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power ?
By hiker, Section Homebrewed Electricity Posted on Sun Aug 17th, 2008 at 06:39:28 AM MST
hmmm

just picked up a 1500 watt inverter....
hooked up a single 12 car batt to it--using monster speaker cable--short leads..
most i could get out of it was 800 watts--so i hooked it up to my car batt with
engine running--got up to 1000 watts before the inverter shut down--low batt
light came on..with that test i used jumper cables..is this normal or what??
maybe my little alt. on my geo metro wasnt up to the task............
well i guess my real question is --just how much power does it take to power
up a 1500 watt inverter?????????????

power ? | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 editorial)

Re: power ? (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by Flux on Sun Aug 17th, 2008 at 12:54:40 AM MST
(User Info)

To get 1500W with low battery and inefficiencies you will need close on 150A. This is comparable to the starting load on a small vehicle. Typically during starting the vehicle battery will drop below 10v. This is well below the low volt cut out of the inverter.

Running high power inverters on a 12v battery is a serious challenge and you need a large battery bank to even stand a chance of running it at full power for long.

If the thing is only required to supply a short surge to say start a motor then it may not be so bad but to sustain full power for a significant time is beyond the average car battery.

Flux

Re: power ? (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by hiker (hiker.wild[at]yahoo[dot]com) on Sun Aug 17th, 2008 at 01:17:09 AM MST
(User Info)

thanks for the quick reply flux....[just a part time isp here]
had no idea it takes that much power..
i thought maybe i bought a bad inverter--pawn shop special-60 bucks..
even my big workaholic storage batt. had problems with it....
later................................
WILD IN ALASKA
[ Parent ]

Re: power ? (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by TomW on Sun Aug 17th, 2008 at 08:07:19 AM MST
(User Info)

Hiker;

Jumper cables have such a small contact area on any hard points [like bolts for terminals on inverters] that I doubt they can pass high current very well.

On a vehicle you often get them into the lead of the post which helps lots.

Just a thought.

Plus everything Flux noted.

Tom

"Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned."--Mark Twain

Re: power ? (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by ghurd on Sun Aug 17th, 2008 at 09:25:16 AM MST
(User Info)

Soldering the cable to the jumper clamps helps.

Also someone wanted more info on one of your alts.
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/8/16/16249/1149
G-

power ? | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 editorial)

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