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Old 10-20-2008, 06:25 PM   #1
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nickster60
ac inverters

Are the any plugs in our Sunlines that work when on battery power? If not has anyone used a ac inverters when shore power isnt available . I would like to run a fan and maybe make a pot of coffe in the morning.

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Old 10-21-2008, 09:16 AM   #2
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I know that the only things working on electricity when I'm on battery are the 12V lights and water pump.

The outlets are stictly 110V AC. A friend of mine who is a former Navy electrician told me if I wanted to run AC stuff on battery, I'd need to either ADD an inverter sized to run whatever I wanted OR change out my converter to one that also had the inverter feature.

Either way, it's more $$$ than we have right now. I do have a small 100 watt inverter I've used in my car to power the laptop. That would run a fan or three, but not a coffee maker. I suspect you'll need somewhere between 800 and 1500 watts to run an electric coffee maker. And of course you'd need to be sure you had enough battery reserve to power the inverter for that high wattage item. I'm thinking if I add an inverter I may need to add a second battery to keep the reserve up.

Could you use a propane-powered coffee maker? Coleman makes one... or perhaps one that perks the coffee on top of your gas stove?

BTW, here is a webpage that might help you figure how large an inverter you'd need:

http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/usage_chart.html
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Old 10-21-2008, 11:52 AM   #3
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The only plug that supplies 12 volts is the one incorporated into the antenna wall plate. Unfortunately, I have found no 12 volt device that has a plug that fits into this wall outlet.

Dave, the idea of an old style perk coffee pot for the stovetop is a good idea!
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Old 10-21-2008, 03:15 PM   #4
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Inverter

We have used an 800 watt Inverter to run our coffee pot. A coffee pot is requires abut 600 watts but only for about 5 or 10 minutes. It uses little power to keep the pot warm after it's been brewed.

We have replaced our 800 Watt unit with a 1200 Watt because we have an electric refrigerator.

We bought them both at Walmart, 800W for about $50 and 1200 W for about $100. I went online to buy them because they have a number of brands on line and will deliver to your local store for free.

I mounted it under our front dinette because it's close to the battery and inverters draw a lot of current from the battery.

From Idaho,

Norm and Ginny Milliard
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Old 10-22-2008, 05:45 AM   #5
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i have been toying with this inverter thing for sometime --- when it first came up - i looked at the cost and the wiring i would want to have one plug that could be switched between shore power and the inverter

i settled on a perculator for the stove and a battery operated coleman fan --- i like both - coffee is good and the fan has come in handy in other places where electicity was not available.

the cost for both was about $10 as the perculator was donated by family and the fan was on sale --- so WAY cheaper then an inverter and other equipment plus my time.

that being said - the other half now wants the TV to run when there is no shore power and wants a stereo upgrade.

i have researched my options for a 12v stereo that plays DVD and well that seems to be limited -- and Jensen is way expensive in my opinion - not to mention having a voyageur stereo that is less than entertaining makes me wary of purchasing a Jensen since they appear to be made by the same company.

so i have been considering an inexpensive home theatre package that has a unit with build in DVD player and also am/fm tuner -- but now they don't run on 12v without an inverter --- thoughts?????

so i have not decided on what i am going to do now.

good luck -- there are alternatives if you want to do the research.
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Old 10-22-2008, 07:32 AM   #6
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I found this in about 30 seconds of searching on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TV-TU...mZ160292716595

May not be a brand name, but I am certain there are other brands available.

But at the current selling price for this particular auction (1 penny plus 29.99 shipping) it might be worth it just to play with....
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Old 10-22-2008, 08:14 AM   #7
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TV and Inverter

We have an LCD TV and a Satellite Dish. It takes about 75 watt inverter to run these two devices since neither draws very little power. We're near full timers and it's noce to be able to watch the series, particularly in the west where it starts and ends early,

Norm and Ginny Milliard
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Old 11-21-2008, 04:37 AM   #8
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I did get an inverter I got it at Sams club. I got a 500w unit which will run the small stuff when boondocking. I did have a pleasent surprise, the unit comes with 2 sets of connections. One is for a cigarette lighter and the other is clips that attach to the battery. The lighter adapter actualy fits in the female 12v recepticle in the antenna booster and the unit works fine. I never found a adapter that fit in that thing.

500w Vector inverter sold at Sams club
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Old 11-21-2008, 09:00 AM   #9
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500 watt Inverter

Generally a 500 watt inverter should not be used with a cigarette lighter as a source of 12 volts. A 500 watt inverter will draw 40 amps of 12 volts at full rating and the typical cigarette lighter is rated for 10-15 amps.

This is particularly dangereous if the lighter socket is not fused.

In general the Inverter should be directly connected to the battery using the shortest run possible. We mounted ours under the front dinette.

Most inverters have built in fuses on the 12 volt side so no extra fuses are required to the battery.

Safe travels,

Norm Milliard
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Old 11-21-2008, 02:32 PM   #10
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Norm beat me to it, but I was going to say to watch out for plugging that inverter into a cigarette lighter. I made the mistake a popped the fuse which was also inline with a few other things on the dash. So we had to pull over and find which fuse it was in order to continue.

One other thing you might want to watch out for when purchasing these inexpensive inverters from the big box stores is what you're plugging into them.

Unless they're a pure Sinewave Inverter, they can do major damage to televisions, computers or sesitive electronic equipment.

We also made this mistake when buying a smaller 400 watt model just to run the lap top. We normally have a 2000watt Pure Sinewave one hardwired to our bank of batteries, but many nights if Cindy has gone to bed and all I want to do is catch up on the laptop, I would only run the smaller 400watt model that I'd just plug into the 12 outlet in the coach.

Then it blew the charger in my laptop and when I called Dell, one of the first things they asked was what I had it plugged into. When I told them that I had it lugged into an Inverter, they said they wouldnt cover it. So me thinking I was saving money on this less expensive inverter actually cost me $80 for a new charger for my laptop.

I'd check into the 12volt coffee makers or a percolator before buying something to power up a normal coffee maker. These units are not that friendly to electrical systems and even with our 4 6-volt batteries, a standard coffee maker will suck the power out in the time it takes to brew a pot of coffee. Cindy just threw hers out (Gave it away) and we bought a standard percolator which she says is better coffee anyway? I dont drink the stuff!

Other items to watch out for, electrical blankets, curling irons, hair dryers, space heaters...etc. We found that the electric blanket pulled more power than the A/C unit!! Another item giving away!

By finding out the hard way, and one of the reasons I changed the background of our website, we found that the color white on a monitor pulls more power than darker colors. One night while having our tank heaters on, the lights on, the heater on, the radio on and working on the computer, anytime I'd go to Google's home page to find a link to add to our blogs, the inverter would start to beep saying we were drawing too much power.

By process of elemination, we found that only when going to web pages with all white as a background would the inverter beep. So I changed all our backgrounds to a dark gray to conserve on power...LOL I read somewhere that if every web page was to do this, it would save enough power to keep a small town running!!
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Old 11-21-2008, 05:29 PM   #11
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Inverters

We use a square wave inverter and have for eight years. They definitely cost less.

Our trailer has two inverters a 1000 watt for running our refrigerator and other things when dry camping.

We also have a 75 watt for powering the TV and Satellite receiver. We have installed a cigarette ligher jack near the TV for this purpose. If we want to use just the TV and Sat receiver this takes less power than the 1000 watt.

A 1000 watter is very inefficient for light loads.

We also have a Dell Laptop and have never had a problem. As well we run our TV and Satellite receiver from it without a problem.

We have a four cup coffee pot in our trailer. It draws 600 watts but only for the time it takes to boil the water, less than 5 minutes. Keeping the coffee warm does not draw nearly as much power.

I think our electric blanket draws 100 watts on full power. When we dry camp we usually turn it on for 10 minutes before we go to bed, a negligible amount of battery power.

For running the laptop in the car I use one of those 75 watt cigarette lighter inverters. We keep one in the car for charging the cell phone and using the laptop.

Safe travels,

Norm and Ginny Milliard
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Old 11-21-2008, 07:41 PM   #12
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I found a perkolator so I wont be using the coffee maker. All I am using the inverter for is running a small fan. I can live without the computer when I am camping I spend way to much time on the thing. Thanks for all the info on the shortcomings of inverters.
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Old 11-22-2008, 08:52 AM   #13
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Re: Inverters

Quote:
Originally Posted by Honda03842
I think our electric blanket draws 100 watts on full power. When we dry camp we usually turn it on for 10 minutes before we go to bed, a negligible amount of battery power.
This is why we have the dogs. We put them in the bed when it's cold before we get in, and they're our prewarmers!! If only they knew!...LOL!
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Old 11-22-2008, 10:52 AM   #14
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Re: Inverters

Quote:
Originally Posted by emam
This is why we have the dogs. We put them in the bed when it's cold before we get in, and they're our prewarmers!! If only they knew!...LOL!
Even if they knew, they would still be glad to do it! LOL!
Dogs are the best!
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Old 11-22-2008, 10:58 AM   #15
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Yeah Rick, I agree, as much as I complain about them, they sure are fun to have along.

I always joke that we have the most traveled dogs in the world. They've seen beaches on both coasts, swam in rivers all along North America, and eaten every type of grass growing in the United States......Ah the stories they tell when they have to spend the night at the Kennel
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Old 04-21-2009, 07:54 AM   #16
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Inverter

I have a 2000 Solaris T-2363. I'm thinking about using an inverter so I can dry camp. I would like to use the inverter to run a coffee maker, hair dryer (10 minutes each per day), microwave 10-15 minutes per day, 19 in LCD TV 2 hrs per day. Typically I would be camped for max 3 days.

I'm trying to get an idea of how much battery I need? And if it meant running the tow vehical for 30 +/- minutes a day thats Ok. Als what kind of inverter. I was thinking 2000 watts? Can I do a simple instulation near the batteries and just plug the shore power line on the trailer into the inverter? Is so how will that work with the converter already in the trailer trying to recharge the batteries while it running off the batteries?
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Old 04-21-2009, 08:36 AM   #17
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Inverters.

This is all thinking on the fly but it will help get the conversation started.

We have a 1200 watt Inverter but don't use it for the the hair dryer unless we run the hair dryer on low. Certainly a 2000 watt Inverter will handle the hair dryer.

We tend to rarely use our Inverter, primarily at breakfast time for coffee and for our electric refridgerator when driving. When driving we run the fridge, we charge the battery from the tow vehicle.

We have the ability to plug our entire trailer into the Inverter. However when we do it we turn off the breaker to the converter and electric hot water heater. (There's no sense trying to charge the battery from the converter via the inverter.) As well you want to be sure the refridge is running off propane and not defaulting to electric.

The hair dryer on high requires 1500 watts. Using it for 20 minutes a day will draw 300 watts from your battery. The coffee pot takes about 5 minutes to heat it's water, after that it draws very little power to keep the coffee warm. The coffee pot probably requires about 100 watts from your battery. Two hours of an LCD TV requires about 100 watts. Say another 200 watts for miscellaneous AC things.

That amounts to a total of 700 watts a day. Over three days you'll use about 2KW-hrs. That means about 200 amps from your battery over that period or an average of 70 amps a day. I believe enough to full discharge a single battery in a day.

As well you must include all the other 12 volt things that use power, most prominently is the lights. Each of the 12 volt bulbs draws a couple of amps. Leaving all your lights on alone will discharge the battery in a day.

It sounds like you could easily use a couple of batteries. Our plan for heavy dry camping is to add a 150 watt solar panel to our trailer and a second battery. This should be adequate for our little rig. Some of our fellow Sunline owners have 4 batteries and a larger panel array.

Hope this helps your thinking,

Norm Milliard
1982 Sunline 15.5 SB
2004 Honda CRV








We normally turn the 1200 Inverter on to run the big draw electric appliances. However, when we run the TV and satellite receiver at night we use one of those small 75 watt Inverters that plugs into a 12 volt outlet near the TV and shut off the big inverter. We do this because the big Inverter is really inefficient at low power draws.
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Old 04-21-2009, 12:11 PM   #18
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rwchil... I'm thinking more along the lines of running a small generator for most of the things you've listed instead of an inverter.

I believe my Honda 2000i generator would run any of it. The only thing I'd run off an inverter would be the LCD-TV. That way the inverter could be SMALLER. And your battery use would be LESS.

And I agree with Norm about the batteries. One battery would probably NOT be enough. We have a single deep cycle battery on our coach and I want to go to a pair of 6-volt batteries, probably Trojan T105's, to get more amp-hours of power. We're not trying to do any extended dry camping like Pat and Cindy or Norm... at least not yet.
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