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Home > Archive > Alternative Power sources > July 2005 > vector inverter
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| Bill Wilson 2005-07-09, 6:25 pm |
| bought a 350 watt inverter to run my tv during
storms..................hurricane Dennis will be here tomorrow, and I got
the battery out and inverter and tried the tv............nothing. The
inverter is flashing an overload light at me. The tv draws 65 watts and .7
amps asccording to my kill-a watt. Is this just a cheap inverter? Should I
get something bigger? Any suggestions?
Bill
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| Steve Spence 2005-07-09, 6:25 pm |
| The Vectors are decent. I have the 400. Maybe you have a bad one?
What kind of battery do you have? Is it fully charged?
Steve Spence
Dir., Green Trust, http://www.green-trust.org
Contributing Editor, http://www.off-grid.net
http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html
Bill Wilson wrote:
quote:
> bought a 350 watt inverter to run my tv during
> storms..................hurricane Dennis will be here tomorrow, and I got
> the battery out and inverter and tried the tv............nothing. The
> inverter is flashing an overload light at me. The tv draws 65 watts and .7
> amps asccording to my kill-a watt. Is this just a cheap inverter? Should I
> get something bigger? Any suggestions?
>
> Bill
>
>
| |
| Ulysses 2005-07-09, 6:25 pm |
|
"Bill Wilson" <mrbillwilson@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:dap3ni028i@enews2.newsguy.com...
quote:
> bought a 350 watt inverter to run my tv during
> storms..................hurricane Dennis will be here tomorrow, and I got
> the battery out and inverter and tried the tv............nothing. The
> inverter is flashing an overload light at me. The tv draws 65 watts and
..7
quote:
> amps asccording to my kill-a watt. Is this just a cheap inverter? Should
I
quote:
> get something bigger? Any suggestions?
>
> Bill
>
>
I think I'll stay away from Vector inverters. I have a Wagan 400 watt and a
Power-To-Go 300 watt and they both will handle my little 13" TV/VCR combo
which probably draws about the same current as your TV. I bought a Coleman
400 watt inverter and it would not run the same TV. Come to think of it for
a while I had the Wagan running a satellite receiver too at the same time
and this was all running through some small gauge trailer wiring and plugged
into a cigarette lighter type plug.
I'm not going to ask if you are sure your battery is fully charged cause
obviously anyone who owns a Kill-a-watt meter would have checked that ;-)
| |
| Harry Chickpea 2005-07-09, 6:25 pm |
| "Bill Wilson" <mrbillwilson@hotmail.com> wrote:
quote:
>bought a 350 watt inverter to run my tv during
>storms..................hurricane Dennis will be here tomorrow, and I got
>the battery out and inverter and tried the tv............nothing. The
>inverter is flashing an overload light at me. The tv draws 65 watts and .7
>amps asccording to my kill-a watt. Is this just a cheap inverter? Should I
>get something bigger? Any suggestions?
>
>Bill
>
How close is the inverter to the battery? What size wire did you use
for connections, and are the connections clean and solid? How about
other loads? Will it light a 100 watt lightbulb?
| |
| Jim Rusling 2005-07-09, 6:25 pm |
| "Bill Wilson" <mrbillwilson@hotmail.com> wrote:
quote:
>bought a 350 watt inverter to run my tv during
>storms..................hurricane Dennis will be here tomorrow, and I got
>the battery out and inverter and tried the tv............nothing. The
>inverter is flashing an overload light at me. The tv draws 65 watts and .7
>amps asccording to my kill-a watt. Is this just a cheap inverter? Should I
>get something bigger? Any suggestions?
>
>Bill
>
Most TV's have a degaussing coil that turns on for just a minute. It
does take a lot of power for it. Try resetting the overload and
turning the TV on again. On the wife's TV it takes 3 or 4 tries if
the TV is cold.
--
Jim Rusling
More or Less Retired
Mustang, OK
http://www.rusling.org
| |
| RF Dude 2005-07-10, 4:25 am |
| Plug the TV into the wall. After you have turned it on, unplug it and
immediately try it with the inverter. The degaussing coil should not fire
the second time and see if the inverter will handle it.
All your connections to the inverter should be thick wire (#6 or #8 AWG for
yours) or relatively short. The degaussing coil will draw a lot of current
(poor power factor) for less than 1 second.
Good Luck.
| |
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| "Bill Wilson" <mrbillwilson@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:dap3ni028i@enews2.newsguy.com...
quote:
> bought a 350 watt inverter to run my tv during
> storms..................hurricane Dennis will be here tomorrow, and I got
> the battery out and inverter and tried the tv............nothing. The
> inverter is flashing an overload light at me. The tv draws 65 watts and
..7
quote:
> amps asccording to my kill-a watt. Is this just a cheap inverter? Should
I
quote:
> get something bigger? Any suggestions?
First I'd check for clean and tight connections, then battery charge
(water?), otherwise, a bigger Vector inverter or a better brand.
Unfortunately, I don't know much about which brands are good and such, and
mine is so old all the stickers have come off.
Or you could try to find a cheaper TV that will run off 12v directly, which
would also be much more efficient than an inverter setup.
Although it's quite a jump in price from an inverter, if you have to deal
with hurricanes and wild storms on a regular basis, a small generator would
probably do you better. If power is out for more than a couple hours, at
least you could run your fridge, and in a pinch, use gas from your car.
Personally, I'd get a very good lantern and a good book or two.
Anyway, I hope you come out alright with this storm.
Pagan
| |
| Ulysses 2005-07-10, 11:25 pm |
|
"Ulysses" <therealulysses@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:11d074pdk7eg7e2@corp.supernews.com...
quote:
>
> "Bill Wilson" <mrbillwilson@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:dap3ni028i@enews2.newsguy.com...
got[vbcol=seagreen]
and[vbcol=seagreen]
> .7
Should[vbcol=seagreen]
> I
> I think I'll stay away from Vector inverters. I have a Wagan 400 watt
Correction: the Wagan is rater for 300 watts continuous and 800 peak...
and a
quote:
> Power-To-Go 300 watt and they both will handle my little 13" TV/VCR combo
> which probably draws about the same current as your TV. I bought a
Coleman
quote:
> 400 watt inverter and it would not run the same TV. Come to think of it
for
quote:
> a while I had the Wagan running a satellite receiver too at the same time
> and this was all running through some small gauge trailer wiring and
plugged
quote:
> into a cigarette lighter type plug.
>
> I'm not going to ask if you are sure your battery is fully charged cause
> obviously anyone who owns a Kill-a-watt meter would have checked that ;-)
>
>
| |
| JoeSixPack 2005-07-11, 4:25 am |
|
"Bill Wilson" <mrbillwilson@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:dap3ni028i@enews2.newsguy.com...
quote:
> bought a 350 watt inverter to run my tv during
> storms..................hurricane Dennis will be here tomorrow, and I got
> the battery out and inverter and tried the tv............nothing. The
> inverter is flashing an overload light at me. The tv draws 65 watts and
> .7
> amps asccording to my kill-a watt. Is this just a cheap inverter? Should
> I
> get something bigger? Any suggestions?
>
Mine used to beep at me constantly until I wised up and used a heavier wire
to feed the inverter. A starved inverter will act like it's overloaded.
| |
| Vaughn 2005-07-11, 12:25 pm |
|
"Bill Wilson" <mrbillwilson@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:dap3ni028i@enews2.newsguy.com...
quote:
> bought a 350 watt inverter to run my tv during
> storms..................hurricane Dennis will be here tomorrow, and I got
> the battery out and inverter and tried the tv............nothing. The
> inverter is flashing an overload light at me.
If the TV has a switching power supply, (and it likely does) all bets are
off. On startup, a switcher looks like a short circuit and any given inverter
may, or may not, tolerate the startup surge. It sometimes takes two or three
tries to get my computer started on my 1 KW inverter. Why more than one try? I
assume that I am charging the filter capacitor a bit each time, but perhaps I
just have to catch it on a certain part of the cycle.
Vaughn
| |
| Bill Wilson 2005-07-11, 6:25 pm |
| I tried another TV, and it works. Guess this new tv uses too much to get
started. Thanks for the replies!
Steve Spence <sspence@green-trust.org> wrote in message
news:_TUze.153159$t07.21022@fe12.lga...[vbcol=seagreen]
> The Vectors are decent. I have the 400. Maybe you have a bad one?
> What kind of battery do you have? Is it fully charged?
>
>
> Steve Spence
> Dir., Green Trust, http://www.green-trust.org
> Contributing Editor, http://www.off-grid.net
> http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html
>
> Bill Wilson wrote:
got[vbcol=seagreen]
and .7[vbcol=seagreen]
Should I[vbcol=seagreen]
| |
| Bill Wilson 2005-07-11, 6:25 pm |
|
Pagan <adsa@deputysheriff.org> wrote in message
quote:
> Although it's quite a jump in price from an inverter, if you have to deal
> with hurricanes and wild storms on a regular basis, a small generator
would
quote:
> probably do you better. If power is out for more than a couple hours, at
> least you could run your fridge, and in a pinch, use gas from your car.
>
> Personally, I'd get a very good lantern and a good book or two.
>
> Anyway, I hope you come out alright with this storm.
>
> Pagan
It petered out after it hit the AL line. Thank goodness. Didn't need
another Ivan. I have a 7.5 kw generator, but I don't care to go out in the
wind and rain and start it. Can't read a book 'cause I have two young 'uns
under 3 yrs old running around. Anyhow, I want to be able to track the
storm from the newscasts on TV. Thanks for the input.
| |
|
| "Bill Wilson" <mrbillwilson@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:daui5u0kf9@enews2.newsguy.com...
quote:
>
> Pagan <adsa@deputysheriff.org> wrote in message
deal[vbcol=seagreen]
> would
at[vbcol=seagreen]
>
> It petered out after it hit the AL line. Thank goodness. Didn't need
> another Ivan.
Awesome!
quote:
> I have a 7.5 kw generator, but I don't care to go out in the
> wind and rain and start it. Can't read a book 'cause I have two young
'uns
quote:
> under 3 yrs old running around.
I'd go with a 12v TV setup. You can go to Best Buy or elsewhere and find
them in the automotive section. Or Ebay, of course. It'll cost more than
an inverter, perhaps even more than a quality inverter that will run your
TV, but it will make much better use of your battery, and it'll be more
portable in case you need to bug out.
quote:
> Anyhow, I want to be able to track the
> storm from the newscasts on TV. Thanks for the input.
First of all, I've never been through a real bad hurricane, so keep in mind
this comes from the uninformed.
It's kind of funny that folks will watch TV to see what a storm is doing,
while smack dab in the middle of it. It reminds me of guys who buy tickets
to games, go through the drama of pushing and shoving 90,000 people to get
to their seats, then whip out a TV and watch the game on that.
Being a nerd, I guess I just don't understand. heh
Pagan
| |
| Vaughn 2005-07-12, 12:25 pm |
|
"Pagan" <adsa@deputysheriff.org> wrote in message
news:11d6arr57i1d711@corp.supernews.com...
quote:
> I'd go with a 12v TV setup. You can go to Best Buy or elsewhere and find
> them in the automotive section. Or Ebay, of course. It'll cost more than
> an inverter, perhaps even more than a quality inverter that will run your
> TV, but it will make much better use of your battery, and it'll be more
> portable in case you need to bug out.
Those automotive TV's are expensive. Actually there are two other types of
DC sets that are very common. There is an "El-Cheapo" B&W 5" set that will run
off of AC, 12V, or internal flashlight batteries and incredibly can be had for
less than $20.00, and then there is the kind with typically a 9" color screen,
an internal DVD or tape drive that costs about $140.00 and runs off of AC or
12V.
Vaughn
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