Power inverters

[Bob Richards]

T&C Brown <tncbrown at cebridge.net> wrote:

>>>Anyone know of a good source for power inverters. Something for our
use....say a monokote gun, soldering iron etc.<<<


Sams Club, Harbor Freight, Northern Tools, West Marine, probably Walmart too.  Radio Shack carries them, but are priced too expensive IMHO.

 

For the devices you mention, any inverter should work fine as long as it has the rating to handle the power of the device. For some electronic devices, you might need a true sine-wave inverter which will cost more money. Most low-cost inverters that you will find in stores are modified sine-wave types, which should be fine for resistive type loads (such as irons and heat guns).

 

A monokote iron and soldering iron are low wattage, a monokote gun would be about 700w (at least mine is). Most inverters have two ratings -- continuous and surge. Sometimes the advertised rating is the surge value, and in small print will be the contiuous rating, watch out for that. Surge rating is important for motor driven devices that have high startup current.

 

For loads under 150w, you should be able to plug the inverter into a cigarette lighter without problems. For higher loads, you may need to connect directly to the battery. The wiring for most cigarette lighters are only good for about 10 amps, and may have a large voltage drop even then. Rule of thumb - for every 120 watts, you will be pulling at least 10 amps from the battery.


Bob R.

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