Power Inverters...Good and bad?

Does your co allow inverters or are you an O/O? I ran a small microwave in my p/u in the oilfield with a 750 watt unit clamped to my battery. The truck had to be running for it to work. Now I use a 400watt for my laptop which plugs in the cig lighter plug.

I would like a unit that would run a microwave and be easily removed prior to truck servicing. Just saw a huge 2500 watt unit last week and it was only $200 (I think) at a TS.

 

I would still like to know if anyone is working on an all electrical solution to idling or even APU's, even if it takes 10 more batteries and a couple of powerful inverters it would still be more cost effective it seems.

 

I have a 2500 watt and am running everything you listed above including a tv and home stereo system. But I wish I had known more about inverters before I got mine.

Most inverters sold in truck stops produce what is called "modified sine-wave" electricity. Others call it "dirty" electricity. For this reason my digital clock does not keep correct time so I do not use it. But this dirty electricity is good for most everything. For my home stereo I had to get a "ground loop isolater" to get rid of a buzzing noise which might be corrected by having a "true sine-wave" inverter. So I wish I had spent the extra money and purchased a "true sine-wave" inverter. Especially since I might get an LCD tv which may look better with clean electricity. The "true sine-wave" inverters are generally more boxy looking like this one


and you most likely won't find one in a truck stop.

There is a good article here for more info.
http://powerelectronics.com/power_s...s/power_modified_sinewave_inverter/index.html

 

Does the truck have to be on? Or if not, how long can you get away with running it?

 

It will run for awhile with the batteries charged, but luckily I have an APU which automatically kicks on when the batteries get low.

Regarding your question about an "all electrical solution" for APU's, I'm sure it's in the works but you're talking about a lot of power to run air conditioning and heaters. And fitting something into the scheme of the design of the truck is another animal altogether.

 

Yeah heat in particular I know draws a lot of power.

I have a cargo van that I put 2 Optima yellowtop batteries and a 2000W amp for 2 - 12" alpine woofers. I've run it full tilt for a couple hours before without any problem, and those woofers are very heavy and move a lot of air. I'm thinking 4-6 deep cycle batteries with air on a timer wouldn't be too hard, but I'm not sure. There's plenty of room in the catwalk area for batteries. At $150 or so a pop for good batteries and no fuel it's gotta be WAY cheaper and cleaner in both short and long runs.

There must be some good reason it's not standard...

 

Well, that's a nice setup. But I don't know if those batteries would run heat or air conditioning for 8-14 hrs at a time. Maybe they would, I'm no expert on deep cycle batteries. But I would venture to guess there is some reason a solution like this has not come up.

Sometimes I listen to the trucking shows on satellite radio and they talked about this in-depth one night. I can't remember all the solutions, but it is no easy task coming up with a viable energy source on these trucks.

 

Paulie,

A 1500 watt Cobra will do the trick. The new models are much cheaper than the old models. So you can easily go to a 2500 watt if you want. They can be had for about $200.

I ran a laptop, dorm fridge, micro-wave, coffee pot, DVD player, and a TV (when I had one) on a 1500 watt Cobra, it lasted 3 years. I know a couple who used a electric skillet and a Crock Pot on theirs (1500 watt), with no problems.

Look around a bit, to see if you can find an "old" model Cobra. It has a metal body and larger fans. The new models have a hard polymer shell and smaller fans.

Only issue I have, I need to run the engine to provide enough juice when using the micro-wave or coffee pot. Otherwise, it took longer to get the job done.

 

I use a CPI1000 by Cobra, 1000w continuos and 2000w peak. Amazingly the largest power draw I have is my Shark Vac. It pulls about 900w when I first turn it on then settles down to 680 to 700 and up to 750 when I burry the brush in the carpet. My coffee maker draws 580, the microwave draws 650 to 700 and the tv draws about 400 when I first plug it in then drops to 60 when on. My laptop shows 40 to 100 depending on whats on the screen. When I plug it with a dead battery it starts at 100 then slowly drops to 40.

As for an all-electric solution to idling, I used to work for a company that was trying to use the Nite Aire system which is all electric. They were junk, sometimes you would get 6 to 8 hours of air and other times it would kill the truck batteries as well as it's own batteries. I don't know all the particulars on the batteries, they were about 3"w, 6" tall and 24" long. There was 6 of them in the side box as well as a host of electronics under the bunk. The system was supposed to charge the batteries while running then use them for cooling and power when parked. Sometimes it would charge and sometimes it would stay connected to the truck batteries and you would wake up at 3:00am with everything stone cold dead. The other down side, we lost all storage under the bunk, the system took up the entire space with the exception of the side box on the drivers side.

What I have now is an '09 Frightbox Columbia that has a Webasto bunk heater and a Webasto engine heater. I have run the bunk heater at 0 degrees outside air temp for 24 hours then kicked the engine heater on 2 hours before starting the truck and all was well. Now if I run the inverter for anything other than the TV I get a low voltage shutdown after about two hours but all I have to do is fire the truck up for an hour at a high idle and it chrges everything back up. The heaters and the inverter ar hooked directly to the batteries. Everything else in the truck is run through a low voltage protection system so if the voltage drops too low it shuts the power of then youhave to cycle the ignition to get it turned back on. Not a perfect solution but better than idling all the time.

I have been looking at some 15w solar panels to mount to the top of the bunk but the durability is questionable at best and I hate to drop $1000 only to have them get damaged.

The biggest problem now is California won't allow generators to run on 07 and newer trucks unless they run through a DPF the same as the engine. More problems! The diesel fired heaters I have are also not allowed in California (fortunatley we don't go there very often). I think we are going to wind up with electric only solutions simply because of EPA regulations. A LiIon or LiPoly battery solution would be the best way as far as power to weight but Li batteries can be dangerous they have a habit of exploding if not charged correctly. Not something I want to be sleeping on top of. If someone could develope a Li system that uses engine power to re-charge and some sort of solar solution for maintaining it would be a money maker albeit very expensive.