sine wave inverters for charging ipads/phone

Hi all

I have a duel battery system in my patrol. At present it only powers a 45 L fridge when I go camping. We are going to Stradie in December and there is no power at the site. I was wondering if it is worthwhile getting a cheap sine wave inverter from evil bay to charge up a a couple of ipads and a phone overnight (keep the kids entertained in the evening while the adults have a few drinks). I don't have a solar system so will have to drive the car during the day to charge up the battery.

The ipads/phone will be switched off when charging so hopefully I wont need a pure sine way inverter.

Other questions I also have are

What size inverter will i need, Can I get away with a 300W or do I need a 600W or higher?
If i do use a sine way inverter to charge up the ipad sand phone overnigh will this hammer my battery?
Is there anything I need to know before purchasing an inverter?

Thanks in advance

NEV

Just been through this. Leaving your dual battery system out of the equation - just dealing with laptop charging; I put in some extra cigarette lighter sockets. From one of these I can run an inverter. However before buying the inverter I had hoped to have work a smaller car laptop power supply thereby bypassing the Dell 204v power supply. After reading some issues with these on the internet I gave it ago. Bought a Jaycar 12v 150w with variable output voltage (in my case 19v/20v). The Jaycar product seems very good but I guess it was Dell causing the pain!
So went back and exchanged it for a 180w pure sine wave inverter. Seems ok now. I read issues with modified sine wave and did not want to go there. Problem is it all take up room; inverter plus power supply. 180w is fine for my laptop power supply needing ~2.5amp 130w. Not qualified to comment further!

I been using a cheap 600 watt inverter from ebay $50 or so for years now (its under the pasangers seat),before that I used a 300 watt ok still have it somewhere, I got the 600 to run a icemaker as well but it was not enough power. Plenty for laptop a radio some battery chargers .

I have a Toyota 4x4, it has one power (cigarette lighter) socket in the dash and 2 more in the back. They are rated at 15 amps maximum and I might add in total for the 3. So if you draw 15A from one, put nothing in the other two.

15amps x 12 volts = 180W, that is the absolute maximum sized inverter you can run from a power socket. However consider this;

If you connect an inverter to the vehicle power socket for overnight charging of a device, you may well find you can't start your car the next morning. Plus you will need to have the key in at least the accessory position to do so.

Next, an inverter is a constant loaded device that is best served by a deep cycle battery such as an auxiliary and if you were to flatten it, at least your car keeps going.

I have a Projecta 150W pure sine wave for charging my tablet, phone etc. If I'm camped, I put them on charge in the evening off the auxiliary for about 2-3 hours. As far as Laptops are concerned, mine takes 120W to charge, so I bought a specific 12VDC 120W multi voltage laptop charger from Jaycar, it's more efficient than using the inverter. Also the 240VAC laptop charger actually uses more than 150W when on mains, so would overload the inverter anyway.

Anything bigger than a 150W in a car is going to use too much battery i.e. a 300W inverter fully loaded uses 27AH @ 12VDC.

Either way with a fridge as well, you will need to either run the car to charge an auxiliary or have solar charging available or a generator and 240 to 12 VDC charger.

Finally only ever use a pure sine wave on sensitive devices.

If that is all you require then you should only need a couple of usb outlets with 10w output. The ipads only need 10w at 5v each from usb and depends on which phone you have but most use a usb cable at 5 or 10w. You will have losses with an inverter.
What else do you want to run?

My 600 watt inverter is run off 100 amp battery it will last all night running laptop/large monitor screen and a radio I use for speakers, (I watch some movies when camping alone and play Goldminer game ), and charge some battery's. I run my fridge odd another 100 amp battery and charge with solar 160 watts I last forever without driving if sunny.

Colmaca said:

My 600 watt inverter is run off 100 amp battery it will last all night running laptop/large monitor screen and a radio I use for speakers, (I watch some movies when camping alone and play Goldminer game ), and charge some battery's. I run my fridge odd another 100 amp battery and charge with solar 160 watts I last forever without driving if sunny.

Click to expand...

I don't doubt what you say, but you are obviously not using the whole 600W because it would draw 54AH and give you less than 2 hours.

The object of my post was to purely point out that one does not need a big inverter for small use and be aware of battery effect if they chose to use high output for too long. Also to actually add up the watts they actually want.

condor22 said:

Colmaca said:

My 600 watt inverter is run off 100 amp battery it will last all night running laptop/large monitor screen and a radio I use for speakers, (I watch some movies when camping alone and play Goldminer game ), and charge some battery's. I run my fridge odd another 100 amp battery and charge with solar 160 watts I last forever without driving if sunny.

Click to expand...

I don't doubt what you say, but you are obviously not using the whole 600W because it would draw 54AH and give you less than 2 hours.

The object of my post was to purely point out that one does not need a big inverter for small use and be aware of battery effect if they chose to use high output for too long. Also to actually add up the watts they actually want.

Click to expand...

Just because its a 600 watts don't say need to use it al l.Most things like 10 times there power ratting to boot up I say the laptop just charges every few hours uses 50 watts when it happens, radio maybe 50 watts and monitor 30-40 watts < as I used to run all these off a 300 watt inverter.

All I know is I have lots power

There are lots of losses with inverters... They have a place but no efficient...

I use a couple of 7A 12V ups batteries and just connect a dual USB cig lighter to one and the other does my lighting...

Charge the batteries as and if needed.

bignev said:

Hi all

I have a duel battery system in my patrol. At present it only powers a 45 L fridge when I go camping. We are going to Stradie in December and there is no power at the site. I was wondering if it is worthwhile getting a cheap sine wave inverter from evil bay to charge up a a couple of ipads and a phone overnight (keep the kids entertained in the evening while the adults have a few drinks). I don't have a solar system so will have to drive the car during the day to charge up the battery.

The ipads/phone will be switched off when charging so hopefully I wont need a pure sine way inverter.

Other questions I also have are

What size inverter will i need, Can I get away with a 300W or do I need a 600W or higher?
If i do use a sine way inverter to charge up the ipad sand phone overnigh will this hammer my battery?
Is there anything I need to know before purchasing an inverter?

Thanks in advance

NEV

Click to expand...

Well this thread it turned into how much power a inverter uses, but you just want to charge a ipad and phone its all good getting a 300 watt cheapie

BIGNEV

If all you are charging is a phone (most use USB power nowadays and or come with a 12 volt charger) and a couple of Ipads then get a multi usb charger and run it of the auxiliary, for that kind of charging you don't need an inverter.

This image was taken from the apple web discussion site'



Two Ipads total 24 watts and an iPhone is 5 watts.

Thanks everyone, for their comments. There is a lot to think about.

So condor22 please correct me if I am wrong, to charge an ipad using a 12 volt USB charger I would need need one that has a rated output of of at least 5 volts, 2 amps


I had a quick look at evilbay and came across this

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12-VOLT-...AU_MobilePhoneAccessories&hash=item4ab56a91e4

Do you think this will be adequate?


thanks again

NEV

Supacheap and autobarn have lots simalar items that do for ipad/phone charging http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/on...n-12-24V.aspx?pid=353460&menuFrom=40401#Cross

For USB charging you only need USB 5 volts 0.5 amps

dont leave the car on acc as it will then draw from both batterys and flatten them

kleinman98 said:

If that is all you require then you should only need a couple of usb outlets with 10w output. The ipads only need 10w at 5v each from usb and depends on which phone you have but most use a usb cable at 5 or 10w. You will have losses with an inverter.
What else do you want to run?

Click to expand...

Thumbs up to above advice, that is all you need, you can buy combination cigarette sockets with USB outlet included.

normevesToday 08:37 am said:

dont leave the car on acc as it will then draw from both batterys and flatten them

Click to expand...

Only your auxiliary battery should be on acc.

bignev said:

Thanks everyone, for their comments. There is a lot to think about.

So condor22 please correct me if I am wrong, to charge an ipad using a 12 volt USB charger I would need need one that has a rated output of of at least 5 volts, 2 amps


I had a quick look at evilbay and came across this

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12-VOLT-...AU_MobilePhoneAccessories&hash=item4ab56a91e4

Do you think this will be adequate?


thanks again

NEV

Click to expand...

I use one of these

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Narva-Po...=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2ed43c7ee5

This is all you need.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3-Way-Sp...=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1e91f0104e

Nightjar said:

This is all you need.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3-Way-Sp...=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1e91f0104e

Click to expand...

That would work to. The main thing is, we all have differing needs and numbers of devices, there are numerous types of these adaptors out there, pick one that suits "your" needs.

Just remember that most vehicles have a limit of 180 watts (15amps) total output, when ganging things together. It's a bit like the 240VAC power boards you can buy. Some have 6 sockets, the board has a total of 240VAC @ 10 A, a good one has overload protection. You can't put 6 x 10 A draw devices on it i.e. a kettle and a 2,000W strip heater, you will trip the overload. A kettle typically is 2,400W add that to the heater and you have 4,400 W which adds up to a bit over 18A.

The same logic applies to 12 VDC or any other power value in the world.

Not, this thread topic, but where a 6 x power board is handy is an entertainment area. Todays stereos, TVs VCRs etc typically draw below 100W each, so a TV, VCR, Stereo, Turntable, Tuner and blueray player (6 devices will sit quite comfortably plugged into a 6 x powerboard).

Same with 2 iPads, an iPhone and a LED light etc in a car. An example of "Bad" is connecting a high volume tyre air compressor to you cigarette socket, they typically draw 35A and will blow the fuse.