Hi Volks,

I did some testing with a Canadian Tire 400W "Digital" inverter last
spring. This inverter comes with an LED readout that will tell you
the battery voltage, wattage being drawn and voltage being output.

So I hooked up some accessories to see what readings I would get.

My 57Watt 13" walmart TV set drew about 50 watts. It was rated at 57W.
The X-box was rated as 2.2Amp at 105V... in reality it drew no more
than 110-120  Watts.
My compact fluorescent trouble light drew 10Watts
A 60W incandescent bulb drew 60 Watts.

Adding the loads together gave the same results as the separated
totals, so the wattage reported seems to be accurate. Any load
greater than 170 Watts will take the inverter offline after 2-3
seconds of warning; so the "true" output of an inverter is about ONE
THIRD the rated output.

Dave's Walmart unit sounds like a better deal, but that depends on
what Phil's intentions are.

Happy trails,

Greg Potts
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1973/74/79 Westfakia Conversion **Bob the Tomato**  LY3H
1977 Sunroof Automatic L63H/L90D
http://www.pottsfamily.ca/westfakia
http://www.busesofthecorn.com

On 1-Dec-05, at 10:43 AM, Dave Vickery wrote:

> WalMart Sells Black & Decker 750 Watt (peak 1500) for 49.99.  300
> Watts is
> not enough.
>
>
>> From: "Trenholme, Phil" <Phil_Trenholme@AFFYMETRIX.COM>
>> Reply-To: "Trenholme, Phil" <Phil_Trenholme@AFFYMETRIX.COM>
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: Inverter at Radio Shack
>> Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2005 07:00:51 -0800
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Just got the Radio Shack Christmas sales flyer in the mail. They had
>> there 300W inverter on sale for $49.00, normal price $99. Think I
>> will
>> pick one up now that I have my Optima Auxillary Battery installed.
>>
>> Phil
>> Santa Cruz
>> '90 Westy
>
>