INVERTER opinions PROS CONS
I have been doing a good amount of searching here about inverters, some are just inverters some are I/Chargers size from small to pretty big. I am going to step into the Inverter world in my Rebuil...
Forum Discussion
Two things seldom mentioned but worth considering:
1) Idle power. If you leave it on all evening it will draw a certain amount of current just sitting there doing nothing. Some people only turn it on to run a specific thing, I like it more like at home. Sine wave inverters typically have more idle power than square wave, some of them as much as 4 amps. Look at the specification for idle power.
2) Noise. I would not have thought this would be a problem, but the Prosine 2.0 that I had turned on its fan, at odd times too. Middle of the night when nothing was drawing power for example. Loud enough to hear for sure. The Magnum Energy square wave I have now in the camper makes a whining sound all the time. More when you are drawing more power. "Yep, that's what they do" says Magnum tech support. I cannot sleep with it on (like to charge the computer overnight), too loud. Nobody seems to spec noise.
In both of those respects the Mastervolt I have on the boat is the best: very quiet and very low idle power in a true sine wave converter. They are costly though.
1) Idle power. If you leave it on all evening it will draw a certain amount of current just sitting there doing nothing. Some people only turn it on to run a specific thing, I like it more like at home. Sine wave inverters typically have more idle power than square wave, some of them as much as 4 amps. Look at the specification for idle power.
2) Noise. I would not have thought this would be a problem, but the Prosine 2.0 that I had turned on its fan, at odd times too. Middle of the night when nothing was drawing power for example. Loud enough to hear for sure. The Magnum Energy square wave I have now in the camper makes a whining sound all the time. More when you are drawing more power. "Yep, that's what they do" says Magnum tech support. I cannot sleep with it on (like to charge the computer overnight), too loud. Nobody seems to spec noise.
In both of those respects the Mastervolt I have on the boat is the best: very quiet and very low idle power in a true sine wave converter. They are costly though.
