invertor (1 Viewer)

[OldAgeTravellers]

You guys need to train your ladies better, mine lays down in front of the Traumer outlet to dry her hair. Uses a bit of gas but much cheaper than, inverter, extra batteries, extra solar panel. leaves more money for :beer: and

 

[Viennese]

hare dryers microwaves WTF YOURE GOWING CAMPING

That's why I don't have a TV!

 

[Jaws]

That is quite an interesting point..

Are most of us going camping ?

We did 30 years under canvas, so have done our time in purgatory !

We do not use the van to go camping as such, we use the van to go travelling and happen to have out hotel room with us :thumb:

As such we do like to have creature comforts and gadgets ..

I think it is two completely different things..
A lot of us ( motor homers ) like to camp ( albeit in a tin tent ) and a lot of us like to just travel and use the van more a as a mobile home..

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[ivorantony]

Cheapest option by a mile is remove all mirrors

 

[BwB]

Maybe it depends on if you have a motorhome(from home) or a campervan??

Anyway...

There used to be a hairdryer option for the blown air heater outlets - bit like a vacuum cleaner hose which clicked onto the outlet in the bathroom. Maybe still available?

 

[sean n maggie]

thanks everyone,,,inverter bought just need to wire it in when it gets here,,,,i keep wifey happy so she can dry her hair,,,,,she keeps me happy too filling up my glass ....

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[Wildbill]

You guys need to train your ladies better, mine lays down in front of the Traumer outlet to dry her hair. Uses a bit of gas but much cheaper than, inverter, extra batteries, extra solar panel. leaves more money for :beer: and

mine just sticks heir's in the oven

 

[the stig]

we are selling our inverter if anyone interested

1700 watts complete with remote (as we know just how difficult it is to get the remotes)

pm if interested

regards
Jeff

 

[Biged]

Have you read the posting by DABurleigh today, very helpful.

I have to agree with a lot in the posting particularly about the loadings on your battery/s
I have fitted a 1000W full sine wave inverter and it works well, the gaffer has a 800W hair drier and you would think this would be perfect for the job, not so. Its runs perfectly on the first setting but on the second the inverter shuts down, this is not the inverter overloading but the battery, you can see the battery voltage drop on the indicator lights, the inverter shuts down to protect it.
I have one 110AH leisure battery charged by solar panel, i don't know how old it is but it's a good make (Varta) I think the poster who wants to run a 1600W hair dryer through an inverter better have at least 2 leisure batteries in tip top condition :thumb:

Is there anyway to test leisure batteries? My MH panel says battery is fully charged :Sad:

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[cmcardle75]

Have you read the posting by DABurleigh today, very helpful.

I have to agree with a lot in the posting particularly about the loadings on your battery/s
I have fitted a 1000W full sine wave inverter and it works well, the gaffer has a 800W hair drier and you would think this would be perfect for the job, not so. Its runs perfectly on the first setting but on the second the inverter shuts down, this is not the inverter overloading but the battery, you can see the battery voltage drop on the indicator lights, the inverter shuts down to protect it.
I have one 110AH leisure battery charged by solar panel, i don't know how old it is but it's a good make (Varta) I think the poster who wants to run a 1600W hair dryer through an inverter better have at least 2 leisure batteries in tip top condition :thumb:

Is there anyway to test leisure batteries? My MH panel says battery is fully charged :Sad:

A typical leisure battery will have a CCA rating of about 700A - 1000A. Even a knackered battery ready for the scrappers is usually able to pump out a few 100A on what charge it can hold. However, this will result in a voltage reduction, especially coupled with any runs of non-massive cable. If your protection circuit is a bit picky, or your cables anything other than huge, this might result in the inverter dropping out.

Rememeber high current 12V cables are chosen for voltage drop, not current carrying ability. This means that they have to be much larger than equivalent mains voltage cables carrying the same current if they are more than a few hundred mm long.

 

[peterc10]

I think it is probably asking too much of one battery to use this hairdryer for any length of time. Especially one that you do not know the age of, or, presumably its past history. It could have been caned or damaged by flattening it too often.

A possible indicator of the state of your battery is to look at what its voltage is. Charge it up until it is showing full. then switch off all charging (including solar) and see what voltage is shown. May be as well to use a multimeter as well as your motorhome's display, as that may be more accurate. Then use it for a few hours, taking a rough note of what you are using (lights and TV etc) and take the voltage again. Report back here with your figures (or start a new thread) and I am sure the experts (cleverer than me!) will be able to interpret the figures.

One of the first things I did when I got my motorhome was to swap the single 85Ah battery, which was probably 6 years old, for 2 good 110Ah ones made by Banner. Only then did I look at getting Solar and an inverter to keep them topped up.

 

[TheBig1]

Is there anyway to test leisure batteries? My MH panel says battery is fully charged :Sad:

yes, you fully charge it and have it drop tested by a battery specialist. these days good drop testers are linked to a computer and so very accurate. some places will for a fee put a lightly sulphated battery onto a conditioner/charger overnight. this can prolong the effective life of a battery

what most people dont realise is that leisure batteries are only good for a limited number of charging cycles. without a high quality intelligent charger this is often only a few years for basic batteries. the more expensive batteries with thicker lead plates tend to last longer

a limited way to test a battery is with a digital multimeter, taking readings at the battery terminals every 10 minutes with a fixed load of say 10 amps being drawn. a bad battery will suddenly drop unlike a good one, which will slowly and steadily discharge

from your description, it sounds like your battery is getting a bit tired and not too useful for use with an inverter

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[motorhomer]

I think this is all asking too much of the batteries however good the inverter is.

As some one else said, 1200watts is something like 100amps continuous at 12v. That's a lot!

The 12v wiring in a motorhome will usually only take about 90 watts (ie about 7 amps, not 100), so the inverter must be directly hard wired to the battery with suitable very heavy duty (100amp +) cable and fuses. This is heavier cable than is required for engine starter motors for example.

Given that a battery is considered flat at something like 50% charge the battery would last no more than half an hour at this rate. What do you do then? Go for a drive for a few hours? Use a solar panel for several hours????

I would say don't bother. Use the hair drier when connected to mains and not otherwise.

 

[Techno]

This is why I told Charles sterling that 4 awg or 21mm is totally inadequate as supplied on their 1800 quasi pro power
The recommended fuse is 250 amps but the cable is only 135 amp rated
No coincidence then that the new range of pure sine come with no cable attached but a cable sizing chart which confirms what I said .
He still failed to acknowledge there is an issue

 

[funflair]

I think this is all asking too much of the batteries however good the inverter is.

As some one else said, 1200watts is something like 100amps continuous at 12v. That's a lot!

The 12v wiring in a motorhome will usually only take about 90 watts (ie about 7 amps, not 100), so the inverter must be directly hard wired to the battery with suitable very heavy duty (100amp +) cable and fuses. This is heavier cable than is required for engine starter motors for example.

Given that a battery is considered flat at something like 50% charge the battery would last no more than half an hour at this rate. What do you do then? Go for a drive for a few hours? Use a solar panel for several hours????

I would say don't bother. Use the hair drier when connected to mains and not otherwise.

Microwave, coffee machine even hair dryer, you don't need to run these for 30 minutes so no danger of flattening the batteries in one go, yes you need good cable for batteries to inverter I use 50 mm2. Solar panels put back the power used without problem (as long as there is sun).

Everyone to their own, but we want to use the stuff in our van whether we are on hook up or not.

Martin

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[peterc10]

My 2000W inverter came with 4 separate insulated strands of very thick cable for each of the two terminal connectors. Came as a surprise to me but now I understand why.

And yes I would agree this is only for a short while. The most time that my wife takes to dry her hair is 10 minutes using a 1200W dryer. By my calculation that uses about 100A (a bit more I suspect with losses and the fans on the inverter going). So 10 minutes will use say 20Ah at most. Have I got that about right?

She does that about once every three days. More than enough time for the 200W of solar to recharge the batteries, except in the depths of winter, when we will be on EHU anyway. That should be OK for two 110Ah batteries shouldn't it?.

We don't use a microwave - got a good gas oven. The only other thing we may use it for is charging the electric bikes. Everything else electric we use (TV, phones, tablets, shaver) is 12v. And gas for the cooking, kettle, heating and fridge