What do you use your inverter for?

No-one’s mentioned it yet, but a Skybox will not run on 12v without an inverter, and of course, the coffee machine.
 
Hairdryer, coffee machine, romaska, Ebike chargers, Bluray player, (cant find a good12 volt one)
I will add 230v tv to this list, as the 12volt ones are just a bit behind the tech development curve.
roof Aircon. and ice machine.

So to the electronics,
4 x220amp 6v Trojan agm Leisure
2x 200 amp Agm. (chassis)
1 x 100 amp Agm,.chassis ancillaries
160amp 24v alternater
400w solar for 12v
150w for 24 volt
100 amp Alternator sensed B2B charger
3000 w (12 v) inverter for all except Aircon
2000w inverter (24v) inverter for roof Aircon
Dometic chest fridge runs purely off 24v solar
Mains chargers
viltron 50amp smart for 12v + 3amp for 12v ancillary batt on chassis
viltron 24v 7amp batt charger for chassis
Efoy 210 as purely back up.

all the chassis anciliarys whilst driving.. Radio, sat nav, reverse cameras,usb sockets, alarm systems, wifi,
now have there own 12v batt, and charging system, as this many volt droppers are just a nuisance and are unreliable.
not to mention the heat from them all.

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Don't have an inverter. Over last 12 years we've travelled 8 to 9 months a year, mainly wild camping in Greece and Eastern Europe. I've never felt the need for an inverter. We charge the laptop, mobile, camera from the piggy lighter socket when running. If I need a drill, etc it's better to go to a campsite with hookup anyway. The MH heating has a vent above the door which my dear lady uses as a hairdryer.
 
Clive Mott said:
Same as most others. 1800 watts pure sine wave. Mainly microwave for defrosting or cooking frozen meals. And for charging phones laptops etc. The install means it feeds all the sockets and it has a seperate RCD to provide shock protection..
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Aren't you better charging your phone via 12V to eradicate losses associated with the inverter? Seems very inefficient to take 12v out the battery, convert it up to 230V in the inverter with the associated losses that goes with them, only to have the phones charger drop it all the way back down to 5V again.

You can also get 12v cigarettes' lighter plug chargers for most laptops. The one I have charges most laptops because the end is changeable. £26 on amazon.

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CamperJack said:
As some of you may know I may be moving into my van full / semi full time if I go back to university to do a masters. Probably four - five days a week minimum, assuming I come home every weekend. Which I may well not because of diesel costs.

I am thinking of installing an inverter. But I'm not sure how many things I would actually use with it. I can charge most things, including the laptop, with 12v cigarette lighter sockets or USB.

Perhaps the only thing I can think I would really miss that runs on 240v is a stick blender. And before anyone asks how often I use one it's probably once every two or three days because I eat a lot of home made soups. Perhaps I could also use a 240V TV rather than spending a fortune on a 12v TV too?

So what do you guys use your inverter for or what 240V things do you use in the van? Or can anyone point me towards a 12v stick blender? :roflmto:
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The inverter has a separate circuit. I connect TV, Radio, supply tv arial booster. I also have a three pin socket holder for charging anything like batteries, mobile etc. This comes very handy. The circuit is supported by a circuit breaker 16 and 32 Amps.
 
Raymond Bonello said:
The inverter has a separate circuit. I connect TV, Radio, supply tv arial booster. I also have a three pin socket holder for charging anything like batteries, mobile etc. This comes very handy. The circuit is supported by a circuit breaker 16 and 32 Amps.
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A tip, you can get a inline Ariel booster and turn on the 5v the Ariel setting on TV. That saves a booster, and it’s supply power.
 
The wattage on the microwave advert will be the output watts. You need to look at the small print, at the input watts. Typically a small '800W' microwave will consume 1000 to 1100 watts. You might get away with a good 1200W inverter, but 1500W would be a better bet.
 
I can tell you from previous experience; we used to run a 850w microwave of a victron 1,6kva, that’s about 1300w output. It was pretty much on the limit. On the battery monitor, the draw was close to 1200w most of the time. Microwaves are power hungry and heavy. Go for a mini oven/ grill with normal heating element, no transformer.
 
We have an Ecoflow Delta solar generator, and we can use a hairdryer,microwave and most other power hungry things on it. I also charge my ebikes,laptop and phones on it. Then we just top it up thru the cigarette lighter socket as we travel.
 
We have 200amp of lithium, 2000w inverter wired to all the sockets, 60amp b2b and 120w solar. Use it for microwave, induction hob, nespresso maker, roof aircon, hairdryer, straighteners, bike battery recharging, iPad Pro recharging etc. Works like magic!
 
Microwave. We had it fitted for this and don’t use it for anything else.
 
tonyidle said:
You can get 12v - 19v laptop power supplies. Here's one example:

<Broken link removed>
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I have a 24" LG TV that came with a 19V powerbrick. It works fine with one of these 19V adapters too. The adaptors have multiple tips to fit different computers - one of the Sony tips works fine with the TV.
 
autorouter said:
I have a 24" LG TV that came with a 19V powerbrick. It works fine with one of these 19V adapters too. The adaptors have multiple tips to fit different computers - one of the Sony tips works fine with the TV.
Click to expand...
this is my problem, Ive gone through 20+ tips from varying "universal " sets?
Ill keep looking

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