Connecting a Power Inverter to a Car Battery (Updated)
Vložit
- čas přidán 5. 06. 2024
- Connecting a power inverter to a car battery is a pretty easy process and a great way to turn DC current into AC current to run household appliances in an emergency power outage or disaster.
If you store all your emergency energy supplies in a "lights out" kit, you can put this setup together in under 5 minutes. Here is the video about how I store my emergency energy supplies. • Power Outage Supplies:...
The inverters in this video are the Cobra 800 watt inverter: amzn.to/37w6I9J
And the BESTEK 300Watt Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter: amzn.to/3NlpK7f - Zábava
They sell high output alternators that crank out 400 amps that you can daisy chain. They are made for insane car audio systems. A 400 amp alternator would crank out close to 5000W this would be enough to run a mini split AC, maybe even a small air conditioner with a soft start (It's like a capacitor addition onto the condenser).
I carry a 700 watt inverter in my truck toolbox with a 3 gal hot dog house current air compressor. It is the right combo for tire air up and repair. The 12 volt air compressors dont impress me, burned several up. You can never have too many power inverters. I have them from 300 watt you can hold in your palm up to 3000 watt which is like a small suitcase.I think i have about 20 or more of them. The best generator is the one you drive every day, stays maintained and ready to use instantly.
Never run the power from your car starter battery always have the switch like an RV or motorhome has to an auxiliary battery that's what you run your inverter from for it is made for that kind of charge and discharge. Just use an old car that doesn't need a license anymore and use the whole thing for generator. A thee cylinder is nice. Put from the dash and engine compartment in a shed wall. Now you have all the 12 volt and heating and cooling for your shed the defrost can even keep your solar panels snow melted off. Put a remote start in the house and you don't even have to go out. And talk about quiet and super cheap cheaper than a new Honda generator and it will last for 20 years or more. And if you want look at all your drive axles you can turn them into the Sawmill or a big sander or whatever you want it'll turn around and around for you. You can run a big generator head straight off of the crankshaft for the transmission is supposed to mount if you got rid of it. With a little imagination an old used car can become your own personal power station. On the real cheap.
Great video here. Packed with information, super straightforward. 👍🏼
Great video, Dale! Amps x Volts is correct. Keep in mind that due to engine coils (powers the spark plugs), Modules, lights, gauges, fuel pump & loss through resistance only give an average remaining available watts to about 700-800 watts max. Trying to pull more may only discharge the battery or might blow the main fuse. Most people don’t have a main fuse spare which would be catastrophic.
IMHO, don’t go beyond a 1000 watt inverter & make sure it shows your battery voltage, current wattage draw & has a low voltage shutdown. 🥾🏔️
Good info. Thanks
how to set up a mobile tire change van with 1500w inverter powering 1500 w air compressor + 1050w tire changing machine ?
24 gallons air compressor gets full in aroud 4 minutes which is enough to fill 1-2 tires , meaning air compressor will have to be filled 2 -4 times per car . Tire changing machine will probably work for 8 minutes per car.
120 ah battery should fill air compressor and still have about 75 ah left after it.
Once 1 car is done this way then van will idle for 10 minute while packing tools and then travel to next car for about 20 minutes + can idle for another 10 minute while getting tools out for the next car.
Wonder how fast can van's alternatot recharge battery while idling and driving for this kind of time intervals.
Ford transit 2004 , 2.0 tdci, fifa, 92 kw
i think it has 105 a alternator .
Where to look for larger alternator if it can be installed ? Thicker cables as well ?
Thanks !
Thanks for sharing.
Great feedback
Good tips. One thing, make sure to pay attention the maximum wattage of your Inverter and the gauge size of the cable you use to connect to your battery. Smaller gauge cables can result on losses at bigger loads. Also the length of the cable needs to be considered as well. The manual for your Inverter should have some tables regarding cable gauge vs length. Basic Rule bigger gauge is better..within reason.
Ever since this video I have not had to pay for electricity! Got the flat screen going, my bitcoin mining company going, can make hot pockets, wash my clothes with the washer and dryer, and have the space heater running.
Since my wife loves spin class so much I have created a dynamo and she’s lost a lot weight!
😂😂😂😂
you made this so easy to understand! Thank you for this detailed vid!
Thanks that was very useful as a refresher course .. I just purchased for.black Friday a allpower s700 700 watts 1400 max 688wh and a 140 watt foldable panel for outdoors, camping, truck, bedroom etc .. I was also looking into gettimg a inverter that's higher rated and I have a 130 Amp alternator I could hook up to a battery separately then use the inverter also .. jist figuring things out for future.. today is a 3 punch solar storm 12/1/23 and they say more are coming whihc may disturb power ,wifi radio etc .. these are mid level g3 , versus g5 being massive cme bursts .. so better to BE ready then get ready 😊
Thanks for this video. If I only wanted to use a stand alone scanner and I have a plug like you have in your truck could I simply use that outlet to send a 60 page document without using an inverter?
Thanks. Ineed this right now since all generators are sold out.
What about a small shop vac. Like a 1.5 gallon, 1-2 hp? My inverter is a peak 1200 watt and I would just be using the vacuum quickly.
Good info.
Great Basic Tutorial!! Thanks 👍👍
I am looking to use a small heater and maybe some light appliances like my laptop. I am wondering which Inverter I should go with and how I can set it up to reach inside of my car? (I am currently living out of my car and my heat / fans don’t work)
There's low power kettles and small low power ovens, but you can get DC kettles an DC TV's
Great video! Very informative. I have the 300 watt inverter but it will not run my single use k-cup coffee maker. If I attach 12v /24v extension plug cigarette adapter to my f150 battery then plug in my 300 watt inverter will it run coffee maker? Its for camping purposes.
To run your coffee maker you'd need to install a 250 amp alternator thus generate potentially 3000 watts and that would run it. I recommend you buy an electricity meter that measures the power usage and it will go a long way towards telling you the output of your devices and thus the size alternator you will need. My car has a 100 amp alternator and thus 1200 watts and it won't run my Keurig. What it can do is heat water up more slowly and then I would use a coffee press to make coffee.
Hi buddy. I was actually thinking of installing an inverter in my car to connect a pressure washer, a vaccum cleaner and a blow dryer. They will never be running at the same time.
Oh and I got the s700 for 199 and foldable panle allpowers 140 watt and the panel can charge cell and laptop directly also . 119 for panel vs 219 .. and 199 on sale instead of 429
I want to plug my jbl portable speaker which is 1000 watts, If I choose correct amps (a battery with this many amps) and do this same procedure with inverter upto 1500watts it should be okay yeah?
if you have one of the side by side atv's, which I am not familiar with, but if they have a 12 volt system it would be better on fuel use idling, but then I dont know how big the alternator is on those, just speculation.
What about plug in stove tops?
I have a 2020 Rav4 if I were to install a 1500 watts inverter in the trunk, what size gauge wire should I get to run from the battery to the front ? Also will I need a fuse an circuit breaker to ? what size should i get for a 1500 watts inverter ? Thanks for your help.
I believe your Toyota has auto shut off after one hour of running. I believe the vehicles before 2015 should be good for you , for example, like Toyota Prius is excellent generator, I can run for a very long time. 1 gallon of fuel for 24 hours and you can run three refrigerators, gas, furnace, and LED lights in the whole house
I’m looking to get inverter that I can power with my car’s battery so I can clean the interior with a vacuum and a steam cleaner; and also use an electric power washer for the exterior and engine bay. What’s a good inverter for that purpose?
These are too heavy loads to be supported by the car's battery. You cannot do that.
Everyone knows how to plug in some clips into a battery. I keep clicking on this video when I’m looking for how to wire 2 wag power cords to the inverter inside the cabin. Like bruh
thumbs up
I did this years ago. I had big speakers and an amplifier, I dis connected that and hooked up just a 1500watt and I ran my refrigerator, coffee pot and some other small things. I recently bought a 5000w inverter but it wouldn’t run a pancake compressor. Does this have anything to do with amps??
First of all and most likely it has to do with the bad quality of the inverter itself. Then comes the problem with the battery capacity...
@@user-pz6cx8zf2y It could be a bad inverter but between the alternator and the battery a 5000w inverter won't run to its full potential. At best 3000 watts unless you have multiple batteries.
@@berrywr1 A typical car alternator has a power of about 600Watt. This means that on this system, any inverter above this power should never be connected. For very short time, a 500W inverter can be (logically) used, but for another one of some thousands of Watts, the ordinary cars electrical systems are too weak to support them, even for some minutes. Their use makes no sense at all...
Most alternators are not full capacity at idle.
Stock alternators aren't..but if you are doing something like this it would also be a really good idea to upgrade your alternator to something better. Like 200+ amp alternator should have enough at idle to run 1kw load. Without pulling from the battery..and at 2000rpm it should have full power like any other alternator.
Results: Dude, where's my car? Or, GET OUT OF MY CAR!!!
@@KuntalGhosh k
For long term camping 2 or 3 100ah batterys will be good I use 2 100ah battery and 1 on standby it’s been in my truck for 5 years and last about 5-8 hours before I need to go for a 30 -60 min drive to recharge not bad I use it to heat my lunch up and dinner and fans when camping
There are new invertors in market those can be plugged into the ciggarate lighter direct..do they effect the car badly?or its the same thing to plug in the battery direct or in the cigg lighter?
No. The fuse that goes to the cigarette lighter is much much smaller. At best maybe 200 watts. Run the inverter directly from the battery under the hood and wire the inverter directly to the battery then 1000 watts and higher is doable depending on the size of the alternator.
@aqualife6235 can I run the inverter hooked to the battery as I'm driving?
Hello! Thanks for useful information! But I still can't comprehend one thing. If current for charging car battery should be 10% of battery capacity (55 AmpH battery should be charged at 5.5 Amp current)? and actual current of a car altenator is more that 100 Amp, how battery don't get destroyed by this high current?
This is due to the property of the lead-acid battery to put up and absorb huge currents momentarily...
i was told to use 100ah battery for a 1500 inverter, is this wrong Can I use just a car battery?
So how many 12v batteries can you connect to the pure sine wave inverter?
Skies the limit as long as you connect them to each other correctly and the inverter
Somebody knows if this degrades you buffer battery fast or not ?
We just had a natural disaster here, we had no power. I was just about to order a 3000/6000 watt inverter and the idea was I could run it off the car battery and just keep the car running. But after watching this, it looks like it could run the battery flat even with the car idling. Wouldn’t the car just rev up a little to compensate for the load?
I have a 180 amp alternator in my Jeep. And a 2000 watt inverter. Will that power.a 5000 BTU window air conditioner with my engine running? Safely and for how long? I bought a 10awg extension cord as well. I just don’t want to ruin my Jeep.
Thanks
Thats 2160 watts and yes, it will run a 5000 BTU AC; however, the surge startup might trip your inverter. 5000 BTU runs at about 400 to 500 watts, so plenty of power if there's no surge involve. You may need a soft starter for AC.
This is how I usually connect mine, however the last time I did, my inverter started to smoke, I haven't used it since. During a power outage I had it connect to my Jeep for a few days with no problems. Time for a new one I guess. @@berrywr1
Now Im fairly new to this inverter knowledge.
OK, I want to hook my 2000W Jup Inv to my RV battery under the front HOOD of it right. To power light appliances, box fan, maybe stove plate right, or slow cooker, all under 2000W not at the same time, right.
So do I have to have my RV crunk up ALL WHILE these appliances are running? Yes or no?
What if the battery goes bad? I was under the impression that as long as you're driving, the alternator charges the battery while essentially providing the power to supply to the inverter basically "forever" right? or no?
Im confused, thats what Im trying to learn. I see some ppl have the batteries OUTSIDE of a vehicle or on boards of wood and wondering how do they go about charging the batteries again then? I know they last long I guess but I want to avoid that by just hooking it to my RV or vehicle of choice and using it that way.
You want to add an auxiliary battery 🔋 same group size of your starter battery. You want the Inverter to count on power from another source not your starter battery.... calculations and setup play a critical part in this procedure.
Correct but recommend an aux battery like a previous comment. Recommend you get a watt meter to measure your devices. It's a must have tool.
Can that alternator be wired to a Inverter with the alternator OUT of the car? And can that alternator Power that inverter up by being turned by a BOX fan motor?
You always need a battery for stabilizing purposes...
Why? How is the box fan running?
Can I plug a 5000 watt inverter to my 12 v battery and it powers about 2000 watts ?
No!!
Yes.... but... no alternator is rated to run a 5000 watt inverter. Maybe 1200 or 3000, but 3000 is it.
I have done this in my car........2000 watt inverter to run a 1500 watt room heater for heat because the factory heating is very weak....it needs a new heater core......$1300 for that.
how to set up a mobile tire change van with 1500w inverter powering 1500 w air compressor + 1050w tire changing machine ?
24 gallons air compressor gets full in aroud 4 minutes which is enough to fill 1-2 tires , meaning air compressor will have to be filled 2 -4 times per car . Tire changing machine will probably work for 8 minutes per car.
120 ah battery should fill air compressor and still have about 75 ah left after it.
Once 1 car is done this way then van will idle for 10 minute while packing tools and then travel to next car for about 20 minutes + can idle for another 10 minute while getting tools out for the next car.
Wonder how fast can van's alternatot recharge battery while idling and driving for this kind of time intervals.
Ford transit 2004 , 2.0 tdci, fifa, 92 kw
i think it has 105 a alternator .
Where to look for larger alternator if it can be installed ? Thicker cables as well ?
Thanks !
Your RPMsplay a role in your alternators output. You will not be getting its full output at idle. So your power output isn't going to be even close to those numbers
This is correct, but in any case, if the engine keeps running, the battery will not be flat.
@user-pz6cx8zf2y that depends on how much juice he's running. If he's pulling more than he's charging, he may run that battery too low to start his car again without giving it time to charge. I have a 250 amp alternator(stock was 105 amp) powering my car stereo. At idle, my voltage was dropping dangerously low. Added a second, then a 3rd battery to allow me to sit in traffic or at stop lights without draining my batteries or damaging my setup.
Depending on how big the inverter is and the draw he's using, he may have to run his vehicle at a higher rpm. Maybe wedge something on to his peddle. If you ever saw a flat bed tow truck go to pick up a car, you'd see the driver increase his rpms to operate his equipment.
You can drain your battery without knowing it's dead because your alternators powering the vehicle. Then you become stranded for not letting your vehicle recharge itself after disconnecting the inverter. Since you were taking more than you were putting back
@@denimjez This makes sense, but given that an ordinary car has, say, an alternator of 60A and a battery of 65Ah according to its needs by design, this means that the power draw is already limited to about 600W for the alternator, at its maximum output.
Now, what doesn’t make sense, is to install an inverter of, say, 5kW on this car and try to exploit this power from that alternator...
The scenario of adding more batteries in order to match the energy needed is feasible, but, again, the load for the alternator becomes huge, demanding many hours for recovering the energy lost, if the array becomes flat. Let alone the case of working the inverter loaded, while charging the flat array at the same time...
All I want to say is that when we intervene with the original design, we must know very well beforehand what we are doing. Otherwise, all the bad scenarios can become reality.
I wrote that “the battery will not be flat if the engine is running” having in mind that the car is working as designed, without any interventions on it.
And this is true, because all the loads are taken by the alternator when the engine starts, while the battery is getting back the energy consumed by the starter motor while cranking.
So, if the system is healthy, the battery will be recharged by absorbing the rest of the energized loads, being subtracted from the maximum the alternator can put out...
Best scenario: day, no lights on etc. Worst scenario: night, raining in cold weather, heater on etc...
Can I run induction plate (aprox 1200watt ) in car with car inverter for cooking
U mention heater . Many heaters r 750 watt to 1500 watt so make sure before connecting .
Yeah, the little 500w heater I have isn't going to do much, but it might heat up a small room a few degrees.
How long can ur car run a 800watt inverter without the vehicle running?
800W/12V=66,6A. This means that a 60Ah battery will run the load for about an hour (60A×1h=60Ah, for a typical car battery). Nevertheless, this one hour discharging time will never be reached, because of the excessive discharge rate of the battery. So, if the battery is healthy, it won't last more than 20 minutes or thereabouts supporting this load...
No more than 30 minutes but if only one LED light bulb maybe two hours.
@@berrywr1 A 60Ah battery can keep a 12V/12W led (or incandescent) lamp in working state for 5 hours until it is completed discharged. Safely enough, it will support this load for half of this time (2,5 hours)...
I have bigger inverter for backup to my generator.
Can i use my 2000 watts not pure sine on a sedan battery using the lighter plug
How do u run a inverter if u dnt have a vehicle
LiFePO4 batteries can do the same thing, aka a home battery backup system; DIY or buy the whole kit and kaboodle like Bluetti, Anker, Jackery, Ecoflow, etc. They all have LiFePO4 batteries at their core.
Why don't power stations come with alternators???!!!!
Because they're designed to have a LiFePO4 battery and they store DC energy . They are not car batteries.
Result is: DUDE WHERE'S MY CAR?!!! OR, GET OUT OF MY CAR!!!
bad ideal, lot better off with an inverter generator