12v dc to ac 240v inverter advice

[2XB]

Hi all,

I require some assistance please, i have some deep cycle 12v lead acid batteries i wish to use to power some appliances, mainly small guitar amps etc, and for lights etc camping...

I want to get an inverter but dont want to spend too much... jaycar have some < $100 on their website. Any experience with these cheaper items...

I would also like to charge the batteries with a solar panel down the track.....

I can run prob 3 batteries in parralel......... if that is any advantage.

I appreciate any input thanks :-)

[zed240]

I've got one of these.

http://www.anacondastores.com/camping-hiking/power-cooling/fridges/waeco-inverter-12vdc-240v/p/90003106?gclid=CJWVuomZ9ccCFdh5vQod71wM-g

It has a USB plug on it as well as the 240 volt aussie wall plug. Mine is rated for 150 watts max, most appliances will tell you what wattage they draw so you can add up the items you're plugging in. Pretty sure guitar amps might draw a lot though.... And I've got a ciggie lighter socket soldered up to a set of battery clips so I can run it off of a car battery independant of the car's.

As far as lights and speakers for camping goes, I'd recommend a couple of things, get something like a UE Boom for the tunes, great sound, long battery life, plays wirelessly via bluetooth (and/or WI-Fi if you buy the more expensive version). They can be linked to run 2 UE Boom's at once in stereo or just use one alone, which still sounds great.

And use LED's for lights. You can get little battery clips that you can attach directly to the battery terminals, (like the one I'm using for the ciggie socket for the inverter), and they draw so little power you can save it for the more important things as well as run lots of LEDs off the same battery/clip set up. You can get the LEDs in strips and in spotlight type set ups from places like Jaycar. You usually have to solder and clip them together yourself though.

[2XB]

Thanks zed. Good info. We have the ui boom. So good huh :-) didnt know about the stereo option. Thats sweet.

I would mostly using the inverter to run the chargers for phones n boom. And a flouro at night. Perhaps if a flouro is too energy hungry i can get some led's.

The amp is a little class a valve amp rated at about 4 watts... dont know if that has anything to do with power consumption but it was made in the 60's so it probably guzzles power ;-).

[ghosty]

watts has everything to do with power consumption. 150watt on 240v gives you 0.625 amps (625 milliamp) total power. Not much.. Called ohms law. there are ohms calculators too, to make life easy =) My phone charger draws 200Ma (could use that, leaving me 425Ma left) my camera charger draws 150Ma (leaving 275Ma) to give some idea.

In reality, 150watt is, well, pretty useless for almost all 240v items =)

Just buy a cheap one. they are basically just transistors. (if your verry worried about it, upgrade the heat-sinks and the capacitors inside. In my experience, paying more for electrical items often results in seeing some really sloppy soldering jobs when repair time comes round. With the odd exception. I'm almost always left wondering "why the hell did i choose to pay more?? it's total shit... A monkey could solder this better".

Edited September 14, 2015 by ghosty

[ballzac]

Cheap inverters typically output a 'modified' sine wave. This usually results in an audible hum in things like guitar amps. With lights you probably won't notice a difference.

I lived on solar power for a couple of years and used 3 different inverters, including one of the cheapo ones from from Jaycar, and a ~$1000 pure sine wave inverter. It definitely makes a difference for things like television and guitar amps.