By the time you buy a good battery and 1000 Watt Inverter, you could
almost buy a Generator.  Barely used generators are going cheap here on
the east coast after every one returned them after the hurricane.  It's
that free generator rental...  Buy It, Use It, Return It!

J

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of David Beierl
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 9:21 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Microwave oven in Westy?

At 05:07 PM 10/24/2003, Joe Federici wrote:
>Your concern with a microwave is the amount of power it uses and how
>often you want to use it so the question isn't will it work but how
>much time before the battery is dead.

The smallest one I found is an Origo half-ft^3 model with 550 watts
output,
draws 850 watts.  So you'll need something approaching a 1,000 watt
inverter, and expect a battery drain approaching 100 amps while the
device
is in use.  Conventional wisdom for that would be that you should have
400
amp-hours capacity in regular deep-cycle batteries, or at least 300
amp-hours in gel- or AGM-type batteries just to support the current
draw,
without regard for how long you plan to run the thing; and of course
your
wiring would have to support the load.  I don't know whether you'd need
a
true-sine-wave inverter; likely not, but you need to keep the
possibility
in mind since they cost quite a bit more than the stepped-wave type and
may
not be as efficient.  Practically speaking I imagine you'd be better off
with a 1-kilowatt generator if you really want to do this.

david

--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA --
http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"