We bought an inverter at NAPA, don't know the brand or ratings off hand. We have it mounted in one of our fire trucks for running a TV/VCR that receives video from our thermal imager. This way the incident command can see first hand what's going on inside the structure as well as tape for viewing later. Also we can recharge portable radio batteries and extra imager battery on extended scene times. Has worked flawlessly. Don't know why cordless tool batteries would be different?
Power Inverter
- Thread starter dieselsmoke1
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Steve_Miller
Veteran Member
<font color="orange"> I don't really know how much drain is put on vehicle battery when converter is under a load. </font>
Rough estimate is what ever the AC amp load is, the load from the battery is 10 times that. Example: If your computer uses 2 amps, the draw on the battery would be in the neighbourhood of 20 amps. Hope this helps. This is for a 12vdc to 120vac inverter.
Steve
Rough estimate is what ever the AC amp load is, the load from the battery is 10 times that. Example: If your computer uses 2 amps, the draw on the battery would be in the neighbourhood of 20 amps. Hope this helps. This is for a 12vdc to 120vac inverter.
Steve
reb
Platinum Member
[Don't know why cordless tool batteries would be different?]
The difference is not the batteries. It is in the charger circuit. I believe DeWalt chargers a few years ago would not work on standard inverters, but I think the circuit design has been changed, tho I don't know whether they still require sine wave power.
The difference is not the batteries. It is in the charger circuit. I believe DeWalt chargers a few years ago would not work on standard inverters, but I think the circuit design has been changed, tho I don't know whether they still require sine wave power.
orangebluegreen
Gold Member
I wouldn’t give up on the idea, would just make sure it doesn’t hurt the batteries. I think poster “reb” is right. I don’t know the small generators are any more “clean” than the inverters.
I’ve wondered about this as well because I did ruin my charger and batteries somehow and I had used it on my generator (mine is an old Onan mechanical speed control rather than voltage regulated and not very accurate). My charger was a cheap Black & Decker and that was probably half the problem, but not sure if that killed it or a power surge in the home, my particular tool had problems with the chargers/batteries.
That price is incredible, I’m interested now, I need an 1800-2000 to run my microwave.
I’ve wondered about this as well because I did ruin my charger and batteries somehow and I had used it on my generator (mine is an old Onan mechanical speed control rather than voltage regulated and not very accurate). My charger was a cheap Black & Decker and that was probably half the problem, but not sure if that killed it or a power surge in the home, my particular tool had problems with the chargers/batteries.
That price is incredible, I’m interested now, I need an 1800-2000 to run my microwave.
