low wattage inverter

I'm looking for the most efficient 100 watt inverter (12vdc to 110vac) I can find.

Any suggestions?

Crinstam Camp wrote:I'm looking for the most efficient 100 watt inverter (12vdc to 110vac) I can find.

Any suggestions?

Just generalities. Make sure its a pure sine wave inverter for efficient energy conversion and smooth running of your devices. Modified sine can heat up transformers and fry certain battery chargers on tools. I like the small wattage Victrons for durability; they have a 250 watt unit. Samlex is another good small inverter brand, renogy is so so, then you get into the take a chance ones on amazon.
Cheers,  David

David Baillie wrote:

Crinstam Camp wrote:I'm looking for the most efficient 100 watt inverter (12vdc to 110vac) I can find.

Any suggestions?

Just generalities. Make sure its a pure sine wave inverter for efficient energy conversion and smooth running of your devices. Modified sine can heat up transformers and fry certain battery chargers on tools. I like the small wattage Victrons for durability; they have a 250 watt unit. Samlex is another good small inverter brand, renogy is so so, then you get into the take a chance ones on amazon.
Cheers,  David

All it will be powering are 1 and 2 watt LED bulbs up to a maximum of 40 watts in total. The normal would likely be closer to 6 to 10 watts

Crinstam Camp wrote:

David Baillie wrote:

Crinstam Camp wrote:I'm looking for the most efficient 100 watt inverter (12vdc to 110vac) I can find.

Any suggestions?

Just generalities. Make sure its a pure sine wave inverter for efficient energy conversion and smooth running of your devices. Modified sine can heat up transformers and fry certain battery chargers on tools. I like the small wattage Victrons for durability; they have a 250 watt unit. Samlex is another good small inverter brand, renogy is so so, then you get into the take a chance ones on amazon.
Cheers,  David

All it will be powering are 1 and 2 watt LED bulbs up to a maximum of 40 watts in total. The normal would likely be closer to 6 to 10 watts

I would suggest you look into low wattage LED bulbs then. The conversion efficiency on any inverter will be at its absolute worst in the first 20-30 watts. What are you lighting up? I've had good success with the USB based low wattage bulbs.  Your conversion efficiency will be much better stepping down in DC from 12 to 4.5 than stepping up from 12 volt to 120ac. Or any of the 12 volt led lighting out there. At the scale you are talking conversion will kill you. All that depends on your application of course.
Cheers,  David

David Baillie wrote:I would suggest you look into low wattage LED bulbs then. The conversion efficiency on any inverter will be at its absolute worst in the first 20-30 watts. What are you lighting up? I've had good success with the USB based low wattage bulbs.  Your conversion efficiency will be much better stepping down in DC from 12 to 4.5 than stepping up from 12 volt to 120ac. Or any of the 12 volt led lighting out there. At the scale you are talking conversion will kill you. All that depends on your application of course.
Cheers,  David

I assume you meant to say low wattage DC bulbs?

Most of our lights are all double bulb fixtures with a 1 watt LED in one side and a pull switch socket with 2 Watt LED in the other. Just wandering through and turn on the switch and the 1 watt comes on, need more light? Pull the cord and the 2 watt comes on.

We aren't going to run new lines for DC lines to power the lights.

Our lights are all going to be on their own 12v bank of two 100Ahr batteries and 300 watts of panels. The little amount we will lose with a inverter is small, I just want it as small as possible lol

It started because we aren't supposed to hook 6 of our batteries in parallel for some reason that I'm still not clear on lol

I figured instead of just letting them sit here until we got two more we might as well use them.

But when I started thinking about it, I realized how much better it would be.

If the other bank drains, or the main inverter takes a dive, we're left in the dark. This way that doesn't happen.

Plus we have three 100 watt panels, that we were using as our main ones until we got the new 200 watt panels, that are now just sitting here along with the charge controller we had then. This way it all is still getting used.

Crinstam Camp wrote:

David Baillie wrote:I would suggest you look into low wattage LED bulbs then. The conversion efficiency on any inverter will be at its absolute worst in the first 20-30 watts. What are you lighting up? I've had good success with the USB based low wattage bulbs.  Your conversion efficiency will be much better stepping down in DC from 12 to 4.5 than stepping up from 12 volt to 120ac. Or any of the 12 volt led lighting out there. At the scale you are talking conversion will kill you. All that depends on your application of course.
Cheers,  David

I assume you meant to say low wattage DC bulbs?

Most of our lights are all double bulb fixtures with a 1 watt LED in one side and a pull switch socket with 2 Watt LED in the other. Just wandering through and turn on the switch and the 1 watt comes on, need more light? Pull the cord and the 2 watt comes on.

We aren't going to run new lines for DC lines to power the lights.

Our lights are all going to be on their own 12v bank of two 100Ahr batteries and 300 watts of panels. The little amount we will lose with a inverter is small, I just want it as small as possible lol

It started because we aren't supposed to hook 6 of our batteries in parallel for some reason that I'm still not clear on lol

I figured instead of just letting them sit here until we got two more we might as well use them.

But when I started thinking about it, I realized how much better it would be.

If the other bank drains, or the main inverter takes a dive, we're left in the dark. This way that doesn't happen.

Plus we have three 100 watt panels, that we were using as our main ones until we got the new 200 watt panels, that are now just sitting here along with the charge controller we had then. This way it all is still getting used.

Much clearer now. I would suggest then disconnecting the light circuits from the larger panel if possible and powering them using plugs. Your main house loads will be bonded neutral all small inverters are floating neutral and will usually overload or fry if plugged into a full house panel. In the case you describe any pure sine inverter will do efficiencies will all be about the same. Stick to pure sine though as lots of leds have fancy step down electronics in them that don't play nice with modified sine.
Cheers, David

David Baillie wrote: I would suggest then disconnecting the light circuits from the larger panel if possible and powering them using plugs.

Exactly how would one go about powering circuits from a separate inverter without disconnecting them from the main panel???

Do you have any Milwaukee battery operated tools? They have a nice little 175W inverter that hooks to the M18 batteries. If not other companies likely make something similar.

larry kidd wrote:Do you have any Milwaukee battery operated tools? They have a nice little 175W inverter that hooks to the M18 batteries. If not other companies likely make something similar.

Well I definitely have to go look at that.

Thanks

Crinstam Camp wrote:

David Baillie wrote: I would suggest then disconnecting the light circuits from the larger panel if possible and powering them using plugs.

Exactly how would one go about powering circuits from a separate inverter without disconnecting them from the main panel???

I'll let you look that up. I suggest you not do that with a portable floating neutral inverter for safety reasons.