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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / RVs / September 2005Inverter considerations?
Our rig has several small inverters for various stuff - the GPS, TV, satellite, etc. I want to replace them with a single larger unit so I can wire it in properly. A 2 kw job would run anything onboard except the air conditioner. So... Looking around, I have found beauceau units at battery shops, large home centers, Frys, etc. Those are several hundred dollars. The local RV dealer also has a couple, but for several thousand dollars - it being an apparently well known fact that all RV owners are very wealthy. Price aside, what bothers me is the efficiency of the models I have found. I don't know what the percentage of a decent unit should be, but so far I haven't found but one that is more 90 percent efficent and most are much worse. On a fully loaded 2k unit that is 200 watts of thrown away power at best. So what should be the minimum eff factor of a decent inverter? And anyone got any recomendations for one? Thanks all BH Making AC from DC isn't really efficient, so I would expect that 90% is pretty good. What I think you have probably failed to take into account is that I would bet that none of your current smaller inverters are anywhere near that efficient; you may be "throwing away" more than that now! Marty > Our rig has several small inverters for various stuff - the GPS, TV, > satellite, etc. I want to replace them with a single larger unit so I can [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > Thanks all > BH I see where Bob Hardy <bhxxxx@localhost.net> contributed: >Price aside, what bothers me is the efficiency of the models I have found. >I don't know what the percentage of a decent unit should be, but so far I >haven't found but one that is more 90 percent efficent and most are >much worse. 90% is the best you can expect. Hey, the batteries themselves are not that good! Will Sill The Curmudgeon of Sill Hill > Price aside, what bothers me is the efficiency of the models I have found. > I don't know what the percentage of a decent unit should be, but so far I > haven't found but one that is more 90 percent efficent and most are > much worse. On a fully loaded 2k unit that is 200 watts of thrown away > power at best. FYI, 90% efficiency for an inverter is pretty darn good. Interesting. Obviously the advances in energy generation have not included inverter technology. This explains why I haven't found shelves of 99 percent efficent inverters. This bodes ill for us in our coming energy crisis since very few sources of alternate power deliver it at 110 volts AC. Since an average house has a 200 amp/220 volt service and would require a 44000 watt inverter, you won't need a central heater since you will automatically have one built in using the waste heat. Maybe Edison was right and Westinghouse was wrong way back in the 19 century and we should have stuck to DC distribution:) But seriously, since switching power supplies are getting very efficient (the quality ones, that is - not the knockoffs made in Changching, Slobbovia) I just assumed that the gadgets that went the other way were improving also. BH > Interesting. Obviously the advances in energy generation Advances, eh? And what might THOSE be? :) > have not included inverter technology. Oh, I dunno... As the OP said, 90% is particularly efficient. Heck, we routinely replace 15-20% efficient incandescent lamps with more of the same and think nothing of it. > an average house has a 200 amp/220 volt service and would > require a 44000 watt inverter, you won't need a central heater since you > will automatically have one built in using the waste heat. Hehehe! Then there's air conditioning season. <sigh> > Maybe Edison was right and Westinghouse was wrong way back in the 19 > century and we should have stuck to DC distribution:) Yep. With a dynamo on every corner. Wow. :) > But seriously, since switching power supplies are getting very efficient > (the quality ones, that is - not the knockoffs made in Changching, > Slobbovia) I just assumed that the gadgets that went the other way were > improving also. I knew it was going to be even longer before I could afford a solar/inverter installation sufficient to meet my needs that are now met with a Honda EU2000i ultra quiet generator. http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/eu2000.htm Equivalent ALTERNATIVE energy just CO$T$ so much! <sigh> :) JR >>Interesting. Obviously the advances in energy generation > [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > :) > JR Actually power needs are not that high unless you have a all electric home and heat with resistance strips (they are far worse than A/C's). In the real world, you house if it has gas, oil or propane heat will likely not see much above a 15kw load or so (less than 70 amps at 220 volts) and a lot less most of the time and besides you could alway load shift to limit power draw (like not run dryer when A/C is runs or other high draw items. Also big pary of your load is lighting (a standard bulb is only about 5% effiecent) and if you change to the newer hiefficency bulbs you can cut a few KW's off of your peak load too with no loss of lighting brightness.  Signature----------------- www.thesnoman.com > Actually power needs are not that high unless you have a all electric home > and heat with resistance strips (they are far worse than A/C's). In the [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > effiecent) and if you change to the newer hiefficency bulbs you can cut a > few KW's off of your peak load too with no loss of lighting brightness. We have an all electric house- with the shop running on the same meter. Small house (~1200 square feet), unheated/air conditioned shop (another 1500 square feet), and a heat pump (though with heat strips), but we do have several rigs plugged in and running at any one time. We are in a "temperate" climate, and on our electric meter (a commercial electronic model), the highest peak load we have ever seen is under 15kw, FWIW. SignatureChris Bryant http://bryantrv.com
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