Club 80-90 Forums

I got fed up with the inverter draining the battery for the TV.. so I bought a 12V TV and a 12V laptop supply cable.

Your main sticking point is the TV.....is it 230volts only or does it have a 12volt input or running a 12 volt DC adapter?

The laptop is best run from an in car charger like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-noteb ... 434&sr=1-3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The pump is very likely 12 volts anyway

The telly? we don't know but some can run directly from your leisure battery

If you absolutely need the invertor then I would suggest something in that 500watt 'continuos' power bracket.

Martin

Thank's everybody, I shall get it sorted soon, The old grey van i posted pics off is nearly finnished, so hopefully i shall get to a few meeting soon.

kevtherev wrote:I got fed up with the inverter draining the battery for the TV.. so I bought a 12V TV and a 12V laptop supply cable.

As a brief aside, I was testing my ammeter setup last weekend. Easy enough then to check the draw of various devices. My 300w inverter draws, unloaded, 0.3A - so about 3.5W. That overhead remained constant when I then plugged in a device of known wattage.

I'd guess your TV must be waaay higher than 3.5w. So if your inverter is having a noticeable impact on battery life for TV use, maybe there's something up with it.

Yes an inverter does require power in order to work but it's not much (less than 0.5A - I measured mine and it was less than 0.25A). I don't use mine for the telly, plugs straight into 12v but takes up to 4.5A so if I did run it through the inverter I doubt it'd make any appreciable difference. I run the laptop through the inverter but even the laptop draws a fair current anyway.

Whether you use an inverter for T.V's or laptops etc they are still a pretty useful device to have in your camper, and as Martin said 500W continuous will cover most eventualities although you'd need the engine running to draw that at 12v for any length of time (42A). I've lost count of the amount of members phones I've charged at meets and shows

Heh... I'm "Mr Charger" at festivals.