12v to 240v converters?

[Niander]

hi are there any good ?
and would they power a pc
on the boat
thanx alot


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[snowleopard]

yes, they work fine.

the cheapest are 150w which is plenty for a pc. they draw about 3 amps, even when there is no load,

some will say you need a 'sine wave' type which are more expensive but my laptop works fine on the cheap type.

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[redhot]

I agree, these inverters are brilliant.
I do not run much mains on my boat apart from the usual, TV, video, Freeview, DVD, amp and a couple of mains lights, but I bought an 800W inverter from Maplins for £80 (special offer). They also had a 150W there for £40 (normal price). 150W will run a pc easily.

One thing I fell victim to is that the bigger the inverter, the bigger the cables running to it need to be.
When I had my 150W one it needed 15Amp cable, which is thin and cheap to buy, but then, when I bought 800W, I needed cable that could handle the 82Amps that it could require, this is both haevier and more expensive.

Hope this helps.

Mike.

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[mdrifter]

Why not try to do without? Inverters are not that efficient and the larger they are the heavier the drsin on your battery and also the rfi they generate is likely to wipe out radio reception....wonder why NavTex doesn't come in!? Try running your Lap-top directly from 12V - good indication if this can be done is voltage produced by the Lap-Top battery, e.g. Li-On c.10.8V; it will not be fully recharged to 100%, maybe 85/90% - but why not just remove it and drive directly from 12V? It works with ibm Think-pad and probably will do with many others. If you're hooked up within Marina occasionally then charging or running those AC items doesn't need that expensive and imho uneccesary inverter!

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[DavidJ]

I bought a 12v adaptor for my Thinkpad cost about £60 though
David

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[mdrifter]

Quite a lot to spend for, imho, no good reason...I've heard that even ibm personnel run them in their cars direct from 12v with no problems. That £60 could have put more diesel in tank or a few nights in marina....

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[qsiv]

We run tons off AC stuff off a 3KW inverter, no troubles at all. We run kettles, hob rings, microwaves, computers etc (no TV/video as one objective of the boat is to avoid these diversions). Be careful over supply cable sizes as you point out, and also allow for ventillation (certainly at our size...)

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[davidbains]

I have one for a Toshiba laptop that must have AC but I don't use it much
due to the noisy fan and radio interference. It's useless for weatherfax for example.
I prefer to run another laptop that can be connected directly to the battery via
a DC/DC voltage converter. But if you are yet to buy a laptop do buy one
that can be connected directly to 12volts , and also one with older comports
rather than only USB to avoid having to buy serial/USB converters as well.

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[Niander]

thx 4 the advice

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