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Inverter Question…..
I was doing an experiment today and am a little puzzled. I have a 3000 watt inverter and 4 8D lifeline batteries. The inverter is on float mode and then I shut off the shore power. I then turn the inverter off and have 0 amp and 13.4 volts showing on the batteries. I then turn on the inverter and now show 3 amps and 13.4 on the batteries. Now I turn on a roof air fan on low and the batteries show 14-17 amps and 12.8 volts. I then turn the roof air to cool and the batteries show 200 and some and quickly drop to the 125-135 amp range and 11.7 volts. The air is cooling but I know the batteries arn’t going to last long. When I shut down the air the batteries go back to 3 amps and 12.8 volts.
Now the comparison….. On shore power the roof air run around 13-15 amps. So how come on inverter power the inverter is showing the batteries are drawing over 100 amps?
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3 Replies
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120 volts X 15 amps = 1800 watts
1800 watts divided by 12 volts= 150 amps
with 4-8D batteries you could run about 3 hours with the 1 AC on
255 amps(per battery) X 4(batteries)=1020 then you must assume 50% state of charge which is 1/2 of 1020 or 510 amps available,in 3 hours at 150 amps per hour would equal 450 amps used which is close to 510.
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As Jack explained, your seeing DC amps on inverter and AC amps on shore.
What you describe Dale is usually what happens when the batteries are going south. How old are they?
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Thanks Jack and Tom, I never knew that the inverter output was was figured in converted DCV. That makes now, since I was getting some high amp readings.
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