3500w power inverter

Gdetrailer wrote:

blaczero wrote:
makes sense...

It's funny, if you look up reviews of inverters on the internet, a lot of times they'll include "didn't ship with wires" sort of thing. Maybe they're throwing them in to just check that box.

The inverter is listed as 1a idle draw, so 12w, which I thought was great. I want to be able to run a tv, computer, charge phones and laptop, and possibly run a dehumidifier if/when I need.

I have 0awg left over from the battery project so I'll end up using that from the battery to inverter and read the manual to find out what size breaker I need.

Have to be careful on reviews, lots of shills for and against the products. I read the middle of the road reviews as they tend to be the most honest.

Most inverters can be traced back to being Chinese imports, they may work, but they are often way over rated. One should never buy solely on reviews or low pricing, there is a reason why there are inverters that cost much more than $500 and yet deliver much less wattage than what you have bought.

Fr charging low wattage items like cell phones and laptops, I would suggest a completely different route.

For cellphones, tablets and any other device that use USB 5V charging cables, go with 12V to 5V USB chargers. The ones that plug into a 12V cig/power port in your car.. Much more direct, much less idle current draw than a inverter.

Looks like this..



You can add in your own 12V power ports in your RV by buying cig lighter/power ports..

Like this..



You can also buy combo 12V/USB 5V power ports.

Like this..



For laptops, you can buy universal 120V/12V power supplies which are designed to plug into 120V AC or 12V DC and use special changeable tips that set the power supply to your laptops needed tip and voltage.

Like this..



This one is what I bought for my DD to use for her Dell i7 quad core 2 in one PC. Works great on 120V and 12V.

Found HERE for $35..

Phones, laptops are so low of a power draw that it doesn't make sense to run them through a 12V to 120V inverter and then from 120V to 5V or 120V to 19V laptop power supplies.. You can run these devices more direct with correct chargers that run from 12V and save a lot of needless wasted energy in the process.

Each voltage conversion has a power loss, typically with inveters you looking at as low as 80%-85% conversion efficiency meaning 15%-20% is lost in heat during the conversion depending on the load.

5V USB chargers laptop 12V chargers will have at least 90%-94% conversion efficiency typical of switching power supplies.

I get what you're saying. I'd like everything to be DC and not have to invert. I am buying a new RV in a couple weeks so I'll be kitting that one out with what you've listed (usb 5v stuff). For now, I do have some USB ports in my rig, but they're too low a wattage to charge my laptops unless I replaced them.