Foto-n-T
Well-known member
So....I've had a Cobra 1,000 watt inverter installed for some time now in my genset compartment. Originally the intent was to power only my entertainment center while boondocking but as time goes by I've found that I might just like a little power in my garage (toy hauler) where I keep my beer fridge. I don't intend to power the beer fridge off the inverter for any extended period of time, basically the thought occured to me that I could power the thing while we're in transit off the inverter and negate the need for icing beer down an hour or so prior to our arrival at what ever over-nite spot we choose. I'd also like to have AC power back there once in a while when we're on batteries. The other reason is that I'm bored and I just can't leave my mitts off things if I think they might be improved by .0001%
Yesterday while wandering through Lowes I picked up an outlet box, outlet, cover etc. and this morning proceeded to break into the 20amp wiring that I installed to bring power up through the garage floor a few years ago. The outlet installation is a no-brainer and the fridge runs quite well off the batteries only drawing 110 watts, I am impressed by the low draw. Here's the rub:
I took my multi-meter, set it to 200 volts AC (lowest AC setting) and checked the voltage and got 86-88 volts. Hmmm, what's up with this?? The only thing that I can figure is that my multi-meter doesn't appreciate a square wave inverter so it doesn't give an accurate reading. I ran into this issue when I originally installed the inverter but back then I hadn't discovered this forum so I had nobody to ask. I plugged an incandescent light fixture into it and it lit the light at the same intensity as the shore power so I guessed it was the multi-meter not liking the sine-wave shape.
By the way, we are on shore power and the input voltage to the inverter is 13.7vdc and it's wired with 24" of if I recall correctly is #2 gauge stranded battery cable, suffice it to say the input voltage is fine and can handle quite a load, I tend to over-build stuff according to my wife. She muttered something about the last outhouse I built was spec'd to commercial code.
Give me your thoughts on this if you will, I haven't had ANY problems with the entertainment center in the last 4+ years that I've been running this setup. Also the voltage is the same at the inverter itself so it's not a drop in voltage due to distance which is approximately 40' with 10ga stranded copper.
Yesterday while wandering through Lowes I picked up an outlet box, outlet, cover etc. and this morning proceeded to break into the 20amp wiring that I installed to bring power up through the garage floor a few years ago. The outlet installation is a no-brainer and the fridge runs quite well off the batteries only drawing 110 watts, I am impressed by the low draw. Here's the rub:
I took my multi-meter, set it to 200 volts AC (lowest AC setting) and checked the voltage and got 86-88 volts. Hmmm, what's up with this?? The only thing that I can figure is that my multi-meter doesn't appreciate a square wave inverter so it doesn't give an accurate reading. I ran into this issue when I originally installed the inverter but back then I hadn't discovered this forum so I had nobody to ask. I plugged an incandescent light fixture into it and it lit the light at the same intensity as the shore power so I guessed it was the multi-meter not liking the sine-wave shape.
By the way, we are on shore power and the input voltage to the inverter is 13.7vdc and it's wired with 24" of if I recall correctly is #2 gauge stranded battery cable, suffice it to say the input voltage is fine and can handle quite a load, I tend to over-build stuff according to my wife. She muttered something about the last outhouse I built was spec'd to commercial code.
Give me your thoughts on this if you will, I haven't had ANY problems with the entertainment center in the last 4+ years that I've been running this setup. Also the voltage is the same at the inverter itself so it's not a drop in voltage due to distance which is approximately 40' with 10ga stranded copper.