Using a battery with an inverter - help wanted

[Yellow Man]

Hey folks. I need to run a small piece of electrical equipment off a 12v leisure battery, through an inverter.

I have rigged something up myself, but it is just not performing like it should. To be honest, it is beyond me. I have concluded that I don’t have the skills or understanding of the technology. Or indeed the risk.

It needs to be portable - I have it on a portable trolley at the moment.

I am looking for someone who can do this for me/sell me the set up. Any suggestions of a business/company with these skills? I am looking to buy in expertise/services – not receive advice on how to do it.

(I posted this question in another part of the YBW forum - it was pointed out to me that Reader to Reader was the more appropriate place)

 

[RupertW]

Normally it’s really simple - inverter comes with a black and red lead for the batteries and a 240v plug socket for the device you want to power. The only issue is how long you can run the device before depleting the battery.

What exactly is the issue?

 

[PaulRainbow]

Might be useful to know where you are ?

 

[V1701]

Inverters are readily available (amazon/ebay, etc.) and easy to use. Depending on what you want to power you may need to use a pure sine wave inverter, these are more expensive but if what you want to power is a low wattage basic electrical item a small inverter can be had for very little money. If you tell us more about what exactly you want to do we'll perhaps be able to be a bit more specific...

 

[elton]

Hey folks. I need to run a small piece of electrical equipment off a 12v leisure battery, through an inverter.

You need to mention what this equipment is.

Most cheap inverters are "square wave", and are consequently useless for powering most mains equipment.

"Pure sine wave" inverters are often better, but by no means ideal.

The ideal option is to only use 12v DC equipment. Most mains equipment operates from low voltage DC inside the case, so it's pretty stupid to convert 12V DC to 240V AC, to power an inverter so it can be converted back to whatever low voltage DC it needs.

 

[William_H]

I am guessing that OP failure of the inverter to do what he wants is a failure of the equipment ie battery or inverter to handle the load. As said we need to know what the 240vAC load is. Small devices often use a lot of power at 240v. ie a tiny hair dryer will be very large power consumption. You ned to know what the power consumption of the device is. NB also some devices like a fridge or electric drill will draw a lot of initial current. The inverter will shut doen if too much current/powe is drawn from 240v AC output. Next problem is the battery. The current drawn by even a small load at 240vAC is high from the battery. So the tiny 500w hair dryer will draw around 40 amps from the battery assuming the inverter can handle the load van the battery? Most inverters will have a low supply voltage shut down so the large load on the battery pulls down the battery voltage and so instigates a shut down. Then of course the wires from battery to inverter need to be robust. Anything but short wiring will require something larger than what is usually supplied with the inverter. Also likewise the plugs to go to a cigar lighter type socket are often not really capable of handling the current.
So my suggestion if all of the above is OK is get another battery as large as possible to connect in parallel with the battery you are using and see if this will solve the problem. I can understand your frustration and wanting a professional to fix it but i fear he will only tell you one part of the set up is not up to the job and I am guessing it is the battery. ol'will

 

[[70521]]

On a trolley you say! What are you trying to run and what place does a trolley have on a boat?

 

[Kinsale373]

You will need to specify the the rated power usage of the equipment , this should be stated on a plate on the equipment. If it has any large electric motors this needs to be considered. If you're talking large wattage such as heaters / hair dryers then you should consider a small petrol , gas or diesel generator. If you are talking small loads like phone or Pad chargers , then any Electrician should be able to specify the correct Wattage Inverter and wire it in.

 

[fredrussell]

I am looking to buy in expertise/services – not receive advice on how to do it.

Ha! Good luck with that!

 

[RobF]

Welcome to the Forum.
If you're looking for advice on a company that can do this install, you'll need to specify where you want this work to be done. I have every confidence that Paul Rainbow could fit this for you, but if your boat is based in Milford Haven, then this might be a challenge for Paul (or his travel costs are likely to render the job economincally unviable).

Not sure why a small piece of electrical equipment needs a trolley. Perhaps a bit more info on what you're trying to achieve will help us with our recommendations.

 

[boatmike]

What is the equipment you are trying to run? What have you tried and what difficulties are you experiencing? No one will be able to answer your question (including so called "professional" companies ) without knowing what you are trying to do.