Guest Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Hello,Glad to be able to join your group - so many ideas tips etc - very much appreciated. Our TE due mid April. We are kiwis - please don't hold that against us - we are of a like mind and love the caravanning lifestyle. We are going to spend all our winters in your lovely country to escape our yucky winters - hence the new TE. Question - can anyone enlighten us on the need or usefulness of an inverter - I (the female) think I may like to have a small sewing machine with me on our travels and we don't want to "plug in" unless we can'lt find anywhere else. Any tips please? We will have a gene. but, that's a bit extreme to power a sewing machine. Thanks. Happy travelling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahame and Wendy Roberts Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Dear Kereru,An inverter fitted to a serious caravan is in my mind "a must". The only reason Kedron do not fit them is that there is considerable variability in what the customer's needs are and to keep their costs down. You mention your need to run a sewing machine, can I also suggest the need to run a laptop, small printer, charge batteries for GPS, cameras and gadgets, small kitchen appliances, small washing machines, small water pump to top up the tanks from the crystal clear lake water you are parked next to - the list can be extensive and is obviously very specific to your type of caravanning.A sewing machine motor is a highly inductive load for an inverter, our sewing machine motor is plated at 80 watts. A safe rule of thumb to use for such loads is multiply by 4 so you would need 80 X 4 = 320 watt rated inverter to start and run your sewing machine. Pick a full sine wave inverter say 500, 600 or 850 watt would do the job. However consider carefully your likely future needs, take the heaviest load and select your inverter size to run that load. Dont forget to dimension your batteries to cope - a 600W inverter fully loaded will draw 600/12 = 50 amps (actually a bit more because of battery inefficiencies) from your battery.See topic "Brand of Inverter" for other good comment.Retired electrical engineer.Wendy & Grahame Roberts19ft ATV & 100S 4.2TD L'Cruiser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvtripper Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 Hi Kereru,Further to Grahame's comments, an inductive load such as a 240V motor as may be in your sewing machine you would best be sure to install a PURE sine wave inverter - they are more expensive than modified sine but there are good reasons.As Graham said, consider your future needs, not just immediate. If you only want to run an 80W load a 300W inverter would more than suffice - most inverters are rated to at least double their capacity for short durations. That same 300W inverter will also run the small Lemair top load washing machine.We have a 1800W inverter to run the microwave and hairdryer - not for me though ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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