Inverter or not ??? (1 Viewer)

[New Dawn]

We have had a 150wt solar panel fitted. Plus an additional domestic battery, As we want to be totally independent. But have been advised that we could also "back up" with a 1800watt inverter. Do any other members have this facility & would welcome your thoughts on this. As newbies it is difficult to decide what is relevant. Cheers.

 

[maz]

We have had a 150wt solar panel fitted. Plus an additional domestic battery, As we want to be totally independent. But have been advised that we could also [HI]"back up"[/HI] with a 1800watt inverter. Do any other members have this facility & would welcome your thoughts on this. As newbies it is difficult to decide what is relevant. Cheers.

That's a bit of a weird phrase as an inverter is used to convert 12v to 240v so you can run 240v equipment off hook-up. It will use up your battery capacity rather than add to it.

I use a 1000w inverter to run a low wattage hairdryer. Depends what equipment you might want to run off hook-up as to whether you need an inverter or not.

 

[scotjimland]

We have had a 150wt solar panel fitted. Plus an additional domestic battery, As we want to be totally independent. But have been advised that we could also "back up" with a 1800watt inverter. Do any other members have this facility & would welcome your thoughts on this. As newbies it is difficult to decide what is relevant. Cheers.

Maz pretty much covered it.. why would you want one.. ?

as for being 'totally independant ' ?

.. hmm.. few if any vans are, and during winter when the sun don't shine the best you can expect is to extend your time away from a site by a night or so, and if you use an inverter you will reduce that time considerably.

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[Snowbird]

We have a factory fitted 2kw pure sine inverter, but hardly ever use it as we charge everything from 12 volt including laptops. The TV is also 12 volt. The only thing the inverter is ever used for is for herself s hairdryer. If the inverter was not factory fitted I would not bother with the expense.

 

[flatpackchicken]

We have had a 150wt solar panel fitted. Plus an additional domestic battery, As we want to be totally independent. But have been advised that we could also "back up" with a 1800watt inverter. Do any other members have this facility & would welcome your thoughts on this. As newbies it is difficult to decide what is relevant. Cheers.

I have got a 1800w inverter fitted to my m/h, also have 2 x 140A big battery's fitted as well giving me a total of 280A of power, but advisable only to use 50% of this so have got 140A of power, this will power most things I have on board that uses 240v, ie: Iron, steamer, bread maker, toaster, microwave, mixer, slow cooker, Remoska, and 240v power for all my other electrical items such as computer, phone, etc, but also have 12v power for these as well, but this is where the solar panel comes into play, to help recharge the battery's, but also have a charger fitted that charges up the batterys within a couple of hours with the engine running if solar don't do its job in bad weather. So all down to what you want out of your m/h and what you want to do with it, ie wild camping etc. Regards Garry Flatpackchicken

 

[DavidG58]

We have a factory fitted 2kw pure sine inverter, but hardly ever use it as we charge everything from 12 volt including laptops. The TV is also 12 volt. The only thing the inverter is ever used for is for herself s hairdryer. If the inverter was not factory fitted I would not bother with the expense.

How do you charge your laptop directly from 12V?,

this could be really good for me having flattened my cab battery by leaving the invertor plugged in to charge my laptop!! I had no idea that the plug in invertor draws so much from the 12V even when doing nothing

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[Reallyretired]

How do you charge your laptop directly from 12V?,

this could be really good for me having flattened my cab battery by leaving the invertor plugged in to charge my laptop!! I had no idea that the plug in invertor draws so much from the 12V even when doing nothing

You can buy a multipurpose 12v laptop adaptor from Maplin and the like, where you change the output voltage and the plug type to suit.
Better still search ebay etc for a 12v power supply specific to your laptop which is what I have done, no problem with the adaptor plugs falling off the end.
I think the one for my Dell was about £15.

 

[New Dawn]

Hey'. thanks Garry. Just as a thought, what is the additional charger you use ???

phew. As newbies folks we are finding our feet, having never owned a Motorhome before, it becomes very frustrating to know what to do for the best.
Dealers advise this & that. This is why we posted so as to pick the knowledge & experience that you guys out there have. (Think the automatic dishwasher she wants is the last straw)

 

[DavidG58]

You can buy a multipurpose 12v laptop adaptor from Maplin and the like, where you change the output voltage and the plug type to suit.
Better still search ebay etc for a 12v power supply specific to your laptop which is what I have done, no problem with the adaptor plugs falling off the end.
I think the one for my Dell was about £15.

Thanks for this, are you saying this will be a power supply though, not a charger? Still useful but not as flexible as charging

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[flatpackchicken]

Hey'. thanks Garry. Just as a thought, what is the additional charger you use ???

phew. As newbies folks we are finding our feet, having never owned a Motorhome before, it becomes very frustrating to know what to do for the best.
Dealers advise this & that. This is why we posted so as to pick the knowledge & experience that you guys out there have. (Think the automatic dishwasher she wants is the last straw)

Additional charger is called a Battery to Battery charger that runs from the engine and puts in about 40A charge I think, give Eddie at Vanbitz a call and they will explain better how it works as this is where I had it fitted.
Why would you want a automatic dishwasher when she has you LOL
No seriously though, I also have a twin tub washing machine as well that uses the 240v system and the inverter copes with it admirably like all the other appliances that I have, all down to personal preferences really on how comfortable that you want to live when away especially when wild camping, as for me, I can wild camp for weeks at a time, just need to visit sites or aires now and again to dump black and grey and fill up with fresh water, also I have a generator as well, so 100% self sufficient in all really. Why not come to the Newark show in 2 weeks time, you will have the opportunity to speak to loads of other funsters and 100s of other motorhomers as well as seeing what the show has to offer, hope to see you there, Regards Garry Flatpackchicken

 

[flatpackchicken]

How do you charge your laptop directly from 12V?,

this could be really good for me having flattened my cab battery by leaving the invertor plugged in to charge my laptop!! I had no idea that the plug in invertor draws so much from the 12V even when doing nothing

I only ever charge my laptop with 12v charger on engine battery when engine is running, ie heading off to next parking place or going shopping, as engine will put bac kin what comp takes out, I never ever charge anything on engine battery unless engine running, as this is your last resort for starting your engine, unless you have a solar split charger that puts power into your engine battery from your habitation batterys. I always charge stuff from Hab batterys and solar panel helps put power back in again, Regards Garry Flatpackchicken

 

[New Dawn]

Inverter or not ??

Garry. Thank you so much for your kind input & invaluable advice. Will contact vanbitz. Unfortunately will not be able to attend Newark as hospital appointment falls in that period. But would love to meet up at some point. Let us know your itinerary on travels planned & see if possible meet up is on the cards. We have booked in with Magbrin for the highland gathering in May, which will be our first outing as funsters. Not sure if that's on your card. Thanks a lot.
Bill.

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[JeanLuc]

Since you have a Hymer, it will almost certainly be fitted with a Schaudt Electrobloc (EBL) charging system. I understand that B2B chargers can be fitted (and Vanbitz is a first class outfit) but you might want to read through the link below first as it contains a lot of valuable information about EBLs.
http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/schaudt-elektroblock.php

 

[Puddleduck]

Think the automatic dishwasher she wants is the last straw

Too late, she already has one, voice controlled and almost fully automatic if programmed correctly.... unfortunately it's you!


More seriously we will be getting a small inverter for running medical equipment overnight - we plan to stay on sites with EHU but just in case of power failure the inverter will become a life-line.

 

[funflair]

We have 2kw pure sine wave inverter and like to be independent of 240v hook up but still use the microwave, hair dryer and coffee machine, OK you have to careful if there is not much sun or you are not moving the van but still worth it to me.

Martin

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[cmcardle75]

Thanks for this, are you saying this will be a power supply though, not a charger? Still useful but not as flexible as charging

There is no difference. If the laptop is on, it will be a power supply (and charge slowly). If the laptop is off, it will charge quickly. Your laptop can't the tell difference between a 12V supply and a 230V supply, as it will just be fed 19V by the adapter.

 

[Allanm]

One of the things we use our 1KW inverter for is to charge the cordless hoover ( it is actually a Hoover) and laptop while we are travelling because they are both 230V.
We rarely have an EHU so the inverter is a necessity.
Allan

 

[New Dawn]

Inverter or not ??

Thanks jean luc. The link is very informative, this is the reason we posted
Cheers & thanks again

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[Chris]

Out of interest if I were to go for one of these pure sine inverters what do they cost approximately ( fitted) and do they weigh much?

I don't think we need one but that hasn't stopped us buying stuff before

 

[flatpackchicken]

Out of interest if I were to go for one of these pure sine inverters what do they cost approximately ( fitted) and do they weigh much?

I don't think we need one but that hasn't stopped us buying stuff before

An 1800w pure sine wave inverter will cost about £800 area
Regards Garry Flatpackchicen

 

[Coolbeanz]

Out of interest if I were to go for one of these pure sine inverters what do they cost approximately ( fitted) and do they weigh much?

I don't think we need one but that hasn't stopped us buying stuff before

Read this before deciding if you need pure sine wave, after another Funster showed me the link I bought a lovely 1800w sterling quasi sine wave

Link Removed for less than £300

This is the thread about it: Link Removed

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[SMB]

Hi

I have a Kensington portable inverter which works with my laptops though I hardly use it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000HEW0KM/?tag=mhf04-21

I have a 1000w inverter fitted in the van which I use all the time when on Aires, I spent 6 weeks at Portimao from October and used to charge everything during the day (I like my gadgets) when the sun was out, via 2 x 90w solar panels.

Never tried a hairdryer cos I don't have enough hair to dry

 

[Reallyretired]

One of the things we use our 1KW inverter for is to charge the cordless hoover ( it is actually a Hoover) and laptop while we are travelling because they are both 230V.
We rarely have an EHU so the inverter is a necessity.
Allan

Laptops will charge fine from 12v with a suitable power supply (they all run on a low DC voltage anyway usually 19v) and your hoover probably charges on 6 or 12v via the mains power supply.

We do have an inverter though, used for hairdryer kettle toaster etc. Laptop always run on 12v power supply though as it's pretty inefficient to convert 12v DC to 230V AC and then step it down and rectify it to 19v DC.

 

[makems]

We have a 1300w pure sine wave inverter. Pure sine wave because we use it to run our washing machine/spin drier and they can be a bit fussy about quasi sine wave. I charge all our phones, computers, iPads, toothbrushes, mifi, walkie talkies from a multisocket thingy which when on EHU runs from a 220v socket. When driving or wild camping it runs from the inverter during daylight hours. We have 380w of solar so not really worried about drain on the batteries when there is daylight. Inverter gets switched off when it gets dark.

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