Invertors

Thanks for all the advice. There is something wrong that I need to check. My Tassimo pulls 1300w according to spec. I have a feeling my current invertor is 2000w Max and 1000w Continuous. Will check tommorrow. I think that will explain why it 'just' trips.
Everything else works fine - but just TVs, Laptops etc etc.
Coffee Machine: https://www.tassimo.com/gb/vivy-2-t140-real-black is brilliant. Have a full blown Grinder/Coffee Machine at Home. Once used you'd never go back to 'Instant Coffee'... Yuk !
:sicker:
 
What make is your inverter and how much it ways? A 2kw inverter will have Min four bridges of fet’s on ally radiators And a thoroidal to boost the voltage after fets. It will weigh min 11-12kg. Some low frequency weigh more Due to larger transformer and less fet’s . But qualility of sine wave is lower. But great surge.
 
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Pls , pls , help , ordered new van , January pick up date, I have been told I would need a 2000w inverter, it’s a camper van . Yes we like camp sites and wild camping, my question is do we need an inverter? . Wife has hair dryer and we use tv for a hour or two . For me a techno phobe , it is very confusing. I have had a lot of advice from thie fantastic forums on this site , but I do get very confused . Ordered solar panel and two leisure batteries . I just get so muddled with yes you need one or no you don’t. I must say the dealer is charging £1000 to fit it , it is a pure sine one. Any advice much appreciated . Thank you for any answers.
 
dodfloss said:
Pls , pls , help , ordered new van , January pick up date, I have been told I would need a 2000w inverter, it’s a camper van . Yes we like camp sites and wild camping, my question is do we need an inverter? . Wife has hair dryer and we use tv for a hour or two . For me a techno phobe , it is very confusing. I have had a lot of advice from thie fantastic forums on this site , but I do get very confused . Ordered solar panel and two leisure batteries . I just get so muddled with yes you need one or no you don’t. I must say the dealer is charging £1000 to fit it , it is a pure sine one. Any advice much appreciated . Thank you for any answers.
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You will need an inverter if your wife insists on drying her hair when you are not on a site with electric hook up. £1000 to fit sounds expensive or does that also include the inverter.
 
dodfloss said:
my question is do we need an inverter? . Wife has hair dryer and we use tv for a hour or two
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If the question is, my wife insists on using a 2000W hair dryer, what inverter do I need? The answer is a 2000W inverter.

If the question is, my wife will make do with a 1000W hair dryer on the occasions when we don't have hookup, what inverter do I need? The answer is a 1000W inverter.

Obviously a 1kW inverter is cheaper than a 2kW, but in addition there's a big difference in the installation provisions for a 1kW inverter compared to a 2kW one.

A 1kW inverter can probably run OK off two leisure batteries. Three would be better, but two you could get away with for occasional use. Double that for a 2kW inverter. In a campervan with limited space you may need to go for Lithium to save weight and space, which is expensive. So in some ways it's more about the batteries than the inverter.

The TV, phone/laptop chargers, electric toothbrush etc are all 100W or less, so would run perfectly well from a small 150W pure sine wave inverter. Small inverters up to about 150W can be plugged into a cigarette-lighter socket, but anything bigger needs to be wired direct to the battery.

You can get 12V-powered TVs. Also many TVs have a power brick that converts the mains voltage to a low DC voltage. In that case you can probably get an adapter that converts 12V DC from the battery to whatever DC the TV requires.

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dodfloss said:
Pls , pls , help , ordered new van , January pick up date, I have been told I would need a 2000w inverter, it’s a camper van . Yes we like camp sites and wild camping, my question is do we need an inverter? . Wife has hair dryer and we use tv for a hour or two . For me a techno phobe , it is very confusing. I have had a lot of advice from thie fantastic forums on this site , but I do get very confused . Ordered solar panel and two leisure batteries . I just get so muddled with yes you need one or no you don’t. I must say the dealer is charging £1000 to fit it , it is a pure sine one. Any advice much appreciated . Thank you for any answers.
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The TV should be run off the 12V supply. Buy one from the Cello Traveller range or an Avtex (much more expensive) both of which come with a 12v supply. That will be much more efficient. The same can be said for chargers for laptops, phones, shavers, electric toothbrushes etc, all of which run off low voltage DC inside. So why use an inverter to make it high voltage DC and then use a transformer to take it down to low voltage DC?

BUT, you have a similar problem to me ....... the dreaded wife's hair dryer. That is the only reason I have an inverter. And for a simple hair dryer you simply do not need a pure sine wave inverter so to fit one is a waste of money. I have a cheap modified sine wave 2000W inverter which works just fine. But to use it at full chat will quickly flatten the batteries and, as others have said could cause overheating problems. So my wife uses a cheap 1200W travel hairdryer you can buy from Argos for a tenner. Much kinder on the batteries and still gets the job done as well as the one at home she tells me.

So save some money, because you will need more than 1 solar panel to be able to stay off grid for long in the UK except in summer.
 
Also perhaps worth remembering that when on a hook up the maximum supply you will get is 16 Amps and often a lot less. Even at 16 Amps a 2KW device will be using more than half the available Amps, so you will need to avoid other power hungry devices such as heating and hot water being on at the same time.
 
funflair said:
You will need an inverter if your wife insists on drying her hair when you are not on a site with electric hook up. £1000 to fit sounds expensive or does that also include the inverter.
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Yes that includes inverter, it is a pure sine one, thanks for your reply
 
Pausim said:
Also perhaps worth remembering that when on a hook up the maximum supply you will get is 16 Amps and often a lot less. Even at 16 Amps a 2KW device will be using more than half the available Amps, so you will need to avoid other power hungry devices such as heating and hot water being on at the same time.
[/QUOTE
Yes we can buy a low watt hair dryer, but do I need inverter on all the time or just when using hair dryer or other large watt items . So best to turn off when not using higher watt items ?
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I would turn the inverter off when not in use. I have an inverter with a bluetooth connection to a phone app and turning it off is easy, still has a very small quiescent current but not enough to worry me.

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dodfloss said:
Pls , pls , help , ordered new van , January pick up date, I have been told I would need a 2000w inverter, it’s a camper van . Yes we like camp sites and wild camping, my question is do we need an inverter? . Wife has hair dryer and we use tv for a hour or two . For me a techno phobe , it is very confusing. I have had a lot of advice from thie fantastic forums on this site , but I do get very confused . Ordered solar panel and two leisure batteries . I just get so muddled with yes you need one or no you don’t. I must say the dealer is charging £1000 to fit it , it is a pure sine one. Any advice much appreciated . Thank you for any answers.
Click to expand...

Get 12V adapters for your TV, phone etc. These will be much more efficient and not have noisy fans disturbing you. It is up to you whether you pay for effectively a £1000 hair dryer (remember this is only required for wilding or using CS/CL type campsites without electricity). There are cordless and 12V dryers out there. Obviously, they'll be miserable compared with a mains one. However, if you can find one with a strong fan (the heat output, if any, will always be poor), it will eventually work. Straighteners are also available and are not so limited by the available power.

The highest wattage I've seen for a portable hairdryer is 450W. Most are 150W or so.

Amazon product ASIN B07NMDL1LN
 
Jim said:
I have a Victron Inverter Charger, but it's not used for anything mentioned in this thread, for that I use 12v. 12v for Macbooks, cameras, phones, ect. In fact the inverter is only on for my hair dryer. :D
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Hi Jim

I have a Mac air book what do you recommend I run it from plug it into 240 plug socket or ????
 
A lot of people seem to have wifes demanding 2kw hair driers,if swmbo demanded the same im sure i could rig up a gas blowtorch for the job.
 

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