by Tom&Shelly » Thu Apr 01, 2021 9:51 am
Generally speaking, generalizing is ALWAYS wrong.
That said, if one looks at the electrical appliances in their home these days, many are inherently low voltage anyway (assuming the lights have all been converted to LEDs). LED lights, computer chargers, telephone chargers, clocks, televisions, DVD players, radios, etc. all step the 120 vac down to run on low voltage. All of these have 12 vdc equivalents on the market that folks take with them camping.
The major exceptions to the low voltage appliances in the home are large appliances with motors, and anything with heating elements.
Heating take a lot of energy, no way around that, and when camping there are usually more efficient solutions involving propane, diesel, white gas, a campfire, etc. (One exception is a hair dryer. My solution is a crew cut, but I have yet to convince Shelly to get one.)
Far as appliances with motors go, the ones in the home usually use 120 vac because that's available, and for small power draws (like small refrigerators) there are also low voltage equivalents. Other appliances take such large amounts of power for their motors (air conditioner, washing machine, dish washer, table saw, etc.) that it isn't practical to run them from a battery/inverter system. (Probably why I have yet to see a table saw while camping.)
So here's the point: There would seem to be little need for an inverter when camping, except to use an appliance created for the home that has a low voltage equivalent on the market. For some, that may be a more cost effective solution. For others, maybe not.
FWIW, I'm trying to size an inverter for an outbuilding, and running through a similar thought process. We'll keep the teardrop and a vehicle or two in there, so I'd like to use it as a light grade shop. But all the shop tools that are practical to run off of the inverter already seem to have versions with rechargeable batteries. Anything heavy duty wouldn't work well from a practical sized (for us) solar/battery/ inverter system anyway. (For those we'll go to gasoline.)
Tom