Inverter Upgrade Questions

[UFO Pilot]

My Coach came with a 600 watt inverter. I have a plug and TV connection in an outside bay, and I want to wire the plug so it works on the inverter. I was told that the inverter should be upgraded to 1000 to 1200 watts before I add the extra plug to the inverter. I am looking for recommendations on what Inverter to buy. I have two 12 Volt coach batteries, do I also need to change to 6 volt batteries?

[John Hilley]

If you just want to run another TV, the 600 watt inverter should be sufficient. If you want to upgrade, the Xantrex Pro Watt, are an economical solution and are true sine wave. If you upgrade make sure you size the DC cables large enough.

[Gary RVRoamer]

First you need to count the watts of the things you expect to run on the inverter and see if the total is near the 600W capacity you have. If you need 1000W, there are plenty of inverters available but you may need to upgrade your batteries as well. If you really do draw 600-1000 watts, the amp drain on the batteries is going to be huge. It takes 85+ DC amps to provide 1000W of inverter output and that amount of load is going to drop the battery voltage fast if you only have a pair of batteries.

[wa8yxm]

Well. .first there is no need to upgrade the inverter unless you plan on running many televisions at one time or plan on running "other stuff" off it

I'm partial to Xantrex Prosine line myself. this is a True Sine Wave (Nice clean power, no power line noise) inverter with a built in charger, power pass through and automatic transfer switch

I recommend refurburished units though. way less expensive (Like half price of new)

[hamguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wa8yxm Well. .first there is no need to upgrade the inverter unless you plan on running many televisions at one time or plan on running "other stuff" off it I'm partial to Xantrex Prosine line myself. this is a True Sine Wave (Nice clean power, no power line noise) inverter with a built in charger, power pass through and automatic transfer switch I recommend refurburished units though. way less expensive (Like half price of new)

John,

Another prescient comment in the pages of QST. KIU

73
Dean,
K7NO

[stubeje]

Where can you get refurbished inverters?

[MonacoMama]

We were able to get one from Northwest RV Supply at a very cheap price! Joe had one left after we bought ours.. but he may have more by now....but we actually bought a MagnaSine from Magnum Energy. It was almost like a "plug & play" with our old Magnun modified sine wave inverter.

[UFO Pilot]

I had the Magnum 2000 inverter installed by Solar Bill's in Quartzsite. They replaced the power cables with the proper size and rewired the RV so every thing will run off of the inverter. I also had a 130 amp solar panel and 2 6V 300 amp batteries installed. Thanx for all of your input.

[wa8yxm]

I see not reason to upgrade the converter to power the additional socket (not plug) .. I mean how much load does a SOCKET place on the ivnerter.. I nano-watt or so (Yes there is a very very very tiny load there)

It's what you plug into it that loads the inverter

Now, if your plan is to run a small portable TV, then all you have to do is watch how much you have plugged in

if you want to run a 2HP air compressor.. UPGRADE, seriously upgrade

[Luv2go]

Quote:

stubeje - Where can you get refurbished inverters?

Sun Electronics (Refurbished Inverters and Chargers) sometimes has refurbished inverters for sale. They had an RS2000 inverter/charger when I looked. The sometimes have ProSine as well. Of course you'd have to upgrade all your wiring (think 4/0 battery wires, bigger breakers and AC wiring) and batteries to properly use this inverter/charger.

Stewart