It has been a rough day since yesterday, and I had to check three cars that have a problem with their battery and its power inverter. At the end after fixing the problem, the other car owner who is just observing around tapped my shoulder and asked, “How long will a 12V battery last with an inverter?”
I shrugged my shoulder, so he laughed. The thing is, we honestly can’t determine the exact duration of how long will a 12 volt battery lasts while connected into a device that is draining its charge.
So I answered, “According to my experience, your 12V car battery will last with an inverter for 10-17 hours. Of course, there is a specific formula that you can follow, but it will depend on how many watts load and ampere-hour the battery has.”
Like car battery chargers, power inverters varies on how much power does it generates and how many watts can be loaded on the car battery.
Longevity Of A 12 Volt Car Battery Using An Inventor
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It is challenging to answer such thing because there are no batteries that will stay in 12V for long hours nor there not a 100 ampere-hour percentage for a battery for more than an hour. It is not constant. However, based on experience, a 12 V battery lasts until 10-17 hours while connected into an inverter.
There are things that you need to consider first before you can estimate the life capacity of a car battery that is attached to an inverter.
First, you need to know the capacity of your car battery and its type. Once you see the size and type, you need to find out how many amp-hours it has. You also need to make sure whether it is a deep-cycle or a lead-acid battery (automotive).
Since there is no 100% efficiency in car batteries, you can pretend that it has around 80% to 90% energy with 65 watts. While the inverter has around 72 watts. The formula that you need to use is the following:
72 watts / 12 volts = 6 amps.
If you found out that you have a 60 amp-hour car battery, the length of the car battery’s life would be around 10 hours. Again, it will depend on how many amp-hour the car battery has.
Additionally, I know that you are aware that the car battery won’t stay at 12 volts charged level because come on, there’s no perfect car battery and this will go down once the battery discharges. As the car battery energy level decreases, the inverter would induce more current coming from the battery to keep the current energy level constant.
So to answer this question more profound, it will definitely depend on your car battery’s capacity and the inverter’s capability to convert current.
Safety Precautions While Using An Inverter
1. You need to put the inverter on a horizontal or vertical surface.
2. Please avoid installing the inverter in the car engine’s chamber because it may cause water or acid contamination. Leaving it there can also cause excessive heat under the car’s hood and spark in the inverter alone.
Keep your power inverter dry by not exposing it to rain or moisture. Make sure that you are not wet when operating the device as it may lead to severe damage or possible death.
Keep the inverter off on or near any heating vents or any source of heat. Even direct sunlight is not advisable. The temperature must be around 50° and 80° F.
Keep the inverter well ventilated and make sure that it is not near any flammable materials.
What Is A Car Power Inverter By The Way?
Before we dive deeper into the definition of a power inverter, we need to know first what the difference between AC and DC energy is.
In layman’s term, AC is the energy that you get from the main outlet in your house while DC is the energy that you get from your batteries. So basically, the AC energy that is coming from the primary outlets is being converted into DC when it is charged into a car battery.
A car power inverter provides the AC energy when connected to car batteries. Electronic gadgets or device needs the AC energy that is on the power inverter from the car batteries which holds the DC energy.
Do you engage in long road trips than the others? I’m sure you always bring electronic devices like phones, laptops, etc. A car power inverter is a must-have if you like to travel most of the time as you can use this to charge electronic devices.
Like what I have mentioned above, you can determine the life of the battery when connected into an inverter depending on watts of the inverter, the alternator’s output, and the potential of the car battery – who knows?
It might be flat dead, and you will be surprised that it won’t charge your devices when in fact the energy that is just the same.
How Do Inverter Functions?
Car power inverters use a DC power source like the car battery to copy or clone the AC energy from it. There are also electronic inverters that can swiftly turn the opposition of the car battery (the DC source).
Who Needs A Car Power Inverter?
In today’s age, a lot of us spend time listening to their cellphones and bringing their laptop even on a road trip – to work anywhere. These people need an inverter.
Laptops and cellphones can use an inverter with accessory jacks connected to a 12 V battery. Anything that requires an AC energy needs an inverter.
Different Types Of Car Power Inverters
There are TWO main types of car power inverters that you can use for automotive (lead-acid car batteries) batteries.
1. Modified Sine Wave
This type of inverter is way much cheaper than the second type. They are affordable and works perfectly fine for most of the electronic devices.
2. Pure Sine Wave
They produce a sine wave that is almost the same as the AC energy that is coming from the main outlets in your home. Since this is kind of pricey than modified sine wave (because of its features), you can check first with the electronic device manufacturer if it is compatible with what you are currently planning to buy.
