Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 14:01:34 -0700
Reply-To: Vince S <gipsyflies@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Vince S <gipsyflies@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: General Inverter Questions
In-Reply-To: <405591d04081813093b6e063@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Chris,
Please see my answers below.
- Vince
http://gipsyflies.home.comcast.net
1989 Vanagon GL Camper
1993 Mazda Miata
1996 Land Rover Discovery
2005 Mini Cooper S (almost here)
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Chris Paquette
Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2004 1:10 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: General Inverter Questions
Considering adding an inverter to the dual battery setup in my '88
Westy. I have my eye on the Coleman Powermate 800. I have a couple of
general questions:
1.) Is an inverter on all the time if connected to my second battery, or
do they generally have an on/off switch? The concern here is that if
it's on all the time, the inverter's cooling fan (if any) might come on
intermittently during the night when I'm trying to sleep.
My experience with 2 inverters are they consumes a small amount of
current even if you switch it off. My 400W Coleman draws about 100mA
though the fan never comes on. I will unplug it when ever not use. It
all depends on the design.
2.) Power consumption is dictated solely by what is connected to the
inverter, and not the wattage of the inverter itself, correct? IOW, a
Powermate 1200 won't drain my battery any faster than a Powermate 800 if
they each had the same items attached to them, correct?
Power consumption with no load is called quiescent current and is the
overhead. Generally they are higher for higher power units. The current
is used by the cooling fan as well as maintaining the 115Vac output.
This is the reason you should only buy as much wattage as you need.
Another reason for sizing the wattage for what you really need is fan
noise. The larger unit will have higher CFM fan.
3.) Any problems/issues with permanently mounting an inverter to either
side of the stove? Seems like that would be an ideal place to plug in
the laptop, cell phone, etc.
Please note that the rear side of the stove cabinet is the heat vent for
the fridge. It is a good idea not to mount the inverter such that it
sucks in the warm air.
4.) Finally, would the secondary battery (Optima deep-cycle marine) last
long enough, assuming fully charged, to watch a long-ish (say, 3
hour) DVD? Most AC inverter nowaday are very efficient though they
output "modified" sine wave. They will work well with most modern
electronics including LCD displays. However most TV are not too happy
with it because of the poor voltage regulation in the TV. If you are
watching DVD from your laptop you can pretty well watch it all night
long and hardly drain the battery (assuming around 55A-hour battery in
good condition). Watching in a home DVD player and TV will significantly
reduce the viewing time.
Please reference my website for a mini home theater set up.
http://gipsyflies.home.comcast.net/HDTV.htm
http://gipsyflies.home.comcast.net/budget.htm
Thanks for any help,
Chris
'88 Westy, "Rocinante"
