Why won't my inverter put out?
I feel there should be a 'That's what she said' joke in here somewhere... I booked a camping site that I thought had hookups, but when I got here: no hookups. I needed more juice than my house ...
Forum Discussion
Naio wrote:BFL13 wrote:Naio wrote:
So, who makes a better inverter? Any tips on finding one in a small town?
With a good inverter, can I safely run the freezer off my alternator for a couple hours?
Separate the two limitations. You can have a 3000w inverter on the van's battery (with the engine running of course) and your limitation is still the van's 12v system.
The alternator can hold the van's voltage, but only up to a certain inverter load and then the van's voltage will collapse. That inverter load is the same (say it is 600w) whether you use a 750w inverter or a 3000w inverter, the van will only carry the 600w.
Ok, that leads to two questions: Can I find out my van's limit for alternator safety other than by trial and error?
And, when the van is not involved - when running inverter off house battery - why does inverter dislike laptop charger?
I found out by trial and error. Just add loads until the van can't take anymore (watch the dash voltage gauge drop to the left when that happens) You can't hurt anything if you don't leave it like that very long, as all that means is you are now drawing down the starter battery until you turn off the inverter. there may be a strain on the alternator then but it would only be for a couple minutes till you stop the trial. Same as having the lights on with the engine off in a way, only it takes less time for the battery to go flat :)
The house batteries are on their own with no alternator? So their voltage will drop same as the engine battery with the engine off as above.
The laptop itself should run on the inverter ok, no MSW vs PSW problem. (Electric blankets fry with MSW I hear. Not sure. Most things run on MSW but some things just won't-- a modern sewing machine eg won't-it needs PSW)
A Laptop is about 60w so should pull 6 amps approx. 6 amps is not much of a draw, but it can make a goodly voltage drop amount on a "weak" battery. So the house battery bank may be small or already run down some, so the 6a draw pulls its loaded voltage to 11v and the inverter alarm sounds.
