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justincasei812
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# Posted: 30 Dec 2012 05:12pm
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Looking for a proper inverter that would power a TV 42" LCD or a 19" tube TV with DVD combo. I had asked this question sort of in a different thread but would like more information and didn't want to get too far off topic.
We were at the cabin this past weekend and I took an LCD TV and a deep cycle battery (Marine/ RV with 700 cca) with us. I have a small inverter (400w with cigarette adapter) for the truck to charge a few things on long trips for the kids. I tried to use it to power the TV and one that was there. I believe the the LCD TV uses about 150 watts and the tube about 300-350 watts. Realized after we were there the inverter would not continue to power either TV without beeping the entire time but the TV's would turn on and work. I did read that the small 400w inverter that I have will only run at about 200w continuously but it did run the tube TV.
We have a generator at the cabin that is hard wired in but at night before bed or when we just want to watch TV or movie and don't need to power the whole cabin, it is nice to watch TV without having stay awake to turn the generator off or let it run all night for nothing. The sleep timer on the TV would shut down after an hour if turned on if we fell asleep so it wouldn't drain the battery.
What I am looking to find out is what size/ type inverter would work for the basic operation and how long should the battery run the TV's on a full charge?
Thanks,
Kevin
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cman47c
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# Posted: 31 Dec 2012 08:15am
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I use a 13" tube TV at my cabin with 400W inverter and no problem. I think an 800W inverter will do the 19" tube TV. My rating on my 13" TV is 50W and 8W for my digital converter box.
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DungeonX
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# Posted: 31 Dec 2012 08:23am - Edited by: DungeonX
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add up the watts of all the things that you want powered and find an inverter that can supply contiuously (not peak) that power at a minimum. But still 1 battery will be limited in time.
Watts = Volts x Amps
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 31 Dec 2012 08:56am
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A while back, I purchased a Xantrex inverter from Costco, it was only $80, it was a model 2000, pumped out 2000 watts, I think it was 1000 continuous. Pretty cheap and Costco stuff is seasonal etc. I think you just need around double what you had, you dont want to run it continuous at max or close to it.
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groingo
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# Posted: 31 Dec 2012 05:29pm - Edited by: groingo
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Just for grins I Kill A Watted my old 19 in Orion CRT Color TV, it only uses 45 watts and the Durabrand 24 inch only used 65 watts, maybe there there's a problem with your old 19 incher?
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Moving Pictures
Member
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# Posted: 1 Jan 2013 07:22pm
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You may wish to look at the connections to the inverter. If your TV is, say a 140-watt power drain, that means it will draw more than 13 amps off the battery (assuming you've got a cheap modified-sine inverter, which is going to be, at best, 85 per cent efficient).
What wire gauge are you using?
You may also want to look at the battery: you said 700 CA - which is cranking amps. If you're using a normal car battery, you're going to kill it, fast.
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justincasei812
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# Posted: 2 Jan 2013 08:45am
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I was actually using the wattage of the tv's from the good old internet. Just looked at the specs for the LCD for a similar model and the 19"er I was just going off of what most sites have stated they use. I will take a meter up this weekend to see what they are actually pulling.
The battery is a deep cycle/ marine battery.
The inverter is a "tail gating inverter" that should be used while the vehile is running (found after research) and the wires are pretty lite (cigerette lighter adapter). I would like to buy a different inverter with heavier gauge wire to hard wire to the battery.
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TheWildMan
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# Posted: 2 Jan 2013 09:17am
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i had trouble with one of the tailgate style inverters, 3 ac outlets, light wires. i used the cigarrete style plug when running things that need more than 200 watts and it beeped and failed to provide power, i swapped to the clip style wires (inverter came with both types) and clamped directly to the battery and it worked fine. your problem may be that the cig style plug doesn't provide enough power although the inverter can work with more.
I suggest getting a better inverter or scaling down the TV, I got a 19 inch flatscreen with built in DVD player rated energy star that uses only 40 watts. a single RV/Marine battery runs it easy for several hours.
700 cca is not the same as amp hours (running a tv you read by amp hours) my guess is its about 100 amp hours having a total 1200 watts, 600 usable (if you tend the battery for long service life you don't drain more than 50% capacity. so your flat screen should only run about 3 or 4 hours, and the tube sytle less than 2 hours, draining it dead you can get 7 hours flat screen and maybe 4 with the tube. draining the battery dead too often will kill its ability to hold a charge, they aint cheap so they are not somethingf you want to replace often. this guess also doesn't account for power used by the inverter itself, it may use up to 15% more.
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justincasei812
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# Posted: 2 Jan 2013 10:04am
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I had read online that the tailgate inverter will only put out about 200watts due to the wires being very lite gauge, so even though it's a 400w inverter the wires can only put through 200watts. What I wasn't sure of was if the inverter was beeping due to the over load or the battery draining within a few hours or sooner, I don't think I was paying attention to how long it was bing used. The funny part was that it would beep but the TV would still work with no issues. I do have a battery charger at the cabin so when the generator is on it can at least recharge the battery some. My thought was to buy a bigger inverter (Power Bright PW1100- 12) with direct contects to the battery but did not want to spend the $$ if I was going to get very little use out of the battery if it drained to quick. If I could get 4 hours of run time each weekend out of the battery then that would be great. With being able to charge the battery some during the time the generator is on then that works.
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