Quick inverter qurstion

[Bobbybass]

I have ...an older Sterling 1200 watt inverter..which works fine..

I am replacing a TV on the boat...with one that is 240 volt..but only 14 watts.

It has NO separate power supply..and the mains connection just goes into the back.

 

Being only 14 watts..would there be any advantage in getting a cheap ...say...50 watt inverter from Ebay...as they are quite cheap..( £17'ish) ..or would I not gain anything...in inverter losses..?

 

I was just wondering...would there be less inverter loss from a small unit..closer matched to the power requirement of the TV..or is it so negligible that I may just as well use my existing Sterling ??

 

Am I talking out of my Aspidistra ?

 

Tah....

 

Bob

Edited January 4, 2013 by Bobbybass

[mrsmelly]

I have ...an older Sterling 1200 watt inverter..which works fine..

I am replacing a TV on the boat...with one that is 240 volt..but only 14 watts.

It has NO separate power supply..and the mains connection just goes into the back.

 

Being only 14 watts..would there be any advantage in getting a cheap ...say...50 watt inverter from Ebay...as they are quite cheap..( £17'ish) ..or would I not gain anything...in inverter losses..?

 

I was just wondering...would there be less inverter loss from a small unit..closer matched to the power requirement of the TV..or is it so negligible that I may just as well use my existing Sterling ??

 

Am I talking out of my Aspidistra ?

 

Tah....

 

Bob

 

Hi

 

My advice would be not to buy a cheap new small inverter as they are generaly crap and the fan runs most of the time. Your Stirling will not be efficient. My advice would be to buy from ebay a small output say 500 watt second hand mastervolt inverter. Superb reliability and performance very good in every way and use very small amount of lectrickery on standby and very efficient in use. Can be bought for less than 100 squid on flea bay.

 

Tim

[Tony Brooks]

Just be aware that a modified sine-wave inverter, which cheap ones are likley to be, might (not will) cause noise on the audio and maybe picture interference but I suspect flat screens may not be so prone to that being they are now just dedicated computers.

[nicknorman]

On our old boat we had a cheapo box-on-a-lead MSW inverter (150w IIRC) from Maplin and it ran the telly no problem. Only thing to consider is that if you intend to have said box by the telly, you need decent 12v wiring to it to avoid excessive voltage drop.

[lewisericeric]

Hi bobby, we've actually just done that ourselves. We have a 1600w Stirling inverter ( never, ever again) and couldn't understand why our batteries were dropping so much,we measured it was using around 3.5amps just by being on but possibly up to 6 amps, that's without any appliances on!

 

The inverter we got is the one on our blog HERE

 

We're quite impressed with it despite it having a fan which does run most of the time but it is pretty quiet. Think we got it for £30. Its supposed to fit in the drinks tray of a car but its nice and compact and looks quite neat on our tv unit. We've noticed a massive difference in the capacity of our batteries. By the time we go to bed our batts are only down to maybe 90% or maybe 85% at worst and we have the TV and aerial on all night as well as fridge , led lights etc.

 

We have 3 x 330ah batts

Edited January 4, 2013 by lewisericeric

[Keeping Up]

Hi bobby, we've actually just done that ourselves. We have a 1600w Stirling inverter ( never, ever again) and couldn't understand why our batteries were dropping so much,we measured it was using around 3.5watts just by being on but possibly up to 6 watts, that's without any appliances on!

 

Do you mean 3.5 / 6 watts, or 3.5 / 6 amps?

 

Older Sterling inverters are often quite inefficient, but actually 6w (0.5 amps) or more of standby consumption is fairly typical of most inverters.

[lewisericeric]

Edited! I did mean amps yes!

Edited January 4, 2013 by lewisericeric

[Skye]

Just be aware that a modified sine-wave inverter, which cheap ones are likley to be, might (not will) cause noise on the audio and maybe picture interference but I suspect flat screens may not be so prone to that being they are now just dedicated computers.

 

Tony you are right when you say that flat screens are not prone to interference from modified sine-wave inverters. I have a 300w cheap Maplin (A17FG)think it was about £30 which we take camping, the TV works fine also Lap top. It struggles with any thing with a heating element in it, being only 300w you can imagine.

 

Our lass says the 12v hair dryers provided on some hire boats are useless and more effective to stand at the front of the boat with a brush and let the 2 to 3 mile a hour wind do the work! no she actually uses an air bed pump that the inverter is quite happy to drive.

 

Hope this is of help to you Bob

 

David

[by'eck]

Just be aware that a modified sine-wave inverter, which cheap ones are likley to be, might (not will) cause noise on the audio and maybe picture interference but I suspect flat screens may not be so prone to that being they are now just dedicated computers.

 

My Samsung LED TV rattled (actually just noticeable mechanical buzzing) a bit when fed by cheap MSW inverter although it did no harm. Completely silent running with PSW one though.

 

Advice to OP - stay with Sterling if it is a pure sine wave inverter.

[Grace and Favour]

So, OP to summarise the above advice:

 

Don't get a cheapy inverter, get a second-hand Mastervolt

Get a cheapy, the fan runs, but it's quiet

Don't run the TV off your Sterling

Run the TV off the Sterling

Have SWMBO dry her hair standing on the bow of your bote

 

 

I love CWDF!!!

[jonathanA]

Hi

 

My advice would be not to buy a cheap new small inverter as they are generaly crap and the fan runs most of the time. Your Stirling will not be efficient. My advice would be to buy from ebay a small output say 500 watt second hand mastervolt inverter. Superb reliability and performance very good in every way and use very small amount of lectrickery on standby and very efficient in use. Can be bought for less than 100 squid on flea bay.

 

Tim

Agree with your comments about the cheper inverters, but the comment about stirling is not my experience and i've measured the standby current on my Stirling 1800MSW, its less than 0.5A and its overall efficency is comparable any of the others. (check the data sheets).

 

so suggsting the op should throw away his perefctly reasonable sterling and buy another one is just errant nonsense.

 

I don't think theres a lot to be gained by OP in doing anything other than carrying on using whats he's already got. I use the remote control facility to switch the inverter off when I finish with it for the night so actually the standby current is irrelevant and the efficency is no better/worse than others so why change....