Leisure Battery

Depends on the size of the invertor and the type of invertor. Unless its a pure sinewave invertor dont try running laptops or sensitive stuff off it. A 300w Pure sine wave invertor is what we use for laptops, smart phone fast chargers that kind of thing. If you want to power anything bigger you will need a much bigger beast and they need properly wiring in but you wont be able to run anything 240v for long on a single 65ah battery without some means of charging it up pretty quickly. Might be easier if you tell us what you want to run off it.
 
Most laptop chargers work just fine off cheap invertors, what doesn't work are inductive chargers such as toothbrush which get knackered, I'm guessing WiFi charging phones is a no no also.
 
colinm said:
Most laptop chargers work just fine off cheap invertors, what doesn't work are inductive chargers such as toothbrush which get knackered, I'm guessing WiFi charging phones is a no no also.
Click to expand...

Now you mention it I think it was our old none pure sinewave inverter that knackered two electric toothbrushes. I dont think I would trust powering an expensive laptop off it though so I bought one of these. Its brilliant.

www.ebay.co.uk

Inverter Power Wave Sine Pure Ac Dc 12v 120v 110v Converter Car Rv 24v Solar Wat | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Inverter Power Wave Sine Pure Ac Dc 12v 120v 110v Converter Car Rv 24v Solar Wat at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.
www.ebay.co.uk
 
A laptop is better charged from a 12 to 19v ciggy plug charger, phones are charged from the less battery through a proper 5v dash unit.
usb d.jpg
4 way panel.png
usb e.jpg
van g.jpg
 
barryd said:
Depends on the size of the invertor and the type of invertor. Unless its a pure sinewave invertor dont try running laptops or sensitive stuff off it. A 300w Pure sine wave invertor is what we use for laptops, smart phone fast chargers that kind of thing. If you want to power anything bigger you will need a much bigger beast and they need properly wiring in but you wont be able to run anything 240v for long on a single 65ah battery without some means of charging it up pretty quickly. Might be easier if you tell us what you want to run off it.
Click to expand...
Just thinking about a small heater, not for long periods. Just to warm the van. I would just charge the battery when I was hooked up or on my return.
 
madtheswine99 said:
Just thinking about a small heater, not for long periods. Just to warm the van. I would just charge the battery when I was hooked up or on my return.
Click to expand...

As in a fan heater? I think you will struggle, in fact I would be so bold as to say it wont work. Far more knowledgeable people than me on here when it comes to amps and inverters etc but I would say even the smallest of electric heaters will use 700-1000 watts I reckon and even with a powerful 1500-2000 watt inverter which will need to be properly wired to the battery it will drain a 65ah battery in no time I reckon.
 
madtheswine99 said:
Just thinking about a small heater, not for long periods. Just to warm the van. I would just charge the battery when I was hooked up or on my return.
Click to expand...
I have a 400W Oil Rad that cycles on and off so uses an average of 200Wh/Hr. I do use that on a battery but only when I want to do a discharge test!

If you were to use your 65Ah battery in the generally recommended way (so not discharging below 50%) AND your battery was in tip-top condition (maybe if it was a freebie, that is unlikely to be the case?), a heater like mine might run for 90 minutes and you would likely not even notice the heat from it.
 
madtheswine99 said:
Just thinking about a small heater, not for long periods. Just to warm the van. I would just charge the battery when I was hooked up or on my return.
Click to expand...

A 65ah battery and a 300w inverter are not suitable for warming the MoHo.

Most MoHo electrical heaters are 1kw to 3kw (1,000w to 3,000w) and thus well beyond the inverters power.

If you manage to find a 300w 240v heater it will providing as much heat as a dozen candles or, to put it another way, you could get the same heat by asking someone to join you in the van.

Meanwhile the 300w heater would be drawing over 25 amps from the 12v battery and would flatten it in about an hour.
 
I have a tiny 400w plug type heater which runs of the 600w inverter for a short time until the van heater kicks in when driving in winter.
 
r4dent said:
A 65ah battery and a 300w inverter are not suitable for warming the MoHo.

Most MoHo electrical heaters are 1kw to 3kw (1,000w to 3,000w) and thus well beyond the inverters power.

If you manage to find a 300w 240v heater it will providing as much heat as a dozen candles or, to put it another way, you could get the same heat by asking someone to join you in the van.

Meanwhile the 300w heater would be drawing over 25 amps from the 12v battery and would flatten it in about an hour.
Click to expand...
Best suggestion so far .
 
We had a 2kw/1kw fan heater which we only used on EHU.
It died but I found this in a charity shop for £7
www.lunairoad.com

Electric Space Heater- HeaterBoost

Electric Space Heater- HeaterBoost
www.lunairoad.com
It is exactly what I want.
Only 500w but enough. We only used the old one on 1kw.
Simply to give additional heat to take the pressure off our Truma gas heater and the battery.
Obviously possible to use off a 600watt inverter maybe for 10 mins.
Simple calculation
600 watts at 240v draws 50 amps at 12v.
50 amps x 1/4 hour is 12 amp-hours.
Perfectly manageable with care.
Not for us as I do not plan a 600watt inverter.
However it is an excellent replacement for our previous heater.
It is very small and light.
And will act as a fan to cool.
Given the position of our mains sockets I will need a 1 metre (240v) extension cable.
 
colinm said:
I have warned before about Orbis heaters and similar.
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/orbisheater.pro
Click to expand...
Thanks Colin.
I guess safety might also be an issue.
Only £7 wasted.
Only planned to use it on ehu anyway.
AND only for short periods and as with our other heater only when awake and able to monitor it.
Anything above minimal heat is handy and our habitation area is small.
Might be a while before we test it as in the summer we rarely use EHU.
Thanks for posting.
I am aware that 500watts is very low power for a heater.
Will report back in due course
 
jagmanx said:
We had a 2kw/1kw fan heater which we only used on EHU.
It died but I found this in a charity shop for £7
www.lunairoad.com

Electric Space Heater- HeaterBoost

Electric Space Heater- HeaterBoost
www.lunairoad.com
It is exactly what I want.
Only 500w but enough. We only used the old one on 1kw.
Simply to give additional heat to take the pressure off our Truma gas heater and the battery.
Obviously possible to use off a 600watt inverter maybe for 10 mins.
Simple calculation
600 watts at 240v draws 50 amps at 12v.
50 amps x 1/4 hour is 12 amp-hours.
Perfectly manageable with care.
Not for us as I do not plan a 600watt inverter.
However it is an excellent replacement for our previous heater.
It is very small and light.
And will act as a fan to cool.
Given the position of our mains sockets I will need a 1 metre (240v) extension cable.
Click to expand...
Only a 400w will work of a 600w inverter, tried it on my 500 and it would go 10 seconds and cut, the 400w one is ok to keep the wifes legs warm to the van heater kicks in, the plug is at bottom left in her footwell, and no they will not heat a van.
 
I think those tube heaters are generally for frost protection in greenhouses?
I fitted one in my Master workshop van as an attempt to keep above 0C overnight. No use. Resorted to reptile tank heaters in the cupboards instead.
 
Thanks Trev but only used an inverter one year to power a laptop.
Then got a 12v to 19v jobbie.
Now I just use tablet phone and power banks so all usb.
I still have a low power lnverter but not used it for 4 years
It plugs into ciggy socket and is 300watt and used very rarely
 
wildebus said:
I think those tube heaters are generally for frost protection in greenhouses?
I fitted one in my Master workshop van as an attempt to keep above 0C overnight. No use. Resorted to reptile tank heaters in the cupboards instead.
Click to expand...
I have a few of them, bigger ones get very hot to touch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top