Anyone using a PowerBright Power Inverter?
I see these on E-bay. Item number: 300099756321
3500/7000 watts 12VDC to 120 VAC
Spec below;
Optimum efficiency up to 90%
No-load draw < 0.2 amp
Output Wave Form Modified Sinewave
Input voltage range 10-15.5 VDC
Over voltage shutdown over 15.5 VDC
Under voltage shutdown under 10 VDC
Low voltage alarm Audible
Overload shutdown Yes
Thermal shutdown Yes
Short circuit shutdown Yes
AC receptacle 4 three-prong receptacle
Warranty 1 year
Inverter weight 25.00 lbs
Dimensions (W x H x D) 17.7 x 6.5 x 9.1 in.
I need something for the bus......
Bill
Did it have a built in charger?
Had to go back and look,,,, no built in charger.
This one is out.......
Thanks for pointing that out....
Bill
MAGNUM ENERGY MS2012 2000 Watt Inverter Charger NEW
Includes Magnum Energy Remote Control with Cable
Item number: 150110711307
on E-bay,,, This has a charger.... Question, is 2000 watts enough?
Anyone using the Magnum's?
Bill
I believe John Palmer sells Magnum Inverters. My understanding is that they are a good, quality inverter.
As far as 2000 watts being big enough, it depends on what you plan to run off it. Add up the watts of everything you plan to run simultaneously. Look at the labels on coffee maker, TV, etc. it should give a rating in watts. If it gives the rating in amps multiply that times 120 (volts) to determine watts.
Larger Amp draw or longer use cycles between battery bank re charging will require a larger battery bank. Jack
Just rember at 12 Volts to get 2000 Watts it would take over 150 amps so usually on a 12 volt sytem that is a good limit. Make sure you know what you want is a modified sine wave or a simulated tru sine wave. Jerry
I started with a 24 volt Tripp Lite inverter. And it was fine for what I want to do. But and it is a big BUT. It had a single stage charger! Which in non technical terms means it takes a long time to charge a battery. How long? depends on the size of your battery bank.You could be looking at 8 hours useing your generator to charge a small battery bank! For me this was unacceptable. If you plan on going from power pole to power pole it would it would be ok.
If you want a lower priced inverter buy one without a charger and buy a seperate three stage charger.
I purchased a Trace DR 3624 about $900, which does everything I need to do and includes the 3 stage charger.
There are lots of options read everything you can, ask questions and then make a decision!
I bought a 5000 watt inverter off of EBay used. Modified sine and no charger. I bought 2 smart chargers from WalMart one big one and one small. This system works great, the modified sine will not run my printer so I intend on buying a small pure sine inverter that will run that receptacle only. The bigger charger is for my house bank and the smaller charges the battery for my water pump. I'm very happy with it and it saved me lots of money.
Captain Ron,
More information required,,,,why will the modified sine, not run the printer.......... ???
I already have two sears battery chargers. Guess I could keep using them and save money...
Thanks for the input everyone,,,keep them coming....
Bill
I am using a powerbright inverter.
It is a 24volt model, 3500 - 7000 peak.
The first one blew up on me, but they replaced it under warranty within a couple of days, no questions asked. They upgraded the second one to a "military use " model and it has worked fine for a year and a half.
Jim
Bill: Anything other than resistive loads react strangely to modified sine wave inverters. Some things are just low efficiency, some overheat and some won't work. To complicate it even further, an item that will not work on one brand of modified sine inverter will work on another brand.
Some inverters that are called modified sine wave are just pulse width modified square wave. Some have two or more steps to take of the sharp corners. A true sine wave has the pulses generated in the shape of a sine wave and is almost identical to power line wave form. HTH.
Quote from: Kwajdiver on April 14, 2007, 10:17:30 PM
Anyone using the Magnum's?
Bill
I wish ;D Couldn't resist
As for the printer it just flashes all of it's lights and starts spitting printed mumble jumble out. I'm just going to find the least expensive smallest pure sine inverter I can find and have a dedicated duplex receptacle for printer and recording gear. I have a great setup for very little money. I need new batteries this year and plan on putting in a huge house bank that I can run off of for a long time. When I first put in batteries I could run about 5 days with fridge, lights and microwave running off of it. And I have those power hungry halogen track lights.
Hey Ron,
Instead of a Sine wave inverter, why not go to Best Buy or staples and get a small UPS to operate the printer and other sensitive electronics?
That way you could run the ups off your present inverter or if your brave enough, set it up to run directly off your batteries.
It's just a thought!
Dallas
Dallas, That was brought up before. How long can I run off of the ups thingamajig? How much? I think the question before was is that like an inverter also?
Make sure it is an on-line UPS. Many of the cheapos run the AC power straight thru the system to the load and only switch their inverter on when there is a power failure. This switch is very fast and you never lose power to the load. However, in normal operation you are operating directly on the incoming power.
Richard
Ron,
Yeah, the UPS is an inverter. It will run for as long as it has battery power supplied to it. (and like Richard said... make sure it's an online model, or run it directly from 12v without attaching it to AC power).
We took an old one a few years ogo that had a bad battery in it and just hooked the 12V wires into our house bank. It supplied enough power to run all the electronics in the bus with no problem.
That particular UPS was junk found in a computer shop we had. The charging function didn't work but the inverter side was great.
As cheap as I am, I would look at yard sales and Goodwill for an old one since normally what I've found that goes wrong with them is that the battery dies of old age and mistreatment.
Another good point to them is that many are programmable with free software downloads from the internet and you can hook your computer to them with a USB or serial port cable. It's amazing the information you can get from the software functions. Just like the high dollar battery monitors!
Dallas
How about this one? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8020982&st=ups&type=product&id=1156607168057
I looked up ONLINE ups systems and they are very expensive. What all functions can I do with the usb models?
Ron,
Do a google search for UPS software, or look at Eaton's website for Powerware, I think it's www.powerware.com or another Eaton site is:
http://www.eatonelectrical.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=C-H/Common/AssetTemplateLink&c=Apubarticles&cid=1081447355755&Sec=products (http://www.eatonelectrical.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=C-H/Common/AssetTemplateLink&c=Apubarticles&cid=1081447355755&Sec=products)
here's a screen shot of Winpower 2004.
Guy's take a look at this one and tell me if it would be a good choice.
Dallas, That program would be very nice to have. Give me more info on hooking it up directly to my house batteries.
How about trying a different printer? I have a bottom of the line, Lexmark Z515 that works just fine on modified sinewave.
Ron,
the easiest way to hook it up is to disconnect the internal battery, (Which is many times just a deep cycle AGM), and hook into your house system with the positive and negative from the UPS.
In effect, all you are doing is swapping the little battery for the house system.
♪♫♪ *Oh, the electron's connected to the ... Pro-ton,
The Pro-ton's connected to the Neu-tron.......♪♫♪
*Sung to the tune of "Dem Bones"
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8020982&st=ups&type=product&id=1156607168057
Forgot to paste this.
I have a top of the line printer, well at one time it was close, Ok it was the best I could afford back then. My printer is a copier, scanner, fax, media card reader and printer. Hate to give it up. Plus I built a roll out drawer for it that holds it perfectly along with my Sony DVD recorder.
Capt. Ron,
I would check on at least three things before you buy:
1. Harmonic Distortion. Under 6% should be be great. Many of the cheapo UPS inverters are modified square wave, not sine wave. You need to try and check it out with your printer before you firmly commit to purchase.
2. DC bus voltage. What is the actual battery voltage in the UPS. Is it 12 volts, 24 volts, 48 volts or possibly 100 volts. The DC bus voltage needs to be the same as the DC bus in your coach that you are going to connecting to.
3. What is the duty cycle of the inverter in the UPS? They are typically designed for intermittent duty such as maybe one hour out of 24. May not have enough internal cooling to operate 24/7.
There is a lot of junk on the market and I would hate to have you get stuck with some of the things I have seen in my 40 years working in the computer power business.
Richard
Quote from: captain ron on April 17, 2007, 08:29:03 PM
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8020982&st=ups&type=product&id=1156607168057
Forgot to paste this.
I have a top of the line printer, well at one time it was close, Ok it was the best I could afford back then. My printer is a copier, scanner, fax, media card reader and printer. Hate to give it up. Plus I built a roll out drawer for it that holds it perfectly along with my Sony DVD recorder.
The main reason for this is my printer as I have not had trouble with anything else so it would only be used for a short time each use.