12v to 230/240v inverter

Enterprise6

Enterprise6

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Hello all

Has any one had experiance of using an inverter to convert 12v to 230/240v for charging lap tops mobile phones etc, do they drain the boat batteries quickly etc, whats a good make there seem to be a lot around

Thanks for your advice
 
Yes, I use an inverter on my boat for use with the laptop, but only when we are out at sea, so obviously the engine is powering the batteries. Works really well - certainly dose the job. I think I got mine from Maplins.
 
Maplins do a variety. A modified square wave (cheaper variety) will usually suffice for charging phones, laptops etc. Some laptops are happier than others though - I had one that used to make a humming noise on the Maplin MSW because it didn't like the waveform (but it still charged).

I've got the 300W size inverter.

The drain on the batteries depends on what you connect.
A 100W laptop PSU will drain about 10AH from your 12V batteries every hour when charging.

Enterprise6 said:
Hello all

Has any one had experiance of using an inverter to convert 12v to 230/240v for charging lap tops mobile phones etc, do they drain the boat batteries quickly etc, whats a good make there seem to be a lot around

Thanks for your advice
Click to expand...
 
Bought one from Maplins last month, a 300 Watt jobbie, that was reduced from £49.99 to £24.99.
Works really well, powers a 10" notebook quite happily and doesn't seem to drain the batteries too much.
The fan hasn't kicked in at all on it yet, so can only assume i'm not running it under too much load?
Buy the best you can afford, don't look at anything less than 300 Watts if you want to run a laptop. i've got one of teh 150Watt CAN type ones, but whilst thats OK for charging mobiles and battery chargers, it coudn't cope with the notebook and the fan ran continuosly very noisily.
Try and keep the inverter as close to the battery you will run it from and use the thickest power cables that it will support.
 
As Giblets indicates. Your laptop needs DC power. Your existing adapter is converting AC to DC. It is quite inefficient to go from battery DC to mains AC then back to DC again! Find out what the DC input into the lap top should be then get a converter to supply this from your 12 volt battery.
 
Giblets,

I agree. Far less wasteful on battery power.

I use a Maplin multi-voltage adaptor. Steps 12v up to 19v (for the laptop) amongst others.
 
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Giblets said:
Why not get 12 volt charging adapters for the mobile & lappy?
Click to expand...

Absolutely, laptop powered by 12v > 240v > 19v takes an average of 4AH. Powered 12v > 19v takes 2AH. It varies a bit depending on how much the hard drive is running and what your doing.

Pete
 
But with an inverter, you can power other items? Useful for charging a cordless drill battery, charging NiMh batteries, a small inspection lamp, an electric fan,DVD player, small TV, etc, etc(obviously not ALL at the same time!!)
The laptop DC charger does just ONE thing and generally, they are about the same price as a small inverter?
My point being that although not as efficient as a dedicated DC-DC PSU, they are more versatile.
 
No need for 240V on a small boat. It's more trouble than it's worth. I've got all manner of electric trickery aboard, and it all runs off 12V except for the fan heater.
 
I carry an emergency power pack which has both a 12v output and a built-in inverter to provide 230v AC. It can be recharged from the boat's 12v supply or the mains. It can be used with jump leads to start the engine if the main batteries are low or used to recharge them via a 12v lead. I use it to recharge 12v devices and to power 230v tools
It holds its charge if unused for at least 3 months so gets taken ashore for a top-up maybe three times during the season. I think it cost me about £50 but that was several years ago. I find it an invaluable asset providing a portable supply of both 12v and 230v.
 
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I fitted a 350W sine wave inverter on my boat. With no load the drain is about 0.2 Amps so not a lot. Using an inverter means you can use your existing chargers or power supplies for the laptop, TV, rechargeable drill, phone, iTouch and more. You don't have to buy 12 volt versions to run these from the batteries and so means you don't have to spend any extra buying these.

A sine wave inverter seems to power all of these but be careful with modified sine wave inverters - they may not work or could damage connected devices.

Works well for me.
 
paulplatts said:
I fitted a 350W sine wave inverter on my boat. With no load the drain is about 0.2 Amps so not a lot.
Click to expand...
0.2A is a lot if you haven't got a load!
paulplatts said:
Using an inverter means you can use your existing chargers or power supplies for the laptop, TV, rechargeable drill, phone, iTouch and more. You don't have to buy 12 volt versions to run these from the batteries and so means you don't have to spend any extra buying these.
Click to expand...
I bet I spent less on 12V supplies for my laptop, NiMh charger, drill, phone and everything else, than an inverter would have cost. My telly runs off mains or 12V.
 
mickywillis said:
But with an inverter, you can power other items? Useful for charging a cordless drill battery, charging NiMh batteries, a small inspection lamp, an electric fan,DVD player, small TV, etc, etc(obviously not ALL at the same time!!)
The laptop DC charger does just ONE thing and generally, they are about the same price as a small inverter?
My point being that although not as efficient as a dedicated DC-DC PSU, they are more versatile.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with that, i reckon about 300w is ideal although ours is 3000w but kills batts.
 
I thought a DC to DC PSU had to convert to AC to be able to step the voltage up. How else do you do it?
I.e. convert to AC, put through a step-up transformer, then convert back to DC. Might as well buy an inverter which can do far more than charge one item. I have a 700 watt inverter, my old 300w inverter was never very happy powering my laptop, I wish I had bought a smaller laptop! I have a choice of two, both use 140 watts because of multiple hard disks and large display panels. When shopping for laptops I had never considered that I would be buying a yacht.
I wonder if there is anyone out there who would swap a netbook capable of running Seapro for a large laptop, Wish Ebay did swapsies!
 
Cappen Boidseye said:
I thought a DC to DC PSU had to convert to AC to be able to step the voltage up. How else do you do it?
I.e. convert to AC, put through a step-up transformer, then convert back to DC. Might as well buy an inverter which can do far more than charge one item. I have a 700 watt inverter, my old 300w inverter was never very happy powering my laptop, I wish I had bought a smaller laptop! I have a choice of two, both use 140 watts because of multiple hard disks and large display panels. When shopping for laptops I had never considered that I would be buying a yacht.
I wonder if there is anyone out there who would swap a netbook capable of running Seapro for a large laptop, Wish Ebay did swapsies!
Click to expand...
I use an Asus eeePC 701 which needs only 9.5V, so no need to convert DC to AC to DC. Also, it has an SSD instead of a hard drive, so is particularly frugal.
 
theoldsalt said:
CappenBoideye,

These days with modern electronics it is possible to step-up DC. As previously posted by me I use a psu that runs off 12v DC and has selectable DC output including 19v DC for my laptop.

This one is similar to mine.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/120w-laptop-car-adaptor-44736
Click to expand...

Agree with this. Each to his own but ,for me, installing a cigarette lighter socket in my boat was one of the most useful accessories. There are dozens of in-car chargers available for netbooks and laptops. Mine cost £6.95 from Amazon (still available), produces the required 19 volts and works fine. In addition I have the usual in-car mobile phone chargers which cost peanuts. As I don't dunk these things in salt water I've had no reliability problems. The American operating principle is a good one - KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
 
I bought a Moore Power 1000 watt inverter at the London Boat Show 8 years ago and its been a god-send. Its worked without faltering, except the one time I hooked it up with a 2400 watt electric fire attached (and even then it tried). Not true sine-wave, but nothing I have seems to need that. Yes, for some gizmos you can search out a 'marine' 12v version or (as for laptops) a DC converter, but if you want cheap and easy to find the 240v standard model is often what it has to be.
 
We bought a cheapo pure sine wave inverter from ebay. 1500w for around £395. It's done it's job admirably for three years now (used everyday). I run my laptop through a 12v -19v adapter from Maplins but my partner and son run theirs off the inverter with no noticeable difference in power draw.

C.
 
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