inverter
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PaulC
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An inverter works by taken the 12 volt battery supply and boosting it to say 240 volts. But it can drain a battery very fast if you have a power hungry device on. Depending on battery condition and amps been drawn decides how long a battery can last. Not very long in some cases! Cheap ones are no good for TV or audio use.
biggirafe
Guest
Hi
We have one for pluging our laptop power supply into. As the laptop is only 12v anyway when we run out of laptop power we can then plug the power supply into the inverter and continue to use it.
As Paul says do not plug anything power hungry into an inverter, for instance a kettle or your hair tongs are right out the question. The instructions that came with mine implied that if we did plug the kettle in we could damage the battery beyond repair.
We have one for pluging our laptop power supply into. As the laptop is only 12v anyway when we run out of laptop power we can then plug the power supply into the inverter and continue to use it.
As Paul says do not plug anything power hungry into an inverter, for instance a kettle or your hair tongs are right out the question. The instructions that came with mine implied that if we did plug the kettle in we could damage the battery beyond repair.
Firefox
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Volts x Amps in = Volts x Amps out (Neglecting 5-10% losses)
So 12v x 80 Amps in gives you 240v x 4 amps out.
That would be for a 1000w inverter like the one I have. You can get them from Maplins for about £80. But you can see 80A is a huge drain on the battery. It would flatten the average leisure battery in an hour, so you have to be careful what you use them on.
Probably the best kind of use would be a 100w inverter for a small laptop. Now you are only drawing 8 amps and could run for 10 hours off the battery.
Or a bigger inverter for larger appliances like microwaves and hairdryers that you are only going to run for 10 mins max.
So 12v x 80 Amps in gives you 240v x 4 amps out.
That would be for a 1000w inverter like the one I have. You can get them from Maplins for about £80. But you can see 80A is a huge drain on the battery. It would flatten the average leisure battery in an hour, so you have to be careful what you use them on.
Probably the best kind of use would be a 100w inverter for a small laptop. Now you are only drawing 8 amps and could run for 10 hours off the battery.
Or a bigger inverter for larger appliances like microwaves and hairdryers that you are only going to run for 10 mins max.