Mark,

One thing about the HP printers and any laser printer for that
matter.
During power up, they draw 2 to 3 times the "rated" power.  They run
a self
test and heat up the fuser during that time.  A 400 watt printer can
draw up
to 1200 watts.  The rated power is after they are up, running and
printing a
page.

GregM.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
Behalf Of
Mark C
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006 8:05 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Running a second inverter

Referencing my post on Printing w HP1020 off a Deep Cycle Battery,

I guess one solution would be to run one inverter off the deep cycle,
for
things like the radio et.. and to run a second inverter off the
starting
battery, and to use this inverter for when the engine is on... so
that the
engine acts as a generator... and then you could better power things
like a
small printer of 402.5 watts...

Assuming there isn't some technical flaw in taking this approach...
you
could store each inverter under the front seats... (maybe with the
front
propped up, and the rear fixed in position, so you could more readily
plug,
unplug, turn on, turn off...) (or maybe reverse the direction of the
inverter and plug in through a cutout... but then turning one off/on
while
driving would require a yoga technique... )

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