Anytime you want to power a device with your car battery, you’ll need to determine what device and for how long. If you want to power anything that is 1.5 amps (180 watts) or less you can use your cigarette lighter socket. If your power requirements are more than 180 watts, you’ll have to direct connect to your battery.
A few examples of items you can power with your cigarette lighter socket:
cell phone
handheld games
digital camera chargers
mp3 players
small warmers
small fan
laptop (1.5 amps or smaller)

Microwaves need to draw extra power as they start up in order to kick on the heating element. For this reason it is important to properly size your power inverter. Be careful selecting the right inverter and make sure you have all the start up requirements for your microwave before you do.

If you use a modified sine wave inverter it may take longer to heat your food and the microwave may run hotter than normal. For this reason you may want to look into getting a pure sine wave inverter instead.

Most of the stories that you hear about microwaves being a problem on the road are caused by people not fully understanding the power source that they are drawing from.

Theinverterstore.com offers excellent customer support and we would be happy to answer any questions that you might have. We have a wide selection of pure sine wave and modified sine wave inverters and our goal is to make sure our customers are purchasing the right equipment the first time around.

Blender – 6.5 amps
TV – 1.5 amps

If you add 6.5 and 1.5 you get a total of 8 amps. You then multiply your total amps by 120 to get the wattage. 8 * 120 = 960 watts. You want to get an inverter big enough to handle any type of start up amperage your appliance may have to I would recommend our 1250 watt inverter or maybe even our 1800 watt inverter.
All of our inverters include a low voltage alarm so your inverter won’t leave you stranded with a dead battery. Time to take your kitchen on the road. One thing worth mentioning….. Most vehicle alternators are 80-100 amps. You don’t want to use an inverter bigger than 1800 watts unless you know your alternator is bigger than 100 amps or you have two batteries. Happy tailgating!

Enjoy!

Multiple battery presentation

It is easy to install a power inverter. First you will need the amp or watt rating from the back of the console. Here are a few examples:

Wii – 300 watt inverter

Playstation – 300 watt inverter

XBox – 800 watt inverter

Gamecube – 300 watt inverter

Most video games operate better with a pure (true) sine power inverter. The pure sine inverters are a little more expensive but you’ll get better results. The economical inverters will work with most game console but you may get some interference. Happy and safe traveling this summer.

Make sure to bookmark our blog for other power inverter tips.

Microwaves need to draw extra power as they start up in order to kick on the heating element. For this reason it is important to properly size your power inverter. Be careful selecting the right inverter and make sure you have all the start up requirements for your microwave before you do.

If you use a modified sine wave inverter it may take longer to heat your food and the microwave may run hotter than normal. For this reason you may want to look into getting a pure sine wave inverter instead.

Most of the stories that you hear about microwaves being a problem on the road are caused by people not fully understanding the power source that they are drawing from.

Theinverterstore.com offers excellent customer support and we would be happy to answer any questions that you might have. We have a wide selection of pure sine wave and modified sine wave inverters and our goal is to make sure our customers are purchasing the right equipment the first time around.

Once you determine the power requirements of all the equipment you would like to power the second step is to determine what equipment will be running simultaneously. The more equipment you use simultaneously the more total power you need available at any given moment.

Third, add up the amps and/or watts. To calculate watts you multiply amps by 120. To get amps you divide watts by 120. Example:Let’s say you want to run a microwave and a coffee pot. The microwave is 8 amps and the coffee pot is 5 amps . You add the total amps which is 13 and multiply by 120. . You get 1560 watts. Because microwaves and coffee pots have a start up, we recommend you allow double your wattage which is 1560 * 2. You will need at least a 3120 watt inverter. Since inverters are usually sold as 2500, 3500 or 5000 watts, you will have to decide what is the best investment for you.

Now that you know what you want you can visit our site for more information about how to purchase a power inverter by clicking here.

First, you need to determine what items you need to power during a power failure and how long. Here is a brief example (watt requirements vary):

Lights – About 200 watts
Fridge – About 1000 watts
Radio – About 50 watts
Heater – About 1000 watts

Total wattage needed is 2250 watts. The fridge and heater have a start up power requirement so let’s allow 2x the continuous wattage for start up requirements. 2250 * 2 = 4500 watts

Second, select a power inverter. For this example, you will need a power inverter capable of handling 4500 watts. The continuous power requirement is actually 2250 but when sizing an inverter you have to plan for the start up so the inverter can handle it.

Third, you need to decide how long you want to run 2250 watts. Let’s say you would like to power these items for an 8 hour period. Well this can be tricky because heaters and fridges run intermittently. Let’s assume all of the appliances will run 40% of the 8 hr period which is 3.2 hours of actual run time. We need to convert the ac watts to dc amp hours because that’s how batteries are rated.

To convert ac watts to dc amps per hour you divide the watts by the DC voltage (usually 12v or 24volts). Let’s use 12volts since it is the most common.

2250 watts / 12 vdc = 187.50 dc amps per hour

187.50 is now your power requirement per hour

You have now determined that 187.50 is your power requirement per hour and now you need to multiply that by total hours of run time which is 3.2 in our example.

187.50 dc amps per hour 3.2 hours = 600 dc amps

Because you are using an inverter, you want to calculate the loss for converting the power which is usually around 5%.

(600 dc amps * 5%)+ 600 dc amps = 630 dc amps per hour (this is how much power you need in an 8 hour period running your appliances 40% of the time)

Fourth, now that you know your total power requirement is 630 dc amps we can select a battery source. Most typical deep cycle batteries are 6 volts or 12 volts. I will give you two examples using each voltage.

12 volt battery example:
If you select a 12 volt battery rated at 100 dc amps you will need 6 or 7 batteries in parallel (I will explain parallel vs. series later).

630 dc amps / 100 dc amp battery = 6.3 batteries

6 volt battery example:
If you select a 6 volt battery rated at 200 dc amps you will need 6 to 7 batteries in series.
3.15 * 2 = 6.3 batteries
No, I didn’t make a mistake. When you use 6 volt batteries, you have to connect them in series to reach 12 volts.

What is series and parallel you ask?

When you connect batteries is parallel you are increasing amps. When you connect batteries in series you increase voltage. In the battery world, it is better to limit your parallel strings. It is better for your power system. In this example, I would recommend using 6 volt batteries because of the number of batteries this example requires.

How do we charge these batteries? You will need a charger to charge the batteries when you have access to city power. Most deep cycle batteries need a “smart” charger so the charger doesn’t damage the batteries. In this example, you will need at least a 40 amp charger if not bigger. The bigger the charger, the faster the charge. Make sure your charger is for 12 volt batteries because the system we just identified is a 12 volt system.

You will also need cables. For this example, a 4 AWT (0000) cable is required to handle 4500 watts of start up power. That is huge cable. You may also want to consider an inline fuse. A 500 amp for this example is perfect. To figure out the size of fuse you divide your ac watts (start up) by dc voltage.

4500 watts / 12 vdc = 375 amps

You would need a 375 amp fuse or bigger. I recommened a 500 amp just incase you were to max out the 5000 watt inverter.
This is just a brief example. There are many different ways to set up your system. You can use solar panels, wind etc.