Portable Inverter Question

[mickeyfan0805]

Ok - a question for people much more versed in power generation than me...

I am working on a set-up for our 'Trunk or Treat' event at our church. I would like to plug in our 4' Mickey inflatable, our Mickey Lamp (with cfl lamp), and maybe a couple of strands of lights. My hope would be to use my camper battery through an inverter. If I did...1) Is that possible? and 2) What kind of inverter would I need (or how do I figure that out).

 

[Teamubr]

This may work depending on how much power the inflatable takes. Inverters are usually rated in watts. You'll need to total up the watts for everything you need to run and make sure the inverter is rated for that plus a little extra so it doesn't overheat. Some of the things like the inflatable may list amps instead. That's OK. It is an easy calculation to get back to watts. 1 amp at house current = 120 watts. If the inflatable says 2.5 amps, that's 300 watts.

I have a couple of 400 watt inverters I put in the truck. I ran a laptop, DVD player and 12 in LED TV off it without any problems. 400 watt inverters can do fine with the lighter plugin. The 800-1000 ones I have seen have clips to attach to a battery.

The camper battery may be the limiting factor. If your battery is like the one that came in my camper, it is very small and doesn't have a lot of capacity. If Trunk or Treat is only an hour or so, it should do fine. If it's an all day thing, maybe not.

j

 

[mickeyfan0805]

This may work depending on how much power the inflatable takes. Inverters are usually rated in watts. You'll need to total up the watts for everything you need to run and make sure the inverter is rated for that plus a little extra so it doesn't overheat. Some of the things like the inflatable may list amps instead. That's OK. It is an easy calculation to get back to watts. 1 amp at house current = 120 watts. If the inflatable says 2.5 amps, that's 300 watts.

I have a couple of 400 watt inverters I put in the truck. I ran a laptop, DVD player and 12 in LED TV off it without any problems. 400 watt inverters can do fine with the lighter plugin. The 800-1000 ones I have seen have clips to attach to a battery.

The camper battery may be the limiting factor. If your battery is like the one that came in my camper, it is very small and doesn't have a lot of capacity. If Trunk or Treat is only an hour or so, it should do fine. If it's an all day thing, maybe not.

j

That's really helpful - thanks. I know it isn't very complicated, I'm just not well versed in this stuff. The event is only 60-90 minutes long, so I should be in a position to run it at least for a while - I just don't want to drain my car battery. I will tally everything up, get the right inverter, and then do a test run to see what kind of life I get.

Thanks again.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Good idea to test the setup. Try not to run the battery down too far, they dont like being drained completely.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Try not to run the battery down too far, they dont like being drained completely.

Is there a way to keep tabs on that without buying expensive equipment?

 

[Teamubr]

Simple volt meters are pretty cheap. Get a baseline on a fully charged battery. It will probably be in the 12.5-12.7 range. As the battery gets drained, the voltage will drop. Below 11.5 and I'd quit and recharge.

j

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Harbor freight sometimes has a coupon for a meter thats less than $5, I always have one in the camper.

 

[2goofycampers]

Why not a generator? Curious female mind wants to know.

 

[Teamubr]

Inverters are pretty cheap and a car battery will run one fine for awhile. Even a small generator costs a lot more.

j

 

[mickeyfan0805]

Inverters are pretty cheap and a car battery will run one fine for awhile. Even a small generator costs a lot more.

j

Yep. If we owned a generator, sure. But, we don’t, so inverters are a much more affordable option.