12v Power inverter

[JigginIsLife]

I cant find the Search bar again, so I will just start a new thread. I am looking at putting in an inverter into my house, and I am looking for one with plates I can attach it to under a table. Anyone have any suggestions on how big i should go. Im thinking roughly 750W becuase computers (laptops) generally use (as i have seen) about 650-700w of power and im hoping the 750 will cover it. ANyone have any suggestions on brands and/or places to buy that maybe come with a warrenty if something goes amiss? Im also looking for ones that come with the alligator clips or the large battery clips, rather than the cigerette lighter adapter.

thanks

Jig

[Sea Hage]

Don't go smaller than 1500 watt. look at the Cobra 1500. I've had 3 in my houses and they work well. they don't like Micro waves and deep fryers.but that's why I have a generator

[JigginIsLife]

1500 continuous or 1500 surge? I dont think i plan on running anything bigger than a computer or maybe a tv

[Gus]

Plan for twice the wattage you want to typically run. Running the inverter near or at capacity most of the time will cause an early retirement for it.

[Pat K]

You want an inverter output at least 25% over your estimated needs. With a computer you don't want to be near capacity because any little power hick up can cause problems.

[Sea Hage]

1500 continuous, 3000 peak, go online and you can get them for $99.00 or $117.00 with remote on/off. (get the remote) I can run TV, Sat. reciver and or DVD, minnow bubbler, charge Vex & phones all weekend off inverter. I do have 2 # 31 batteries and solar panel & generator for running microwave and battery charger.

[aanderud]

A laptop computer typically burns under 250 to 300 watts of AC power, at the most. The quad core i7 I'm using now has a 2.5 amp rating on the power supply, or roughly 300 watts of AC power (6.7 amps or 135 watts on the DC side). If I hook up a power meter I'd be surprised to see it using that full 300 watts unless you were running some CPU-intensive video encoding or something. It'll also work work with a smaller 2 amp AC power supply (which supplies only 90 watts of DC power), but a warning pops up that the power supply is not optimal (slightly under sized) and it won't charge the battery as fast.

That being said, I'd say 1500 watts is a good size for something like this, because you never want to be undersized just to save 30 bucks or something, and for anything larger you can (and probably should) use a generator. You should be able to comfortably run a 600 to 900 watt microwave using something like a 1500 watt inverter, I'd guess.

[Tom7227]

I bought a Cobra 1500 based on the recommendations in this thread. The thing is huge. It certainly isn't what the average person would need. YOu need to order special cables to hook it up, a fuse.... Overkill for my needs.