inverter ?

[jeffdub]

hi all im new to all this electrical stuff just having bought my first t25 ive got a leisure battery with a 500w inverter that was fitted when i got it now this may be a stupid question so forgive me what waattage inverter would i need to say , boil a kettle ? it came with a tv which runs fine but as soon as i tried the kettle the red light went on

[jeffdub]

ok sorry just found out after trawling the forum that electric kettles are a pain i'll stick to good old fashioned gas

[billybigspud]

3500w but would be on its limits. stick with the gas. you can boil water without an element but i wouldnt try it and you would have to bypass ya rcd

[dansimpson]

Or you could get a 1000w inverter and a swan travel kettle, they're only 700w, but take about 10 mins to boil

[1664]

You can't boil a kettle off your leisure battery - 500W at 12v is over 40amps; your battery won't do that very long and modern inverters will shut down when the battery voltage drops below a certain level. I have a 500W inverter 'just in case' I ever need 500W but I would have the engine running so the alternator supplied the 40 odd amps rather than asking the poor battery to do it.

[kevtherev]

....and some bloody thick cabling!

[1664]

....and some bloody thick cabling!

yes indeed

[The Bishop]

Similar question leading on from this...

I also use a 500w inverter to run my lap top. I have a new leisure battery rated at 120 Ah.

I would have thought the battery would be fine to drive the lap top for a long time ( I think a lap top only drawa about 4amps) but after 3 hours the inverter starts bleeping. Is the inverter drawing 500w regardless of what I am using or just drawing enough power to run the laptop?
Would a smaller inverter run the lap top for longer?

Thanks ,

[1664]

Your inverter will draw the current your laptop requires plus a bit for itself (not much). As I said, they are built to shut down when the voltage drops below a certain level; they assume you're powering it off a starter battery rather than a leisure battery so it shuts down to ensure the battery has enough left to start the engine.

The beeping is telling you you've reached that voltage.