Community Forums

ccrider, · 06-16-2013, 09:00 PM

If you are not using any 110 volt items could you turn off the inverter while driving?

450Donn · 06-16-2013, 09:06 PM

Sure. There is no reason to leave it on when not necessary.

Pigman1 · 06-16-2013, 09:50 PM

Yep, we do it ll the time. We have a household refrigerator, but I put it on a separate inverter so we can drop all the parasite loads on the main house inverter. Works great and we boondock a lot and we lose a lot of power drains we don't need anyway when on the road.

thrushl · 06-16-2013, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccrider,

If you are not using any 110 volt items could you turn off the inverter while driving?

I would think it depends on the way your coach is wired. We leave our inverter on but we also have a 110 fridge. In fact, I have only turned the inverter off once in the past three years and that was when the coach was in maintenance for a week.

thrushl · 06-16-2013, 09:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pigman1

Yep, we do it ll the time. We have a household refrigerator, but I put it on a separate inverter so we can drop all the parasite loads on the main house inverter. Works great and we boondock a lot and we lose a lot of power drains we don't need anyway when on the road.

Mmmm, a second inverter eh? A thought worth thinking about....

Thanks for the idea... The DW loves it when you folks give me a idea...

pumper9x9 · 06-17-2013, 07:12 AM

We only turn ours on when we need 110v power. The inverer takes power to run and when you're not plugged in it will drain down the battery.

buck454 · 06-17-2013, 07:21 AM

I, too, leave my inverter off majority of time in MH, however although the inverter light is off the "scale" above on/off light will read, usually -10. Is this a standard default for Freedom 458? I assume this to be OK since the battery "scale" will read if charger is turned off (a steady read of 12.5-13V rather than a movement of scale when charging).

bill

docj · 06-17-2013, 09:24 AM

I believe that most inverters these days have modes in which they will turn off unless the power load is below a particular threshold. My Magnum inverter can be set so it won't turn on unless the load is more than a couple of watts. However, if I set it this way it won't stay on for the TV, the computer chargers and other devices which draw very small amounts of current even when off. So we leave ours on all the time. At current levels of a few hundred watts our 2.8 kW Magnum is over 90% efficient, so I am not too concerned about losses due to it being on.

Cat320 · 06-18-2013, 09:10 AM

It all depends on how the coach is wired. Some coaches require the inverter be on for all outlets to work. On my coach, the inverter is off unless it is needed.

Pigman1 · 06-20-2013, 03:58 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Pigman1 Yep, we do it ll the time. We have a household refrigerator, but I put it on a separate inverter so we can drop all the parasite loads on the main house inverter. Works great and we boondock a lot and we lose a lot of power drains we don't need anyway when on the road. Mmmm, a second inverter eh? A thought worth thinking about.... Thanks for the idea... The DW loves it when you folks give me a idea... Thrush, we use a Tripp Lite 1250W MSW inverter for the household and an aux freezer in the basement. The Tripp Lite has a tremendous surge capability for when we might have both of the compressors starting together, but we've heard some household refrig's may have a problem with their control boards operating with a MSW inverter. We've run 2 different Kitchen Aid refrig's in 2 different rigs on Tripp Lite's without a problem.