Inverters are wonderful little pieces of tech. They’re built to convert much needed DC electricity into AC, making it usable for our appliances and gadgets.
It’s imperative that we all stay indoors these days and should an emergency come up during a power outage, you’ll have access to your gadgets and appliances that you need powered up with an inverter that’s properly installed.
In this guide, we’ll talk a bit more in depth about power inverters, how you can pick one, how they can exactly help during the time of the pandemic, and how you can install one on your vehicle properly.
Why should you get one?
Inverters are compact power tools that act as an intermediary between your car’s battery, converting DC energy into usable AC energy. Your car runs on a direct current (DC), which does not work with modern appliances (such as TVs, microwave ovens, electric fans), or our gadgets (such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops and such).
If you ever need to have an appliance running on an inverter, or if you’d like to charge your mobile device in the middle of a grocery run, an inverter is going to be your best friend. Should there be a sudden power outage that lasts for hours and you need some electricity to power up a fan, or get in touch with some family and friends, an inverter is going to be important.
They come in different wattages and different sizes, so be sure to pick carefully.
If you have a caravan trailer, and if you’re planning on camping out somewhere, an inverter is going to be irreplaceable. With it, you can fire up an electric stove, a TV, a coffee maker and lots more- it’ll be like home, provided that you have the correct inverter with a high enough wattage to power all your needed equipment.
With an inverter installed in your caravan trailer, it'll be like you never left home.
I got one. How do I install one?
If you have an inverter with a low wattage, you should be fine with just plugging it into a car cigarette lighter socket. If you do have something that’s a bit on the higher end, (basically everything else above 12 volts), you’ll need to hardwire it.
Hardwiring might seem like a very challenging thing to do, but it’s not hard to pull it off. We’ve covered this topic before in a previous blog post, and here is a graphic guide that can help you from start to finish (the same concept applies even if the product in question is a dash cam.)
If you’ll only plug it in from a cigarette lighter socket, you’re not getting the most out of your inverter; you’re limited to just a few volts of power that isn’t enough to run most appliances, so make sure to hardwire it if you do get one in higher voltages.
Which power inverters should I pick?
If you haven’t bought one before then you might be wondering which one to get. First things first- make sure that you’re getting a pure sine wave inverter.
A pure sine wave inverter allows for cleaner, more efficient energy conversion. Unlike those that aren’t pure sine waves, these kinds of inverters convert more than 90% of the DC energy. In the event of a power outage or a long drive, this makes all the difference as every bit of energy is used efficiently.
this demonstrates how a pure sine wave inverter operates in efficiency.
As for wattage, most vehicles should be good with a 300-600W inverter, but this is highly dependent on what gear you need powered up in your car, and how many. If you have a caravan trailer, make sure that you’re getting inverters that are at least 1000 - 2500W; if you don’t have the appropriate wattage, then you’re not going to be able to power up your appliances in parallel to others.
What will a 600 watt power inverter run? Why get higher wattages?
The higher the wattage, the more power is converted. This means that you’ll be able to run more appliances, and you will be able to run even those electronics that are power hogs (power tools and cooking implements come to mind).
We’re sounding a bit like a broken record at this point, but you really need an inverter that has wattage that runs in the thousands to be able to take full advantage of it.
Here’s a quick example: If you have a TV, a computer/laptop and a fan, that’s easily worth around 660 watts of power needed to run all three. You’ll obviously need one higher than 600w, something preferably around 800 - 1000w.
How to install a 1500 watt power inverter?/inverters that are of higher voltages?
Even for bigger wattages, you’ll be fine with just a hardwiring kit. Follow our hardwiring guide to the letter mentioned above, and you should be fine. It will work as intended with no problems.
Some precautions when using an inverter:
Make sure that you have a spare battery at all times in your vehicle. Car batteries indeed have long lives, but they’re not as reliable as say, a generator running on diesel. It might be drained especially if you’re using appliances that need so much power.
If you can get a car battery charger just in case it gets drained, do so- we have lots of different battery chargers and car battery jump starters.
Your car battery also gets charged naturally when your car runs through its alternator; and although you need to stay safe and stay indoors for now, make sure to get your car running as often as possible; maybe around your block for a few minutes, or when you’re going for a grocery run; get the alternator running, and you’re charging your car battery.
If you'd like to purchase an inverter today, follow this link. For car battery chargers/jump starters, follow the link above to get one.
Make sure to stay safe and stay indoors! If you have need of car battery chargers or inverters, do visit us today at Elinz where we’ll deliver all you need straight to your doorstep.
