

| Subject: | Re: 12v/110v converter info needed |
| From: | John Brush |
| Date: | Wed, 13 Mar 2002 09:27:02 -0700 |
>I want to put a 12 v DC / 110 v AC converter in my Westy to run my laptop >and a small TV, and need some advice. >a. What type of converter do I need? Amps, etc. A few hundred watts will probably be sufficient, but you can simply check the power requirements by looking at the back of the TV, and the cube used for recharging your laptop. Add them both together, and get something about 50% more than that. >b. Where do I mount it? I put mine under the passenger seat, next to the battery. Then I attached an extension cord to make it easy for the kids to plug in their CD players, etc. >c. Where's the best place to wire it in? The battery? The fusebox for the >fridge, etc? If you will not be using too much power, you can just plug it into the cigarette lighter. Higher current draw, and neatness, would require direct attachment to the battery. Most inverters are already fused, or have ckt breakers. A word of advice if you are going to use it to watch TV. You will probably want a modified sine wave inverter or you will get noise and lines on your picture that won't be pleasant. They are caused by the crappy waveform that comes from the low end inverters. If I name a price, someone will complain they can get one cheaper, so you may want to see if you can return any inverter you buy, check it out for yourself, and see what happens. In my case, all we use it for is running the CD players, lightes, my laptop, and charging batteries, so I am using a 400 watt job that only cost $50. It would be a lousy device to run a TV tho. HTH, John
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