Invertors advice wanted

[Roy]

Thinking of buying an invertor and have some questions and welcome any other advice from you too.

1/ Is it best to be wired in to the electrical circuitry rather than plugging in to usual 12v sockets?

2/ Is it ok to stick it down in the Laz or Engineroom as a permanent mounting with sufficient air circulation for cooling?

3/ There are many makes and power outputs and then there are the sine waves? How do I choose?

4/ My boat has three batteries - one dedicated for engines and two for domestic with a link switch - 2/1.

5/How long will the batteries last with the invertor running at it's normal loading - powering appliances that is.

6/ Would use it to power laptop/tv/ and small microwave if possible.

All opinions/advice welcome. Roy

 

[sailorman]

first of all
wot size / power is the inverter /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Alistairr]

Hi Roy,

I don't know enough about these things either Roy.
But this season, we wanted Power for when we camped out overnight, and i was worried an Invertor would take too much power out of the batteries, although we run 2 individual batteries.
So we took the other route, and bought a Small Honda Generator.
We used it a dozen or so times down at the Islands with great success, we were able to power all appliances off it, Kettle, George Foreman grill, TV/DVD player, laptop and other stuff, We just plugged it into the shore power socket on the boat, and the best thing is it also charged the boat batteries at the same time.
It is small enough to sit on our bathing platform, and i would say its not that noisey either.

Just a thought.
If you want to try mine, give me a shout.

Cheers

Alistair.

 

[Roy]

Well, that's the rub.... have not chosen one model or power yet. Would it need to be 1500 watt for my intended use or maybe much smaller?

 

[Roy]

Hello Alistairr

Nice to hear from you. Will see you at Ardlui no doubt this next few days. Thanks for the genny offer and advice. I do have one but mine is too bulky and noisy for the boat - even for the beach really so wanted an invertor for on the boat when anchored. The next boat will have a super quiet plumbed in job for sure but that's a tad off at the mo. Will see you soon. Roy

 

[sixpack]

[ QUOTE ]
Thinking of buying an invertor and have some questions and welcome any other advice from you too.

1/ Is it best to be wired in to the electrical circuitry rather than plugging in to usual 12v sockets?

<font color="red"> Inverters of any usable power MUST be hard wired across the battery bank with suitably heavy weight cable NOT plugged into a 12V ciggie lighter outlet. </font>

2/ Is it ok to stick it down in the Laz or Engineroom as a permanent mounting with sufficient air circulation for cooling?

<font color="red"> Should be but check spec first. Inverters do get a wee bit warm and so do need plenty of ventilation and cooling </font>

3/ There are many makes and power outputs and then there are the sine waves? How do I choose?

<font color="red"> Depends on what you are planning on running and how often you want to replace electronic gadgets. Personally I would go for pure sine wave and 1500~2000watts continuous rating@20degC. Square wave are useless except for running a 240v incandescent bulb and modified sine wave is not a lot better although they will run insensitive electrics such as drills and equipment with brushed motors. Some people will even say they run laptops on modified sine wave, their laptop, their choice.
I would not risk it unless it was a cheap throw away laptop </font>

4/ My boat has three batteries - one dedicated for engines and two for domestic with a link switch - 2/1.

<font color="red">So what is your question? </font>

5/How long will the batteries last with the inverter running at it's normal loading - powering appliances that is.

<font color="red">How big are the batteries and what power are you planning to draw from the inverter?
Say you have 2X110Ah batteries so you have around 70~80Ah to play with before the inverter shuts down @10.5v now assume you are drawing 600w from the inverter so the current drain will be around 50~55A so assuming the batteries were fully charged to start with you could manage to draw that sort of power for approx 1 ½ hours.
Now if you are drawing say 100w the drain would be around 9A so you could manage 8~9 hours at that sort of loading</font>

6/ Would use it to power laptop/tv/ and small microwave if possible.

<font color="red">Microwave = normally a pure sine wave inverter will be required required </font>

If going for a decent inverter I would look at a combined inverter/charger of the 2000w/45~50A class and a couple of smart chargers on teh engine alternators combined with an extra couple of batteries or as Alistair suggests a small Honda or similar generator although there is something to be said for the peace and quiet of inverter power. Personally I would be pissed off if some berk moored near me and started a generator, Honda or not, although some of the 4 stroke varieties are extremely well silenced.

All opinions/advice welcome. Roy

[/ QUOTE ]

 

[Dave1258]

Agree with sixpack on all answered questions, Re mounting of the inverter, the ideal position is close to the batteries as possible. But not in the Battery box.

Connect it to your leisure batteries and not your starter battery, DO NOT use your laptop via the inverter, there are special power supplys for laptops (DC~DC) 12v to 21v with all graduations in between plus all various fitting tips for different models £30 ish to buy.

If it's microwave usage your after forget the inverter and go for a genny!

 

[Roy]

Thanks so much for taking the time and effort. Appreciated a lot. Roy

 

[Roy]

Again thanks Dave.... its all making more sense now. Roy