What size inverter?

[huntingislife]

I plan on running a 13" tv and dvd player probably not more than 5 hours a day. What size inverter should I get? 400 watts? What kind of run time am I looking at with 1 battery? 2 batteries? Thanks

[deepportage01]

I would go with the 600 watt, just for the fact that you might want to add things like a micro wave, coffe pot,vcr/dvd,110 light ect,

This is ware you are going to want to spend the $$$ on a good qualty inverter.The cheep ones are not that efficient and will take a toll on all the things you want to run.

I would go with higher wattage inverter of good qualty and you wont find these at wall mart.

[LaZyDayZ]

I have an 800 and it barely runs a regular coffee maker.

Doubt it would run a microwave.

I agree with deepotage though, get the biggest you can afford as sooner or later you will want more.

[HarryG]

deepportage01,

I am considering an inverter as well. After reading this post, I looked them up. I noticed that there is a 24V inverter as well. What is the advantage?

[LMITOUT]

I pulled up the specs on a 13" TV/DVD combo and the power consumption is 70W. I don't know if you have a combo, but for the sake of this explanation that's what I'll use.

Given a standard 12V deep cycle battery with 100A-h capacity and an inverter with 80% efficiency (worst case), the battery should last approximately 14 hours. With a 100% efficient inverter the time would be approximately 17 hours.

I have a 400W inverter and it says in the instructions that it will shut down afer 60 minutes of hard usage to cool down. You would be fine with a 400W unit for the TV/DVD plus a few other small items. Any time a device with a heating element is considered the power usage goes way up, so then you'd have to size accordingly and a 400W inverter probably wouldn't be sufficient unless it was a small coffee maker.

[love to hunt]

I see no real advantage to 24V since everything in the world is 12V.

Battery Life to run a tv/vcr is in my experience is 3 hours before you are out of juice. Tried it last winter and got half way through the second movie and it was almost too dead to run 1 light.

Alternatives:

1) Get a generator

2) Get a 12V tv/vcr

3) Get an LCD tv/dvd (lcd draws less power)

Unfortunatly these are all spendy options with the least expensive being the 12V tv/vcr.

I personally don't use a converter. I now run 2 very good 1000 amp hour batteries, connected in parrellel (positive to positive and negative to negative) and all 12V stuff (tv, coffee pot, fan, lights...) and I can run solid for about 3 days with out a recharge.

I don't burn the lights during the day hours, only watch tv when I am really board, and run the Vex constantly.

I also run the fan on a livewell timer so it cycles on and off saving more juice.

One last thing I run a tow and charge off the truck so when I start getting weak power I just plug in and start the truck. 2 hours and I have good batteries again. SLICK

[deepportage01]

Quote:

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One last thing I run a tow and charge off the truck so when I start getting weak power I just plug in and start the truck. 2 hours and I have good batteries again. SLICK

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Darn rite, that is slick. That was the cheepest and best thing that went into my shack

I have to agree with L2h on runing as many things as you can find just on 12v, they do make 12v coffe pots and DVD players,

To get even an ok inverter you will most likely have $250-$400 into the thing so why not just spend the $$$$ on the 12v accessories IMO.

L2h did a post not to long ago on this charging system, I would look it up and go that rout

The other nice side afect of the charging that runs of your truck is you will only have to run the generator to charge when you don't want to start the truck up, very slick!

[HarryG]

The tow & charge is great. I do something similar. I have a deep cycle in my truck. If my battery in the house runs down, I connect it to my truck. Then when I go to eat, bait run or something else, my battery gets charged. I don't have all the toys in my house as I am usually to tired to do anything but rest in the evening, so I an not concerned about my truck not starting. At some point I will add the tow & charge. Besides, if you had to pick a place to break down, I would want to break down near some Ice Fishermen. They are always willing to lend a hand.

[GRAND DAD]

Here is what I can tell you I have a 1000 watt inverter in my old fish house I can run a tv with dvd and light's on a deep cycal battery for about 8 to 12 hours I bring 3 batter's for a fishing week end and have a little to spare.Now my 1000 watt will not power a coffee pot nor a skillet.My new fish house am putting to together I will have a 3000 watt to power all my outlets and light's and all my goode's

[rippinlipz]

From what I have heard about inverters is that even though you are not pulling the watts its still using them. So a 400watt power inverter, still pulls the full 400watts even if you are not using it.

I personally have a 200watt inverter, cause it pulls the least amount of power, but will run a tv and dvd player.

Am I right on this theory?

[LMITOUT]

No.

It will output what the device (load) requires.

You can verify this by simply placing a multi-meter in series with one of your battery cables and then turn on and off equipment. For the heck of it I checked my lights and other various items to see how much juice they pulled. I had a flourescent trouble light (13W bulb) plugged into my inverter which pulled 1.1 Amps. I verfied this by doing some simple math (13Watt/12V = 1.1 A).

[huntingislife]

I think I did read somewhere that the invertor will have a small draw when it is idle. Somewhere in the milliamp range though. Unplugging it would eliminate that though.

[LMITOUT]

Yes, it will have some losses just idling and also when it's being loaded. The efficiency will change depending on the amount of load due to heat.

I also should have checked my battery voltage to do an accurate verification because I'm sure the voltage was higher than 12V which would show how much current the inverter was using/losing due to the efficiency being less than 100%. If the battery was 12.5V the current draw for the light would be 1.04A which would mean there was 1.1 - 1.04 = 60mA in inverter losses.......but who's counting.

[huntingislife]

How long do you get out of your battery? Does the 400 watt inverter shut down after an hour to cool. Or is the tv/dvd load not enough to make it do that?

[ice_it_06]

Look in to 12V mobile car audio/video options.

Various 10" - 12" lcd TV/Video options out there in ceiling mount flip downs for $275 - $400.

With the hassle of hauling a home style 13" around which are highly sensative to moving and temps, plus the "inverter" costs for a high quality model and all the battery capacity you need its much more logical IMHO to search out these sleek Auto & RV options for 12V Audio/DVD.

Guy I know has a 15" table top type with removable leg stand. He puts it in a laptop case and takes it home with him. In the fish house he snaps the leg stand on it & plugs in the antenna and 12V supply in his house. TV & Movies in seconds About as hassle free as you can get plus he uses it in his suburban for his kids.

[HarryG]

I have to agree with the logic ice_it_06 has. There are a lot of RV options which may be more expensive initially, they are in the long run a better deal. But from reading your posts, I think you may still want an inverter.

Good Luck!!!!

[ice_it_06]

HarryG:

The options are endless it seems in what a guy can do to his fish house now days. My brothers is loaded with everything under the sun. He tows his with him on & off the ice so "theft" is not a serious issue with him. But for others you need to make all these "goodies" mobile and hassle free not to mention "safety" with all the wiring and electrical knowledge you need to ubderstand all the stuff you have scattered everywhere.

Portable 12V lcd Tv and DVD combos are everywhere for any purpose. Very competitive market and with simple shopping you can be set for just a TV easily for $300. Less if a 9" screen will do you.

My son is getting one with a outlet to plug in his mobile DVD player for his newly aquired fish house he's fixing up.

12V socket and antenna is already in the house he bought so it cant get much easier.

[huntingislife]

Hmmm, maybe just a portable dvd player. I think you can get them in 10" screens. And then just connect the 12v power cord to the battery. That would be real easy to take with you.