Electrical help

[inphobic]

Okay I have laid out my electrical needs. The only things that will require 110V are the A/C, Microwave and TV. I can live with out the A/C and Microwave but what I would like to do is run the TV with out running the generator. What is the best automatic way of doing this? Thanks for any help or suggestions, Jake

 

[Kirk-TC]

How many watt does the TV draw? You can pick-up a 1000w inverter pretty cheap that would run the TV or the microwave. You just have to make sure you have enough battery to run it. We are doing something similar to this. All the 110v plugs in the truck will be generator power on the top plug and 1500w of inverted power on the bottom plug. That way if we need to charge a cell phone, run a clock radio or anything small like that its not a problem. We have 2 8D size batteries (same size they use in large tractors) that will be dedicated to the inverter.

 

[KAYE RIVERCITY]

.....most TV's are low voltage any way-they step down the volts with a coil/transformer of some sort?....there are 12vdc tv's at truck stops and someone that knows about such things can rewire a standard tv to work on 12 vdc......I don't have TV at all.....I took up an old custom called ''reading books'' rather than staring at a monitor or a TV.....kinda fun....should do it more but have very little time for such things-except on vacation.....and I force myself to read books-magazines-manuels-ads-and all the accumulated advertizing I have not been able to read during the time I work......geofkaye

 

[inphobic]

I don't watch TV either. Too many other things to do! But my kids aren't old enough to read yet. And video games and TV are the lazy parents way of doing things. Oh yeah back to electricity.
I am thinking of running that outlet off of the convertor at all times. That way even when the generator is running it will hopefully be putting back enough charge to the batteries to make it efficient. i need to run all the numbers to make sure. Where is a good place to find a cheap invertor. Most of the ones I looked at were min $500. Jake

 

[Kirk-TC]

This is the one we are using.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/P...00025374&R=200025374

1500 watts continuous, 3000 watt surge for $235.