12.v Power Inverter

[eamarquardt]

Thanks for the complement on my being an EE. Actually my education was in Biology. Halfway through college I asked my advisor what I could do with the degree as the boom in Marine Biology seemed to go bust and he told me I could teach or sell textbooks. I continued on the path because it was the shortest route out of college which was my REAL GOAL, joined the USMC (OCS PROGRAM) and, by act of Congress as I understand it, became a USMC "Marine Biologist". I digress.

I have taken about the same amout of physics (phyics for engineers is based upon calculus while as I wasnt' required to know calculus my physics were taught in algebra, minor difference) and I have taken probably twice as much chemistry (I hated chemistry) as most engineers (chem e's excepted). Since graduating I have completed calculus (it was reallly interesting and fun but work).

However, after the USMC I got a job as a Maintenance Engineer for Procter and Gamble (I'm pretty mechanically inclined and they hire for management potential and an engineering degree is not necessarily required). Again I digress. Then, after not "blending" with the P&G culture, I got a job with the phone company (now AT&T) as an engineer but again, they hire potential, train their own (telephone engineering is pretty specific) and was really a "project manager" for my 20 years before I got too sick to work daily and was forced to retire. Things went OK for 5 years then they decided to cheat me (as they have so many others) out of the disability they promised me and terminated my benefits.

Read more at sedgwickcms.blogspot.com.

Anyway, back to the A/C. I bought the A/C unit at Costco for about $60 and couldn't resist at that price. It'w 5350 BTU with a 10.7 EER (Energy EFficiency Ratio) which is pretty high for a window unit and light enough to pick up with one hand. Per the data plate it draws 4.8 amps or 576 watts.

I saw the generator at a garage sale and although it was a bit beat , the owner told me it just was banged around in his truck and saw little actual service (maybe 30 hours). At $100 I couldn't resist (it seems, according to my wife, I can't resist tooo many things and it's all her money as she works to support me in the manner to which I've become accustomed).

So, put the two together and the A/C starts up and runs just fine. I'm sure that the start amps is higher than the rated output for the gen but it's only momentary and per other reports on the forum, this seems to be acceptable. So, in theory it should work (576 out of 1000 watts) and testing it empirically seems to verify that.

Hope that clears things up.

Cheers,

Gus

[madjack]

...the start up amps are what concerned me...I have heard tales and seen results where 1000W(even 1200W) gennies just choked up and died while trying to start up a 5k window shaker...if your works for you
madjack

[wlooper89]

Thing is, the inverter will draw 10 times as many amps from the battery as the appliance would draw from 120V AC. So even a very large battery will not last long at that rate unless the load is small.

Bill