amps, these are short high energy outputs you get for starting engines but this is not what a battery can give you as a steady power supply, the regular continuous amps tell you what you will get from the battery and for how long. but usually the higher the cca the higher the regular constant amps will be, but the cca number is not the one that matters most in powering devices.
Click to expand...

Yes cca is about 10% of the total power 700x12 = 8400 watts total but as you say not for long periods of time. last hurricane I was able to power a small tv a fan and a 60 watt light bulb for about 10 hours but the light was only on as needed.
 
?

How can i figure out about how long my battery will last running an appliance.
 
WARNING-- i killed 2 laptop power bricks with 2 seperate inverters. then i bought a power btick with a cigerette lighter plug on it and used it like that with no problems.

just a thought
 
ok
 
rangerone766 said:
WARNING-- i killed 2 laptop power bricks with 2 seperate inverters. then i bought a power btick with a cigerette lighter plug on it and used it like that with no problems.

just a thought
Click to expand...

While on a road trip I ran my notebook off of a inverter, after a week the power brick started humming and was very hot. Seems to work ok now but I'll never plug it into an inverter again :/
 
Some inverters, especially cheap ones, might end up supplying some dirty power. Your laptop power brick has an amazing ability to take a lot of that kind of abuse from ac. But it's really not a good thing. Most of the intended purposes of these inverters are for things like TVs, lights, and things with motors.
BTW, I agree with the others above me, run the car while you're pulling that much power.

800 watt inverter? I wonder how much an equivalent generator costs.
 
inverters

i have a question about inverters and i don't how to post. i am looking for some information on where to buy a power inverter that i can conect directly to a panel.
 
post it in the general hardware section like this:

your thread header: a question about inverters

your thread post: i have a question about inverters and i don't how to post. i am looking for some information on where to buy a power inverter that i can conect directly to a panel.
 
binsky3333 said:
How can i figure out about how long my battery will last running an appliance.
Click to expand...

i think you would divide the regular amps the battery can supply by the amp draw of the device your running, then (since you will loose some power in the conversion process) you divided that number in half and that should be a rough estimate of how long it will last without any loss of power strength. (beyond that your just guessing)
 
A short while ago www.tomshardware.com did an article on powering an efficient desktop pc, during which they basically ran an athlon off of some solar panels and a big battery...

They had some kind of special powersupply that takes 12-24v dc input and powers your entire system. Try googling it.
 
Power Inverters

Hey Everyone,

I just bought a Marxon 2000 watt power inverter so far its really working amzing just wondering if anyone else has one and if i got a good deal on it... I need to buy a second one was going to just get the same one unless anyone thinks its not a good deal. Here the Ebay link i got it from, please take a look and let me know.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=150316513909
 
Just got me a 8D battery my self. Rated at 250AH will be getting a 150w solar panel and charger/inverter for it soon. Then may just have to wire it into the CB for my room and run everything in their off the grid. Should cut down on the electric bill quite a bit.
 
I have a car radiator fan which I want to use running from the 240v mains. I bought a car battery charger to run it but the charger burnt out after 10 mins use. What size of inverter would I need to run a radiator fan?
Any help would be most appreciated
 
necroing a thread from 2008, couldnt have waited for its 10 year anniversary next year?
 
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