OK, so back in the olden days, when my parents went to church and my Mom was running late, my dad would plug in the inverter, so she could finish curling or drying her hair on the way. Inverter 12 volts DC to 110 volts AC.

I now hear folks talking about inverters like they convert 115 AC to 12 Volts DC. I always called those a 12 volt DC power supply.

So am I old and need to update my thinking or correct me if I am right!!

Check the difference in a "converter" verses an "inverter". I could tell you but that would not be as much fun

Nick

Ok. what I said above is about right, does the big guy coach have a built in inverter along with a converter. Does it operate with the engine off too. Huge batteries?

If so the switching device, generator, batteries, external power and alternator has to be quite exotic. How clever these Americans.

A converter takes 120VAC shore power and converts to 12VDC to charge battery's and through the battery's power your 12V lights and other 12V devices.
An Inverter takes the 12DC from the battery's and invert's to 120VAC.
Some are both converters and inverters. Like the Energenis 3200's that came as options in the Barth line.

quote:

Originally posted by L78steve:
A converter takes 120VAC shore power and converts to 12VDC to charge battery's and through the battery's power your 12V lights and other 12V devices.
An Inverter takes the 12DC from the battery's and invert's to 120VAC.
Some are both converters and inverters. Like the Energenis 3200's that came as options in the Barth line.

Well stated and simply said for my simple mind. Thank you L78Steve!

We simple minds need to stick together..

My Dads inverter, was not very powerful, could hardly handle a curling iron. With all the 110 volt stuff in an RV, like a roof top A/C and frige how long will it last?

For easy math figure the inverter is 90% efficient (loss is actually ~12%) and it takes 10 12volt amps to equal 1 120volt amp so emptying a battery is pretty easy for full time loads. I use an inverter primarily to handle my boats fridge which only draws about 90 watts with a 30% on cycle or an amp or two an hour depending on how many times I get a beer per hour. On that same circuit there is one outlet for unforeseen needs such as trouble light and a 120v lamp in the cabin used when the 12v lights aren't adequate for voyages of discovery in the storage drawers.

The inverter will not be wired to high load devices.
Refrigerator,TV's and some outlets, That's it.

I was thinking of installing an inverter for running a TV, I guess about 3 amps. So 30 amps of battery, plus about 4 amps loss. I think my batteries are 1000 amp hour each, so not a huge load.

quote:

Originally posted by Duane88:
I was thinking of installing an inverter for running a TV, I guess about 3 amps. So 30 amps of battery, plus about 4 amps loss. I think my batteries are 1000 amp hour each, so not a huge load.

Most new tv are 12 vdc and use an converter to provide that. If your set is like that get a plug to match the power inlet and try running off the coach 12 volt line.

Great I will check that out, thank you!

quote:

Originally posted by Duane88: I think my batteries are 1000 amp hour each, so not a huge load.

I don't think you will find batteries of 1000 A/Hr ea. Most 12 volt batteries run 75 to 120 A/Hr. Deep cycle maybe a bit more. I run 6 T105 6 volt golf cart batteries in series parallel and have 675 A/Hr for the entire set. They weigh 450 lbs for the set.

12V inverter chargers can go as high as 3000 watts would require 4/O cable no longer than 10 ft. 12V inverters would not power A/C units, Even if they would power them up, they would not handle that load for long at all.

Pure sine wave inverters are preferred. The other design is what is call quasi-sine wave which is basically a square wave output. Usually quite a bit cheaper. Some electronics do not like square wave input. Microwaves will not yield the same power output from a square wave 120 VAC input. cooking time will be longer.

Ed..I have just regular RV batteries, use similar ones in my bass boat for the trolling motor. So am I out of luck to run lets say a 30 inch TV from them for any length of time. Might run the absorption fridge on electric element and gas furnace also at the same time.

Are your "RV type" batteries deep cycle?

If the 30 inch TV is a late model LED or LCD type, thru a proper inverter would probably run all day. Anything over 28 inch will probably require 120 VAC. Check the heating element for current draw. Is your fridge also propane powered?