inverter v's generator??

[millym]

inverter v\'s generator??

hi
bought new motorcrusier & we want to be able to park up & run generally a small tv + dvd +mini fridge. have been looking at portable generators (diesel our boat is diesel so we dont want to introduce anything petrol onboard) & inverters but dont know what would be the best. all the small generators avail are around 75decibel & surely this is damned noisy. we dont want to have everyone around us when we're moored getting upset cos we are making a racket ,but are not sure how much wattage inverters can run. our boat has X4 large batterys on board. does anyone know if we can just use an inverter (& what wattage we'd need) to run the stuff we want without flattening the boat batteries. sorry if this is a bit confusing or a bit 'dumb' sounding, but we dont have a clue about this stuff.
any info most appreciated.
thanks

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

Re: inverter v\'s generator??

Wattage of inverter. Watts = volts x amps so amps = watts / volts so 240W out at 240V means 1 amp out and 20 amps in. Inverters are not 100% effiecient so fudge the above by 10-20% or so. Not in your favour of course


Bigger is more expensive, obviousluy enough, but it also depends on how good the machine is at fooling the mains device that its getting sine wave AC, some machines are fussy and the more electronics involved the more likely they are to make a fuss.

A small mains kettle wants 600+W, can't comment on the fridge , TV or DVD player but they may well state the power consumption if new, Failing that, the fuse will give you an idea.

How big are big batteries? Narrowboats do this sort of thing all the time, but also run their engines for long periods and have well set up charging systems optimised for filling up large banks of service batteries. You need to be sure that you will be able to recharge your battery bank in a normal day's running.

 

[panther]

Re: inverter v\'s generator??

For the Fridge - I would recomend that you get a 12v model - running a 240v fridge through an inverter is not going to be efficient.

As for a DVD and TV - no problem. A DVD will use very little power and the TV - well it depends what type but a nice flat screen one again will use little power.

I can run my DVD player and my 15" flat screen TV from my small 300w Inverter that simply plugs into the "lighter socket" on the boat

If you have 4 large batteries (say 4x110AH) you could run that for weeks!!

An older "tube" style TV will need a bigger inverter and won't last as long

For interest - we were recently in Cardiff with no shore power for 3 days. It was hot and we were running fridge / TV / sat dish /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif lights in the evening etc. We have 1x 110AH battery for domestic. Each evening I would run our Honda petrol geny for about 1 hour just to top up the batteries - and to heat the hot water - 1 hour of charge seemed fine to keep the batteries topped up (not full) and keep everything running

Jools

 

[Nick_H]

Re: inverter v\'s generator??

why not just get a 12v fridge, TV and DVD player, all of which are readily available. In my experience inverters make the tv picture flicker