MSW Inverters With CPFL lights

[PEdoubleNIZZLE]

After seeing the price of 1 compact fluorescent bulb for 12V use (around US$16), I've decided to get one of those "cheapie" 400W inverters (the kind you use in a car to power a small load.) I'm assuming, since they're small and cheap (~$40), that they are a modified sine wave. Will 120VAC compact fluorescent bulbs work on a modified sine wave inverter? I can pick these bulbs up 5 for $9 at Lowes (minus my employee discount, of course :-D). If it works, then 10 Lights will be $54, versus $160. How much power do inverters draw without a load?

Thanks,

Josh

[ghurd]

Inverter no load power depends and varies greatly with the brand.

Cheapie 400W ~$40? A Vector VEC024? That takes about 60ma no load.

I had a flea market no name 300W that took over 2A no load!

Could have been over 3A. Long time ago.

Also remember the efficiency is low, at a low percentage of the maximum watts.

Most cheap MSW inverters have the best efficiency at around 90% of the rated maximum continious load, like a 400W inverter does best at 360W load.

I have reports that the cheap inverters and cheap 120VAC CFLs kind of "argue" with each other. One wins. The other burns out. Flip a coin.

Not sure how right they are, but my luck wasn't that great either. So now I use name brand $20~25 11W 12V CFLs. The 11W makes considerably more light and only uses about 200ma more than the 7W.

A customer is running 12 or 14 name brand 11W 12V CFL in an off-grid dairy barn maybe 4 hours a day. Very humid. Even 2 in the milk house because the inspectors require that.  The CFL box says not to do that. I only replaced 1 in maybe 3 years now.

Oh. Not sure how many real hours. The barn switching is set up for every other light, or all the lights. Half the CFLs have less hours than the other half.

You may find a 175W Vector and 10 120VAC 13W lights to be more efficient and $10 cheaper.

Avoid those little 75 to 100W do-hickys without any wires that plug straight into the lighter.

G-

[PaulJ]

   Some brands of CFL work fine on MSW, others either won't start at all or will flicker on and off. Tends to be the cheaper ones that don't work of course. I never had any probs with Phillips brand globes, I'm still using some which outlived my MSW inverter.

[drdongle]

Where did you see CFL's for 12VDC?

[ghurd]

http://store.solar-electric.com/sol12voldcli.html

[srnoth]

Um, our 'hosts' sell them for half that, and at 13 watts:

http://www.wondermagnets.com/cgi-bin/edatcat/WMSstore.pl?user_action=detail&catalogno=2121

Cheers,

Stephen.

[drdongle]

thanks

[nothing to lose]

Hey Ghurd,

I think maybe Black and Decker bought out Vector??

I was looking at Wal-mart tonight to see what they had for cheapy inverter and first time I ever saw Black and Decker inverters!! Not one Vector! And Black and Decker has a battery charger EXACTLY like my Vector smart charger which I can no longer find. I mean exactly, the picture on the box was my charger with a B&D label! Same specs same buttons, same labels on the buttons. Same charger, different name!

"I have reports that the cheap inverters and cheap 120VAC CFLs kind of "argue" with each other. One wins. The other burns out."

 I can say for certain I have not had any problems with those screw in CFL bulbs and cheapy inverters yet. I use those screw in's alot. I have a $5 drop light with a $3 CFL bulb and was using it all weekend off a cheapy OLD whistler 300 watt inverter as a yard light at the rock house. Ran it off batteries in the truck, ran house off AIMS 5K inverter, also Mod wave, and all but one light there is CFL screw in bulbs and they all work fine also. Course the AIMs 5K was not really cheap.

 Before I ruined my 400Watt Xantrex it ran the CFL drop light fine also.

Perhaps it has to be a super junk cheapy inverter or the problems are a myth perhaps??

Granted many of my CFL's are probably cheap multie pack GE ones from Wal-mart. I have several types, even a couple from Big Lots and all work fine, but probably only a couple been used on the cheap small inverter though, most are in the houses.

[nothing to lose]

Thanks for that link, I did not know they had those.

I look every so often at the store, but missed those I geuss.

Not a bad price, I may get a couple myself.

[ghurd]

I looked here first but didn't find them.

[ghurd]

The problems I was talking about show up in a couple weeks or months of daily use.

Quite a while maybe for cheap, but the inverter and CFL should still last longer than that, IMHO.

Maybe they would still be great for camping, backup, hurricanes, etc.

I think B&D must be packaging other brands.  Like Craftsman does, they have B&D 'VersaPack', Dremmel tools, etc. with the Craftsman name.

Sam's Club yesterday had a 8 pack of CFLs for $12.  

And they seem to no longer carry the Vector name stuff, but the (very, very crappy) Power-On-Board junk line by Vector.

G-