Beginner Strategy question about dry camping / inverter use

CommuterCruiser wrote:
***knock on wood*** so far we haven't fried a computer.

I have fried two laptops. One it was just the battery that was killed; the other it was the whole computer.

They seemed fine at the time, while on the inverter, and croaked a week later.

corvettekent wrote:
Last year I installed two 160 watt solar panels and I have four 6 volt batteries. I used a modified sine wave 150 watt inverter to power the TV or charge the laptop. You should be fine using a small inverter like this but you may want to step up to a pure sine wave inverter.

Thank you! Big difference in price between the one I was looking at ($39) and the pure sine one... You think something like this is worth it?

http://www.amazon.com/Samlex-America-PST30012-300W-Inverter/dp/B00H8N97E2/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1444002532&sr=8-13&keywords=pure+sine+wave+inverter

Last year I installed two 160 watt solar panels and I have four 6 volt batteries. I used a modified sine wave 150 watt inverter to power the TV or charge the laptop. You should be fine using a small inverter like this but you may want to step up to a pure sine wave inverter.

Thank you all very much for the feedback and suggestions! Sorry I didn't provide more information. I'm told that (2) 6V batteries are sufficient for storing power. I'm going to be powering the typical laptops, cell phone, JetPack WIFI, etc. However, I also want to power a portable wireless DropCam or two for security and for monitoring my dogs if I go for a hike without them.... I don't think all of this is excessively requiring power -- but I'd rather have too much and not even have to worry about anything. I really like the idea of installing a permanent inverter in the front, as suggested - but I'm wondering if I should start by just using a few 300W small plug-in 12V inverters I saw on Amazon.com, just to see how those work for me?

Again, thanks to everyone for the awesome responses!

Tom

tfirma wrote:
I'm wondering why it makes sense to use a portable inverter inside my RV rather than just allow myself the convenience of using the 120V outlets?

Which is why I chose to install my 1000 watt PSW inverter in the trailer's front pass through storage compartment where it would be protected from the elements yet not too far from where the battery source is located on the tongue AND simply plug the trailer's main service cable into the inverter's output. Within the limitations of the inverter and source battery supply the trailer behaves just as it it were plugged into shore power. :B

1000 watt Inverter - "Whole House" Installation (7 pics)

What 120 volt items do you wish to power when 'off the grid'?

Inverter draws power from your 12V setup. You don't mention your battery setup but regardless of if you have a permanent or portable inverter it will draw from the battery/batteries. A small inverter (<300W) is fine with a single battery, but any bigger and you'll want a multiple battery setup. The advantage of a permanently installed inverter is, assuming you have installed it properly by putting it as close to the batteries as feasible and used adequate wiring, you will be able to utilize the full extent of the inverter's capacity. This is because voltage drop due to wiring resistance has been minimized. When you use a portable inverter, you are usually plugging into a 12V outlet that has inadequate wiring to support the draw that the inverter may try to pull. So your inverter will shut off due to low voltage long before it actually reaches its design capacity.

We simply plug our shower power cord directly into an inverter outlet (permanent install). Your camper's converter must be shut off somehow if you do this, we do it by flipping the converter's dedicated AC breaker off on the panel. All AC outlets are live doing it this way. Water heater and fridge are flipped to gas so they don't try to run off of the inverter and suck battery.

Do you know about the power used by devices connected to an inverter, i.e. a Keurig coffee maker will just about drain a standard sized RV battery with one session.

An inverter is a good thing to have and can be of great use but you need to realize the limits of the battery capacity. Your solar module will help to keep the battery charged, it doesn't mean constant 120V through the RV's outlets, though.

CommuterCruiser - Thank you so much for the helpful reply!!
(By the way, I noticed you have a Lance - I am taking delivery of a 1995 in a few weeks. It's a big bigger than I wanted for my first trailer, but I'll be "practicing" quite a bit with it before taking any long trips. I hope you're enjoying yours!

CommuterCruiser wrote:
Using any inverter will use more power than direct to DC/12V. I don't know if all inverters are alike in converting DC to AC/120V, but it's a question to ask. If the little portables are not as efficient, it might be a selling point to installing the inverter to allow you to use the 120V outlets.

Another consideration is the type of power output by the inverter -- pure sine wave versus modified. We have a modified on our sailboat and have fried more than one rechargable battery for power tools. But we haven't fried other stuff -- at least that we know of. They say not to use electronics with modified sine wave, but ***knock on wood*** so far we haven't fried a computer.

Just some considerations in your decision.

Using any inverter will use more power than direct to DC/12V. I don't know if all inverters are alike in converting DC to AC/120V, but it's a question to ask. If the little portables are not as efficient, it might be a selling point to installing the inverter to allow you to use the 120V outlets.

Another consideration is the type of power output by the inverter -- pure sine wave versus modified. We have a modified on our sailboat and have fried more than one rechargable battery for power tools. But we haven't fried other stuff -- at least that we know of. They say not to use electronics with modified sine wave, but ***knock on wood*** so far we haven't fried a computer.

Just some considerations in your decision.