zzyzxpat wrote:
I have an AF 865 camper. I want to be able to run the microwave, 900W, power demand shown to be 1350W, on an inverter for a short period of time, just warming stuff up. This would allow us to not carry the Honda 2200 with us when gone. We move around a fair amount so I should be able to keep the batteries charged. My question is what would you recommend for an inverter size, and if using the microwave for say 10 minutes, do you see a huge battery drain? Thoughts or ideas please. Thank you, Pat
OP, lots of great suggestions here to maximize performance ref the use of various types of inverters and microwaves. IMO, an equally important part of this power/performance triad you may also want to consider is the battery.
We used to run our microwave (1050w line input; 700w cooking) with two GC2's (6v deep cycle batteries). If we were lucky, we might get 40 min. of runtime even with this low-power microwave. After 40 min. the low voltage alarm on the inverter would activate (=<11.0v) at about the same time the batteries were at 50% SOC. End result was 65-70 ah of use (under 100-105a load) before we had to recharge the two GC2's.
We upgraded to a DIY 200ah lifepo4 battery pack (using standard 3.2v 200ah prismatic cells). We now get dramatically higher microwave runtimes of ~105 min. (~180ah) if we discharge the lifepo4 pack down to ~10% SOC. We never get an inverter low voltage alarm unless we discharge down to significantly less than 5% SOC. Bottom line, lifepo4's have outstanding voltage stability while under heavy load.
The two GC2's cost us $220, take up the space of
two group 24-27 batteries, weigh
130 lbs., produce only
65-70ah (50% SOC; while under 100-105a load), and have a
~300 cycle lifespan.
Our one DIY 200ah lifepo4 battery pack cost us $750 (including BMS), takes up the space of
one group 24 battery, weighs only
40 lbs., produces
180ah (10% SOC; 200ah 0% SOC), and has a
~3000 cycle lifespan (10 times higher).
I believe the above numbers speak for themselves. In a space/weight challenged truck camper these numbers take on even more significance. For us, the best $750 we ever spent.
