DO I NEED AN INVERTER?

[69473]

About to take the plunge and have lithium batteries fitted to our van, Hymer Grand Canyon.
The installer's are suggesting a inverter is fitted, but do I really need one?
From what I understand this item allowes the use of high capacity electrical devices.
We tour in a very simple way, Indeed we try and leave tech at home.
The only tech we take are phones and a iPad, no hairdryers, coffee machines etc.
However with two young teenagers our needs may change and from what I understand it's more cost effective to have fitted with the install rather than separately at a later date.
Its not a cheap option at £700 (2000w) question is would you fit one.
As I've never had one am I underating it's usefulness?

 

[Lenny HB]

Unless you have essential 240v mains items you need to run it is not necessary also 2000 Watts is bigger than what most people need.
Only use ours for charging the e-bikes.

 

[Boris7]

personally we don't need or want one even though I use a MacBook Pro for work.

I just have to keep in mind that I need to manage battery life until I can get power, so use an iPad Pro 12" for most stuff.

Never use the microwave even on MHU

 

[Tombola]

If you dont use the 240v electrics then the short answer is most things will run from 12v, even most laptops etc.
It comes down to if you want it for just "backup" and if 700 for you is worth the price to pay for that added "odd occasion".you know hoover, toaster even microwave etc.
When you say installing are they installing it hooked up to the exisiting 240v van sockets so they will just switch over automatically. If so 700 isnt too bad with a 2000w installed, make sure it is pure sine wave too.

 

[pappajohn]

Fit later if found needing.
I certainly wouldn't pay £700 for an inverter on the off chance it may get used.
Plus you'll find it a lot cheaper to fit one later.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[BillyKontiki]

For what you will be running you won’t need an inverter, but to charge your Mac book you can purchase a 500w pure sine wave inverter around £100 quid which doesn’t require installing
Just connect with crocodile clips.

 

[funflair]

I wouldn’t want to be without one but if you don’t know/think that you need one then maybe you don’t.

 

[Lenny HB]

For what you will be running you won’t need an inverter, but to charge your Mac book you can purchase a 500w pure sine wave inverter around £100 quid which doesn’t require installing
Just connect with crocodile clips.

Very bad advice, with sensitive equipment it is safer to use a good quality pure sine wave inverter. Also you should never use croc clips to connect.

 

[Googlebot]

I just splashed out on a Victron one, for the very odd occasion. We use 12v for most things.

I am now buying stuff to justify the inverter, I wouldn’t bother if it didn’t already have one installed.

 

[Otter Spotter]

Question is, are you likely to be operating 240v equipment off grid? If so then either get the correct usb chargers for laptops and tablets ( which will convert 240v to 12 or even 9v or else you should fit an invertor. Simply an invertor converts your batteries 12v to 240v do you need to do that if you use Electric hook up on site, no you don’t.
what an invertor will do is possibly drain your habitation battery quite quickly unless you drive for a while or plug in to EHU.
Hope this makes sense.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[138go]

We have an inverter for electric toothbrushes and the electric blanket.

 

[69473]

We are having two lithium 3Lion NDS batteries fitted to increase the number of days available to off grid, we do have 200w solar but find from October our solar input is low and batteries only last 2/3 days, we do have a compressor fridge freezer and diesel heating.
New battery to battery charger, monitor and solar regulator will also be fitted.
The only items we may use at some time in the future are a laptop 65w charger and a 55w air purifier.
I'm presuming I would need an inverter for these? If so what size?.
Sorry for all the questions but I have zero previous experience of inverters.

 

[Swifter]

With that set up you could run a nice coffee machine

 

[Otter Spotter]

2000w pure sine wave should do

 

[eddie]

We’d be lost without ours, but why buy something you don’t want or can se you’ll use

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Googlebot]

We are having two lithium 3Lion NDS batteries fitted to increase the number of days available to off grid, we do have 200w solar but find from October our solar input is low and batteries only last 2/3 days, we do have a compressor fridge freezer and diesel heating.
New battery to battery charger, monitor and solar regulator will also be fitted.
The only items we may use at some time in the future are a laptop 65w charger and a 55w air purifier.
I'm presuming I would need an inverter for these? If so what size?.
Sorry for all the questions but I have zero previous experience of inverters.

You could run both of those together happily on a 200watt one. Make sure it is a quality pure sine wave though.

 

[Reallyretired]

We are having two lithium 3Lion NDS batteries fitted to increase the number of days available to off grid, we do have 200w solar but find from October our solar input is low and batteries only last 2/3 days, we do have a compressor fridge freezer and diesel heating.
New battery to battery charger, monitor and solar regulator will also be fitted.
The only items we may use at some time in the future are a laptop 65w charger and a 55w air purifier.
I'm presuming I would need an inverter for these? If so what size?.
Sorry for all the questions but I have zero previous experience of inverters.

We have an inverter for electric toothbrushes and the electric blanket.

You can buy a USB toothbrush charger now, I recently got one as it seemed a bit wasteful to run a 1.5kw inverter just to charge a toothbrush. I have seen 12v electric blankets advertised but don't know if they are any good.
We run 240v fans as they seem more effective and a fraction of the price of 12v ones.

 

[WynandJean]

You can buy a USB toothbrush charger now, I recently got one as it seemed a bit wasteful to run a 1.5kw inverter just to charge a toothbrush. I have seen 12v electric blankets advertised but don't know if they are any good.
We run 240v fans as they seem more effective and a fraction of the price of 12v ones.

We got a usb toothbrush charger for the van

Wyn

 

[138go]

You can buy a USB toothbrush charger now, I recently got one as it seemed a bit wasteful to run a 1.5kw inverter just to charge a toothbrush. I have seen 12v electric blankets advertised but don't know if they are any good.
We run 240v fans as they seem more effective and a fraction of the price of 12v ones.

We’ve tried the 12v blankets, but didn’t get on with them. We charge the toothbrushes when the blanket goes on. We have 12v fans fitted and they work well.

 

[CamperJack]

Unless you can think of a 240v apllience you want to use, no you don't need one.

Also consider the size required. 2000 W is really quite big. That kind of draw will take a lot of power from your battery.

I eat lots of soup. My blender is 200W. So a 2000W inverter would be overkill. Not only would it be more expensive to buy such a big one, but the bigger they are the more inefficient they become.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[dunnah01]

I fitted a 3000/6000W inverter and it's great when off grid for bigger electrical items and for charging everything else. I didn't want to double up on chargers for everything and only have 6 USB charge points anyway. It's amazing how many devices need to be charged nowadays and with 2 teenagers it will be even more. I also didn't want to have 12v bigger items so the inverter also allows us to use normal 240v versions of: big fan, hair-drier, 3kW iron, hoover, blender, electric drill charger, shaver... We travel quite low tech (no coffee machine, microwave or electric bikes) but still have about 20 devices that need 12V or 240v so doubling up on chargers and/or devices would not be as cost effective or as convenient as the invertor. In summer it happily runs off 2 grunt lead acid 100ah batteries 360W solar with minimal looking after. In winter I wouldn't even consider trying to off grid on solar so just default to EHU.