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
westend wrote:
It's not about your van computer, it's about the drain on the starting battery and the alternator. If you run the inverter off the house batteries and the charge from the van is assisting, you should have a better power configuration.
Ok, thanks.
2) Connect the inverter to the house batteries with good cable, not alligator clamps.
I was not connecting them at all.
You had to connect the inverter, somehow. Alligator clamps are not the best.
Context :). At that time,the inverter was on the chassis battery. There's no connection between chassis battery and house. When I have the inverter on house, it's with an anderson connector.
3)Either buy a bigger/better inverter or remove some loads. A mattress pad or mattress heater is not a "tiny" load.
15 watts for the heating pad, about 55 for the mattress warmer.
That seems low but is still as much as a fridge or freezer when operating and the bed stuff is probably on a fuller duty cycle.
Propane fridge? Or all electric? I think of them as a big load!
5) A freezer or refrigerator has a larger load when starting. My dorm fridge has about a 5-6 Amp load when the compressor starts. A 600W inverter was incapable of running it. A 1000W inverter runs it well.
Thanks, that is very helpful.
You're welcome. That is a 6 amp load at 12V, not 600 amps.
Oh!
I briefly had a 12v mini fridge (not on this trip). I killed a big AGM battery (twin to the one I still have) by running it overnight, once. So that one used a heck of a lot -- which I did not anticipate :(.
