Use of 150/400 Watt Built in Inverter

[jaymanfifty]

It seems that the ignition key must be fully turned right in order to use the 400 watts full power of the built in inverter. Will doing this for several hours using the 400 watt inverter do any damage to the NV or the inverter? Also, will the inverter power off before the battery drains too much to start the vehicle? I'm running a 19 inch flat screen TV, 65 watts. Any thoughts/suggestions?

[emathiesen]

A 65watt load at 120Volts is roughly a little over half an amp of current draw when running on household 120V AC (watts=volts X amps). Now since the inverter it running on 12Volts DC and stepping that up to 120Volts, you can multiply that little over half an amp by 10 and you get 5.5 Amps current draw actually being pulled from the 12 volt source. You can round that up to 6 Amps since the inverter is not 100% efficient in its conversion from DC to AC.

 

So, with the engine off, you are pulling around 6 amps per hour to run your TV. The NV has a group 27 battery, these are typically rated for around 80 amp/hours. So, you could run your TV for 13 hours and you would run your battery totally flat (80Ah divided by 6 amps). Now in the real world you would not want to run any battery totally flat since you would eventually kill the battery and find yourself buying a new one every year. So a good rule of thumb for standard flooded type batteries is don't run then below 50% of their rated capacity, in this case you would then have 40Ah to play with or about 6.5 hours of tv time.

 

Of course you still want to be able to start your truck when you are done watching tv, so for that reason, to leave enough juice in the battery, try not to use more then 25% of its rated capacity, now you have 20Ah and roughly 3 hours of TV time. Most inverters have a low voltage auto shut off to prevent damaging the battery, I am not sure if Nissan is relying on that or if they have another system in place to prevent the battery from getting to low to start the truck.

 

Since you are running a 65watt load, the 150 watt setting on the inverter would be fine for your use. You will not damage the inverter using it for an extended period, it will shut down on its own before it damages itself if it gets too hot. By the way it is located in the rear left corner of the truck behind the masonite panel right near the rear 120V outlet.

 

Hope that all makes sense.

 

-Earl

 

_______________________

Mathiesen Marine Services

3300 Powell Street, Suite 107

Emeryville, CA 94608

510-350-6622

www.MathiesenMarine.com

[jaymanfifty]

Earl,

Thanks for the detailed explanation! Now I can safely watch 3 hours of TV while the wife is shopping. If it gets more than that or if its very warm, I'll crank up the Honda EU 2000 to run the AC, TV and the fridge for the "cold" drinks! Getting ready for the Yellowstone, Glacier trip with the van and leaving the camper back home in NC. Gas may be $5 per gallon so have to travel lite!

Jay

[dbly1850]

Mine has a auto shut off,turns off interior lights, etc, so when you say "fully to the right" you mean in the starter position? Not sure I would want to do that to the system

 

It seems that the ignition key must be fully turned right in order to use the 400 watts full power of the built in inverter. Will doing this for several hours using the 400 watt inverter do any damage to the NV or the inverter? Also, will the inverter power off before the battery drains too much to start the vehicle? I'm running a 19 inch flat screen TV, 65 watts. Any thoughts/suggestions?

[Patty Smith]

How many amps is the alternator that comes with the van?

[Patty Smith]

Potential customer wants to run a 7.5 amp freezer from the van's outlet. Does he need a bigger inverter?

[tech97elec]

Yes! If it draws 7.5 amps...for sure. See if it has a watt rating. It's easier to calculate that way..... its probably about 800-900 watts, so figure your inverter for 1200 or so, but you also need to know what the surge is when the compressor kicks on. You may have to go with a bigger inverter thatn that for this type of inductive load. You should also plan on another battery if you need it to run with the van stopped, engine off.

[Elfmaze]

Anyone know why the inverter locks out when the van is shifted out of park?  Is it just a "keeping us safe from our selves" type of thing.  Or is there a mechanical reason?  ours is a mini RV and we would like to be able to watch a movie or play playstation while driving from the back seats,  And our wattage gets close to the 150watt limit with tv and player.

[vanguy]

Elfmaze you are simply amazing!

I thought Microsoft Windows was good at multi-tasking but it can't compare to your ability to " watch a movie or play playstation while driving from the back seats".

You Da Man

[The Roving Arborist]

On 9/3/2013 at 10:42 AM, Elfmaze said:

Anyone know why the inverter locks out when the van is shifted out of park?  Is it just a "keeping us safe from our selves" type of thing.  Or is there a mechanical reason?  ours is a mini RV and we would like to be able to watch a movie or play playstation while driving from the back seats,  And our wattage gets close to the 150watt limit with tv and player.

I’m wanting the answer to this very same question. 

[Local Apparent Friday]

If I had to venture a guess, it would look something like this; alternator output increases with RPM, so either the inverter circuit doesn't have a proper regulator/controller, OR it does and Nissan just didn't want to take a chance on the liability of frying electronics.  I found reference to a couple posts here were people have made grounding mods to attempt to get 400w constantly, but nothing conclusive and no battle reports, so I'm not linking them.  If one were so inclined, an oscilloscope could be used to analyze the signal to determine whether or not it's safe.  I'm in the middle of prepping the bikes for a track day this weekend, but my inverter is pretty accessible in our current build...I'll throw a DMM on there tomorrow and see if A/C is actually making it all the way back.  I'll have to dig around and find my portable o-scope, though.  It's been misplaced.

 

Also, @The Roving Arborist, welcome to the forums.  Feel free to jump in Introductions and introduce yourself, or pop in to Conversions and show off your build.  We love ogling build pics. 

 

- laf

Edited September 15, 2022 by Local Apparent Friday

[aztec]

There's an always on power point in the console, and a 400 watt inverter is less than $30.  Don't overthink this.

[crusty]

If you are running a TV and Audio equipment you may want a pure sine wave inverter upgrade anyway.  The factory invertor is a modified sine wave (the low grade version of the invertor).

I am running a 2kw invertor on a house battery.  No issues with electronics nor a worry about running down the starting battery.

[Local Apparent Friday]

@aztec testing and tinkering (read:overthinking) is kinda my thing. 

 

@crusty yah I too was going to recommend a sine wave inv.  I'll have to see if I can find something that fits.  Didn't get to test wires today, too busy on bikes.