# Help choosing an inverter



## charlieivan (Apr 25, 2006)

Looking for an inverter to be able to use tv/laptop and charge electric bike battery when not on EHU. Read through many related threads on here and so many different ones to choose from. All I really want is something simple that I can plug into cigar socket. Will not be using hair-driers or any other high wattage implements. Previous owner has fitted a cigar lighter wired directly to leisure battery and is fused with 10amp fuse at the moment. If necessary this could be uprated to a larger size as the wiring looks to be quite substantial.
Any useful advice on which inverter to go for would be appreciated.


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

If you're not on EHU, how do you charge the leisure battery(ies)?

If you are driving around daily, hook the bike battery up to the vehicle battery and use the m/h engine alternator to charge it.

Using an inverter to go from 12V to 240V to charge a 12V battery is a bit convoluted.

For laptops etc etc we have DC-DC converters, but if you want an inverter to do everything, look for a sine-wave inverter of around 500W.

Peter


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## bigcats30 (Aug 13, 2012)

You can probably buy a cable for your laptop that plugs straight into your 12v cigarette socket

maplins sell them that fits multiple type connectors

I have a 600w inverter and have never used it yet


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

Strangely enough, we used ours quite a bit over the weekend, I charged my Nokia phone, Philip brought his Play Station Portable game for one of the grandchildren to play with and ended up playing it himself! 

Peter


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## charlieivan (Apr 25, 2006)

listerdiesel said:


> If you're not on EHU, how do you charge the leisure battery(ies)?
> 
> If you are driving around daily, hook the bike battery up to the vehicle battery and use the m/h engine alternator to charge it.
> 
> ...


The bike battery has it's own transformer / charger so converting to work from vehicle battery would be too complicated. We would only want to charge it when travelling so inverter could do that. Ditto the leisure batteries. What I would ideally like to know is if a 200W or 300w inverter would suffice and does it need to be pure sine wave? I don't really want to go much larger as it would involve more wiring etc to connect directly to the batteries.


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## uncleswede (Apr 16, 2010)

Hi,

A 300W inverter could, if fully loaded, draw about 28-30 amps so I doubt you can get 'cigarette lighter' versions of them. In fact, I think the cigarette lighter sockets are rated at 15 amps so the cigarette lighter inverters are limited to 150W, I believe.

Even a 200W cigarette lighter inverter will draw 18-20 amps, fully loaded 

If you are going to uprate your cigarette lighter socket to a higher amperage that 10A, you'd need to look very carefully at the rating of any wiring and plan in some safety contigency. I'm sure someone with more electrical know-how than me will be along soon 

I connected a sine-wave 150W inverter to our leisure batteries using heavy duty, insulated crocodile clips and wiring rated to 20 amps, plus a 20A inline fuse. From that I ran a short, two-socket 240v extension lead which I wall-mounted. The inverter and the battery connecting wires remain trussed up and secure in the battery compartment so I have no issues accidentally pulling of crocodile clips, etc. It works well and I didn't have the hassle of undoing battery terminals.

Rgds
CD


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## lucylocket (Jan 13, 2012)

*Inverter*

300 w from Maplin does us, lap top, camera, bike batteries & fan oh & if early morning with lots of sunshine can do a wash & spin but not together


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## lucylocket (Jan 13, 2012)

*Re: Inverter*



lucylocket said:


> 300 w from Maplin does us, lap top, camera, bike batteries & fan oh & if early morning with lots of sunshine can do a wash & spin but not together


Yes it plugs into our 12v sockets one in kitchen & bathroom, german type use with an adaptor


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