Forum Discussion

danwild's avatar
danwild
Explorer
Aug 21, 2013

power inverters, batteries and appliances

I am looking to set up a small fridge. Looking at ARBs new fridge freezer, which is a 12v fridge. This means i could not use 2 6 volt batteries? A small toaster oven and an air conditioner. Using a laptop and lights and radio. So my problem is, i do not know exactly what i need to do. Get a 1500 watt power inverter and an extra 12v battery? And a continueous duty solenoid? This is being done in an 03 dodge 5.9 conversion van. What battery, what power inverter and what else? Or what is the best way to accomplish this? Thank you. I am just trying to get it right the first time. I may setup solar panels someday but i need a good battery power setup. I will use a generator to charge the batteries or can the extra batteries charge off the van running?

35 Replies

  • The toaster oven i saw was 470 watts. But what about running a 12v fridge? Will it work on 6v batteries? Or maybe get a diff fridge?
  • Forget about running the air conditioner from batteries.
    2 6v golf cart batteries are a good start. 4 would be better if you're really going to run a toaster over.
    A 1,500 watt inverter is probably marginal for a toaster oven. I'd go with a 2,000 watt. A modified sine wave unit will be fine unless you have an Apple computer. Even if you don't I'd get a small pure sine wave inverter for the electronics and use a big modified sine wave inverter for the toaster oven.
    You will need at least a continuous duty solenoid between your van's alternator and the battery bank. A voltage sensing relay would be better. Blue Sea makes a nice one.
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    Several years ago I learned how long a fully loaded down MSW 1500WATT Inverter would last running a whole bunch of electronic test equipment (added up to around 1300WATTs) from the trunk of a standard rental car setup...

    It lasted a total of 12 minutes haha...

    Rental car company brought out another car on a flatbed and exchanged with us out in the antenna field haha... Didnt know why the rental car quit on us...

    Inverters are very power hungry

    Roy Ken
  • Hi,

    Very few folks can successfully run an air conditioner on just battery power.