Question on DC to AC Inverters

V

vinnietee

TimeX
I find that I need an inverter contraption from a place like Radio Shack that I can plug into my cigarette light and convert to 110 volts.
I need to power at least 400W (fog machine and external radio).

Any suggestions here? I am considering driving the TimeX (whoa I just came up with the perfect plate) in a local Christmas parade and I need to outdo Santa.

What's the problems I will run into? Besides an angry santa?

Vinnie
 
An Angry Fuse!

Sorry to say that the cigarette lighter circuit is nowhere nearly beefy enough for a 400 Watt inverter. Its fuse is 8 Amps which will not even deliver 100 Watts total and is shared by other components. An inverter of that size will require a 40 Amp circuit for cool reliable operation.

We (and I'm an engineer) tend to take electricity for granted: It's easy to grumble about paying our electric utility ten cents for a kilowatt-hour, but the mechanical equivalent is one-horsepower for an hour. A 1HP pump can move a lot of water in an hour. More than I'll carry up a flight of stairs for a dime.
 
OK help me out here. What can I do...

Other than towing a small generator behind me, is there anything I can do to have this power onboard? When I did my last Car show, I was plugged into the hosts building outlet. All day power, no problem. I need something to give me enough power for an hour or so.

I have a battery power jumper than I can plug into and carry in the front hood, but it only lasts 10 minutes. I guess that gives me an idea of how much juice the fog machine needs. I could also downsize the fogger to a 200 amps.
 
Power diet

400 Watts is the majority of your stock alternator's output. Should the cooling fan turn on -- possible in a slow parade -- you would be in an overload situation.

The only thing that comes to mind is renting one of those tiny and quiet Honda portables if you can not cut your consumption.
 
Or use dry ice... <NT>

Makes a decent amount of mist, not exactly fog though. Use gloves when handling. :)
 
Out-do Santa... Whoa... yur in trouble now Vinnie...

I think I saw a small portable generator for about 100 bucks at Pep Boys or Kragen or Harbor Freight.

Pull the DRAIN plugs in the front trunk and pipe the exhaust out one... use the other as an air inlet... If the little guy survives... you can use it for lots of other things afterwards...

Do have someone photograph this in the parade too...
 
Thanks for suggestions.....

i will look into a small generator.

The parade was televised last year locally on the local cable station and I thought about it then. I can advertise my UniversalTees.com on my car. I need the fogger to work about 1 1/2 hours with no drain on the car battery.

The small generator sounds ideal. I thought about dry ice last summer for car shows but didn't ever do that. I like the fogger with remote control.

So the parade will be televised this year and if I can manage to get into it I will edit some footage. I also need to outline the car with christmas lights.

Run Run Santa
 
OK.. I waited a day or so for some other

smart ass to jump in, but I guess it's up to me.

WHAT ABOUT THAT MR. FUSION ON THE BACK!?!?!?!

Isn't 1.1 gigawatts enough power to run a damn smoke machine? :)

Here is a not so cheap, yet small and quiet generator:
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200359067_200359067

And if you want cheap, but kinda loud:
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/...omer driven-_-Recently Viewed-_-Category Page

Amazon carries some battery packs that are supposed to run a fridge for a few hours, but I bet they are d@mn heavy and big.
 
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OK Jim, it's 1.21 jigawatts......

and Mr.Fusion is not working at the moment. I will purchase a Honda generator to run the fogger and music. And then I will have the Honda generator forever for emergencies.

My next biggest concern is a lifesize Einstein plush.

Vinnie
 
I have one of those... I called him White Fang...

Got him at COSTCO years ago for 39.95...

I had a foto of him riding shotgun at the BFI 2003 meet I think... Gilles' boys were SHORT at the time... and with the wind in his hair... he looked REAL! Folks would run over to pet him only to find he was a doll. I still have him BUNCHED UP in a trash bag with the Christmas stuff!
 
I bought the generator. Safety questions...

Got a 1000w Honda. Great. Quiet. Last me forever.

Now, is it safe to run it in the enclosed front hood? The barrtery is in the same area. The generator's exhaust puts out carbon monoxide or dioxide. Battery safe? I should try to get a flexible vent to shoot out the bottom drain hole?

What other safety issues am I facing? Thanks for all the input.

Thanks

Vinnie
 
Gee Vinnie... I'd love to have the capacity (generousity also) to ship it to ya...

... but I'm not ready to give him up... as he comes out each Christmas and my G-kids love him too. I would LOAN him out but I need him around the same time and shipping would probably be prohibitive... Sorry.

Hopefully you can find another one locally for much less than the 150 being asked for on ebay.

Hey... what about finding an OWNER of a real SHEEPDOG and maybe the dog and a kid could ride shotgun... made up as Michael J. Fox. Placing an ad to join a parade and providing a dinner and the ride might be incentive enough.

Sorry I couldn't be of further help.
 
If I understand your requirements correctly, you are looking at powering two 115 VAC devices, which collectively pull about 3.5 amps. On your low voltage end, that's about 33.3 amps out of your 12V source. If you had a battery capable of a 33 amp-hour output, in theory, you're good for one hour. Many lead acids used in 'off the grid' set ups are rated at many times that level in amp-hours, so there's no problem.

) Buy an inverter rated for more than your load requirement--'overhead'.
2) Get a battery with a high amp-hours rating. Strangely, you'll notice car batteries are not rated in amp-hours, I don't know why they leave out this very important piece of data.
 
Reason for no amp-hour rating...

Car batteries are *not* deep cycle. Use one below 12v more than once or twice and you'll ruin it.

Deep cycle batteries are what you need for this.
 
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