When we first moved onto our remote “off grid” house we had no idea what we were in for.  We didn’t know anything about 12v inverters, solar panels, generators, or battery banks.  The man we bought the house from had a crappy bank of unmatched 12 volt deep cycle batteries.  He didn’t even have an power inverter installed at all.  He had a few 12 volt lights in the house and a small 12 volt television.  That was the extent of his electronic devices.  That was fine for him but we weren’t prepared to give up all of the little electronic luxuries that modern day life affords.

The first thing we did was rush to the local Walmart to buy a power inverter.  For the life of me, I can’t remember the brand name of the inverter that they carried.  We made the 45 minute round trip back to the house and started right away on the installation.  The inverter was a 700 watt unit.  We knew that we would need a bigger one eventually but the Walmart inverter was cheap and we could put it to work right away as opposed to ordering one and having to wait  a week or more for it to arrive.

When we got home, I wired the 12 volt inverter up and plugged it into the house.  The house isn’t hooked up to power from the power company so we didn’t have to worry about back feeding into the grid power.  The installation was quite easy.  We simply wired a 120 VAC electric plug to the end of the wire that fed power into the house.  Then we could simply plug the house in like you would plug in old RV.  Simple enough right?  Well that’s what we thought too.

When we plugged the inverter in for the first time we made sure that nothing was turned on in the house.  The plan was to turn things on one at a time so as to not overload the inverter.  The first thing we turned on was a simple 120 volt lamp.  To our surprise, when we hit the switch, the light just flickered.  Actually it gave very faint pulses of light every half second or so.  I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.  The batteries weren’t very good but they were fully charged and all we had turned on was one 60 watt light bulb.  A 700 watt power inverter should have no problem running that.

We waited a few minutes and gradually the pulses became longer and brighter then suddenly they came on fully.  We then turned on a radio and it came on fine.  Next we added a TV to the load and it came on fine.  Our devices were running fine but we had no idea what was up with the flickering problem.

The next day we went through the same thing.  I called the customer support line that was listed in the instruction manual but they were now help.  The lady I spoke with didn’t even know that her company sold power inverters.  Heck, she didn’t even know what a power inverter was.  I decided that something must have been wrong with this particular 12v inverter so we returned it to the store and exchanged it for another.

To our dismay, when we got it home, it did the same thing.  I rechecked the wiring and couldn’t find any problems.  It was annoying that it took about five or more minutes before the inverter would power the house but we didn’t know what else to do so we just lived with the annoyance. One other annoyance was that when we were watching TV, we would see several squiggly horizontal lines on the screen when the TV  was being powered by the inverter.  We didn’t see these lines when it was being powered by the generator.

This went on for about 4 months before the inverter prematurely gave up the ghost and died.  It was still under warranty so we returned it to the store and got a replacement.  Of course, this inverter did the same thing.  This one lived for six months before it kicked the bucket.

This time around, I decided that we would buy a better inverter.  I did some research on the Internet and we settled on a 1000 watt inverter made by Xantrex.  I ordered it new from someone on ebay and I think we paid around $110. At the time, this was their bottom of the line inverter but it’s all we could afford so it would have to do.

When it arrived, I eagerly opened the box to see what it looked like.  My first impression was that the build quality was much better.  It just looked more substantial.  I don’t know what I thought I could tell by just looking at it but I was somehow convinced that because it looked better it would function better.

I followed the installation instructions for the new 12 volt inverter to the letter so as to not make a mistake and damage it.  This time when we turned on the light, it instantly came on.  We turned on several other devices and they all worked fine too.  Next we unplugged the inverter, turned several devices on in the house, and plugged it back in.  The instructions say to only add one load a time to the inverter but I wanted to put this new unit to the test.  When we plugged the inverter in for the test, everything came on instantly and ran great.

I have no idea what caused the flickering with the first inverter.  I know for a fact that we weren’t overloading it.  For some reason it just had a hard time waking up each day.  The fist inverter was a 700 watt unit and the Xantrex inverter was a 1000 watt unit but that shouldn’t have made any difference when trying to power such light loads.  All I can chock this up to is quality.  The Xantrex unit must have been a higher quality unit.

So there you have it.  You can take it for what it’s worth.  The cheap store brand inverter worked fine after taking a few minutes to start up but it sure didn’t last very long.  We bought a power meter to find out how many watts we were asking it to power and it was never more than 400 .  We weren’t overloading it but it still to took a while to start up and it died after a few short months.

Incidentally, the Xantrex inverter functioned flawlessly but eventually killed over after one year.  We replaced it with a brand called Go Socket because that was what they carried at our local auto parts store.  It was more expensive than the Xantrex but it came with a two year warranty and the Xantrex only came with a six month warranty.  I think we paid around $200 for it.  This unit worked perfectly until one month before the warranty ran out.  Fortunately we saved the receipt and the store that we bought it from replaced it with no questions asked. We’re currently on our third year with the GS-1500 inverter.

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If you’ve been researching 12v inverters, you’ve probably read about pure sine wave inverters.  If you researched further, you also probably realized that pure sine inverters are the most expensive type and in many cases the cost is just too high for the average person.

You’ve probably wondered if you really need a pure sine 12v inverter?  Pure sine wave inverters output power that is as good or better than the power supplied from the electric company.  Low quality power inverts output square sine wave power.   The is dirty power and may cause interference on some electronic devices.  Most mid to high end inverters output modified sine wave power.

For the average user, a good modified sine wave 12 volt inverter will be quite adequate.  I have a modified sine inverter that powers my remote home.  I run three computers, three televisions, Dish Network DVR satellite receiver, DVD players, a playstation 2,  a Nintendo Wii, and a wireless router on it.  We have never experienced any problems powering them with a modified sine wave inverter.

The only time I ever had a problem was when I had a cheap power inverter that I bought at a local department store.  We didn’t have satellite yet and could only watch TV with an antenna.  When we used the inverter to watch TV, we would see some horizontal lines on the screen.  I bought a better 12 volt inverter, subscribed to satellite, and the lines went away.

If you’re like most people and can’t afford the most expensive pure sine wave power inverter, a quality modified sine wave inverter should suit your needs just fine.

A power inverter can be a really useful tool to have on hand. It allows you to operate normal, household electronic equipment away from a standard AC power source. You just connect the inverter to your car battery (or whatever battery you happen to have nearby) and plug in your devices. Although that is the basic process, there are a few considerations that you need to be aware of before you jump into the woods with nothing but your car battery, power inverter, and television.

While features vary between 12v inverters, they all have a standard wattage rating. The most important thing to be aware of is that you should never go over the posted wattage range. Not only could this ruin your inverter, but it could ruin whatever you’re attempting to power.

Besides the standard wattage rating, they also have a max surge wattage rating. This will usually be about twice as high as the regular watt range. You really shouldn’t consider this number with your everyday use. This is simply to let you know how much power it can handle during power surges. If you load up your 1200 watt power inverter with 2400 watts of electronics, you a guaranteed to create a disaster.

To determine how much wattage you are pulling from your power inverter, all you have to do is add up the wattages from each of the powered devices. All electronic devices should be clearly labeled with how much power they use, although it is probably on the back or bottom of each device. Much like an incandescent light bulb though, if it says 100 watts it might actually run at 90 or 110 so leave a little room for error in your calculations. If you actually have to draw 1200 watts, it is a much safer and more efficient idea to buy a power inverter that is rated for 1300 or more watts.

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