Inverters?

[asheets]

Ok, so I'm looking around on eBay to get a replacement inverter for my tiny solar panel setup.  The cheapie, auto cigarette lighter plug in types that I've been messing around with (65W to 100W) have been a dissapointment.  One didn't work, one blew up when I turned it on, and two didn't survive me dissasembling them so I could hook them up directly to my batteries instead of going through the cig-plug assembly.

My setup is 2 car batteries, being charged with solar panels, powering 2 15W CFLs from dusk to dawn.  It worked just fine on a borrowed inverter.

There are a variety of inverters on eBay (I'm filtering for 200W and up this time) and the likelyhood of getting a "tested working, guaranteed" unit that hooks directly up to the battery bank, for $0.01 is pretty good.  On the other hand, these "businessmen" wand $25+ for SH+H.

So, what's a good price, and brand for my purposes (taking into account future expansion, of course)?  Is $25.01 a reasonable bet?

[Nando]

CHECK FRY'S Electronics.

They periodically reduce small DC/AC MSW inverter for a low price, like a 300 watts ( 600 watts peak) that I bought for either 10 or 13 dollars.

The small Cigarette lighter connected are not good for CCFLS -- to much capacitance loading ( most of them do not have PFC capabilities).

Nando

[wooferhound]

Just skip the inverter and use 12 volt compact fluorescent bulbs

http://store.sundancesolar.com/12voldc11wat.html

[Norm]

  I dunno...sounds like you went thru $20-$30

worth of inverters? I bought a Vector 225 watt

at BigLots for $29....Why not just run 2 15watt

12 volt CFLs instead for about $15 each?

  More efficient.

                 ( :>) Norm.

[hiker]

check  those adds to the lower right of your screen....

might find somthing their...

[ghurd]

The small Cigarette lighter connected are not good for much at all.

A 9W(?) peak answering machine (wall-wart)... first mini inverter lasted less than overnight, next 2 lasted just a couple days.  24/7.  One got hot, 2 didn't show any visible signs of heat.

A Notepower50 has been running it for a couple years now.

G-

[asheets]

I thought about that, but since they are my porch lights and I'm still experimenting I wanted to be able to switch back to line power on occasion.

[asheets]

Nah, I only went through a couple of bucks worth of inverters from garage sales and whatnot...

[asheets]

Will a bigger or better quality inverter avoid the capacitance loading issue?  I did notice on the ones that blew up that the caps had ruptured....

Do you know of any schematics for a DIY electronic inverter?  I know how to build a mechanical one, but I don't want the noise.

[asheets]

Hmmm... I haven't seen any inverters at biglots, but I could use my corporate discount...

[srnoth]

Check this site:

http://www.invertersrus.com/

I'm not associated with them or anything but I have 3 different inverters from them, and they all work very well. They stand up to anything, I've had one for over a year now still going strong. Infact, I managed to wire up a remote on/off switch for the 400w and 800w versions! So they certainly stand up to being dismantled and stuff.

For your situation I'd recommend either:

http://www.invertersrus.com/inv150w.html - 150w, $25

http://www.invertersrus.com/inv400w.html - 400w, $35

I think shipping is only about $5. I know these are a bit more expensive than the ebay ones (by a few bucks :-0), but these will be able to power the 2 CFLs much better than a lesser wattage one, and with the 400w one you can power a tv or computer as well, incase power goes or something like that.

Hope this helps. Sounds like a fun setup you have,

Cheers,

Stephen.

[asheets]

I went to the local Target on a lark and saw in their automotive section that they had the 250W version on this -- http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_4/602-1456291-2939808?%5Fencoding=UTF8&frombrowse=
1&asin=B000157TNK -- on sale for $20.

It has all the features I want, including low voltage cutout, overload protection, onboard power switch, stud power connectors (instead of alligator clips or cigarette lighter hookup) and an advertised ability to run CFLs.  We'll see how this does...