Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Chester32141 on January 17, 2017, 08:25:12 PM
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If one of these is wired into an auto does it draw power from the battery even when there is nothing plugged in ?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2000W-DC-12V-To-AC-110V-Power-Inverter-Modified-Sine-Wave-Converter-Black-/332089919422?hash=item4d521a07be:g:nTwAAOSw6btXTANA
Hope the question isn't as dumb as it sounds ... :old:
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They will usually have a vampire draw unless you turn them off. Better ones may turn themselves off if they see the battery voltage dropping.
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So wired in but turned off they don't draw any power ?
I could live with that ... =D
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I'd put a switch between it and the battery.
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I found that mine did have a draw, even turned off. (it is from Harbor freight, FWIW)
I ended up wiring it through a big relay to a dash switch and haven't had an issue since.
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Depends.
All the ones I've seen kill the electronic converter sections cold dead with the power switch. I haven't had my big one apart, so not sure where exactly the power switch is wired into the inverter circuitry.
When they are turned on and running, they typically run a cooling fan, so there's a few watts there.
I did have a 2000 watt HF inverter hardwired into my van with no difficulty. I also had a 1250 watt Vector hardwired to my truck, no drain - it would start fine after sitting for weeks.
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For your enlightenment, I went an measured off my 2kw inverter.
No load, turned on - 890ma at 12.2v.
No load, turned off - 9.5ma at 12.2v.
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No idea on current small stuff, but the 5-20kW solar inverters we use have a standby draw of a couple watts at most. Of course, anything they draw from the solar side is nearly irrelevant; you're not going to run out of sunlight because the inverter used a bit. Standby draw from the AC side (i.e. at night) is on par with a night light.