One for the Tech's - is this a silly question

[TCG]

Hi i am just thinking out aloud, so please humour me. i would like an inverter to power hair dryer and other bits.is there any reason why i couldn't use one of these from the inverter to the MH connection to PSU to power all sockets (Obviously would not use all sockets in one go) I obviously would turn off battery charger, space heater. and just leave the sockets on. my rationale behind this is i do not want to be restricted to where the live power points are, if that makes sense

 

[dabhand]

If you do that your van will think it’s on mains power and your appliances will default to mains ie fridge heating hot water etc unless you turn fridge to gas etc amongst other things

 

[scotjimland]

why not just have an extension cable for the hairdryer.. ?

easier than remembering to turn off stuff .. and if you forget say the heater, dead battery in no time

 

[Bailey58]

Our inverter is installed internally under the sofa and I've extended it, also internally, to a socket mounted on the end board so it can be used without lifting up the base. As suggested I use an extension lead from there if I want to power something up top, usually our coffee machine.

 

[Bognor Saint]

I think there are a few posts on here about using hairdryers which is why we have to have ehu!!!!!

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[138go]

It would work with a generator but not an Inverter. You would have to switch of the Battery Charger, Fridge and the Electronics. So you might as well just connect it to a battery

Typical hair dryer on high heat will use about 1500w .. 1500 / 12 = 125A .. Normal MH habitation battery is 100A with a usable capacity of 50A so the habitation battery will be at risk after about 20 minutes. You then have to work out how you are going to get the 50A back in the battery.

 

[teddybear]

Our inverter was factory fitted and when turned on powers all the fitted sockets

 

[Yorick]

Stick your head out the window and get hubby to drive round for a bit

 

[two]

No, that’s not the way to do it.

The simplest way is to wire-in sockets which are dedicated to the inverter. Alternatively, you could swap (some or all of) your sockets to feed from the inverter rather than incoming EHU. The size of your inverter would limit what you could run off the sockets connected to it.

What might you ever want to run from your mains sockets (power in Watts)?

What do you plan to run off an inverter (power in Watts)?

What size inverter are you planning to install (power in Watts)?

I added sockets of a different type from the inverter and left the original ones as EHU-fed, so that they are easily identifiable. The sockets were cheaper and easier to source than trying to match what was already present. As an alternative, you could fit a heavy (13+A) two-way switch to select power from either EHU or inverter for your sockets. Putting your own sockets

Do not be ambitious with what you want from an inverter unless you have a big battery bank. Even large banks have a finite capacity, unlike the mains.

 

[TCG]

Thanks everyone... I did say I was thinking out loud

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[Lazyboy]

As others have said, you would have to turn everything else off especially the battery charger otherwise as you are taking power out of the batteries via the inverter to use your appliance the battery charger would then try and recharge the batteries via power from the inverter! Batteries would soon die! Just fit the inverter and use an extension lead but remember again as already mentioned that wattage is divided by 12 and not 240 to get the amperage so beef up the battery bank if possible and use any inverter wisely.

 

[Terry and Jan]

Yes!

 

[olley]

I ran a lead from my 1800w inverter to my electrical locker, fitted a socket to the end and now I simply plug the ehu lead into it, turn the inverter on and we have 230v power to all sockets, a switch turns the charger off and the fridge is set to gas.

 

[TCG]

I ran a lead from my 1800w inverter to my electrical locker, fitted a socket to the end and now I simply plug the ehu lead into it, turn the inverter on and we have 230v power to all sockets, a switch turns the charger off and the fridge is set to gas.

Which is what i thought of doing - switch all these off - put fridge on Gas - and have existing power points running from inverter

 

[Mr Chrysalis]

It would work with a generator but not an Inverter. You would have to switch of the Battery Charger, Fridge and the Electronics. So you might as well just connect it to a battery

Typical hair dryer on high heat will use about 1500w .. 1500 / 12 = 125A .. Normal MH habitation battery is 100A with a usable capacity of 50A so the habitation battery will be at risk after about 20 minutes. You then have to work out how you are going to get the 50A back in the battery.

And that means the wires from your battery to the inverter would need to be capable of carrying 125A, which is an awful lot

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[olley]

You have sockets nicely wired up in your motorhome so why not use them? Makes more sense to me than trailing an extension lead across the van with a single or double socket on the end of it.

 

[Reallyretired]

I just have a manual switch to put sockets either to mains or inverter. Many have an automatic changeover but I find mine more versatile. If I have only 4a hookup I can run the charger fridge and water heater from it while running the sockets from the inverter so doesn't trip the bollard.

 

[olley]

I just have a manual switch to put sockets either to mains or inverter. Many have an automatic changeover but I find mine more versatile. If I have only 4a hookup I can run the charger fridge and water heater from it while running the sockets from the inverter so doesn't trip the bollard.

I ran a separate mains lead from my 50amp battery charger to a socket in my electric locker, so I can plug my spare extension lead in it and the ehu, I then fitted a mains changeover switch to my charger so it's only supplied from that socket, I can now run the inverter as in my first post without any worry about tripping a low amperage Ehu post. Hope that makes sense.