On Sun, 04 Jul 2004 17:52:55 GMT, wrote:

I'm trying to learn about inverters, and how to put a
system together. I want to use it pretty much just
for my refrigerator (about 800W), and my TV/VCR
etc. It seems like it would be cheaper to get two
less powerful inverters, than one powerful one.
So far getting two of the 1200W for $120 each at:

http://store.worldstart.com/customer...=16468&cat=307

seems like the best deal for me. That would leave
me plenty of head room--especially on the TV
circuit--for including other things. Does anyone
know of a better deal?

How do I figure what size batteries to use? Should
I keep the batteries separate for each inverter, or
is it better to connect two or more batteries and go
from there? If so, how to connect the batteries
together, and then how to go from there to the
inverters?

I'm lead to believe that any inverters I can afford
would produce a square wave instead of a sine
wave. How to know what influence that would
have on my TV's performance? The TV works
great using the Generac 4000W generator I'm
using now. Can I expect it to be different using
the inverter?

Thanks for any help!

Be careful with capacitor start motors (fridge), they are fussy.
The cheaper inverters have a "modified" Sine wave, not a pure Sine
wave.

I don't remember what size my inverter is, but TVs, compters angle
grinders etc. don't mind, my beer fridge however, does not like the
"square" wave at all, even though there is ample power.

Another option are the cooler boxes made by Coleman or Koolatron, that
run off 12 Volts. While not wildly cold, they are efficient
especially the Koolatron in so far as Amperage use. Hook one of those
up to a deep cycle battery, help it with some home-made blocks of ice
from your home and you're good for a week or so. For camping, we
pre-freeze our milk, and beer in cans etc. , so instead of wasting
space with ice, the stuff we'll consume is frozen and once it thaws,
gosh, dang, gotta drink a beer!!