AC transfer inverters do exactly as their name suggests . In addition to the connection to the battery , they are connected to the normal 240V mains inlet of your caravan . All your power outlets are then connected to the inverter ’ s output . When you plug into mains power , the inverter allows this power to pass through it , just as if it wasn ’ t there . As soon as this mains power is disconnected , the inverter kicks in and now powers all the outlets using the battery as the power source .
These AC transfer inverters are extremely useful devices . Being fully automatic , you never have to worry about changing power outlets depending on your power situation . Further , depending on how your RV is wired , you could run all your appliances , including the airconditioner , while free-camping . How good would that be ?
If you intend to run your rooftop air-conditioner offgrid you will need a big inverter and a lot of battery capacity
This Enerdrive ePOWER 2600-watt inverter features pure sine wave output , 2600-watt continuous rating and pass , AC transfer and safety switch
This Enerdrive Inverter has a continuous output rating of 500-watts and a peak output of 1000-watts
Well … before you get too excited , consider that an average rooftop air-conditioner is rated at about 1600W . Using the formula we discussed earlier , we know it will draw a whopping 160A from the battery while operating from the inverter . You will barely get 20 minutes of operation from a 100A hour battery , assuming it can cope with that load . Hardly worth the effort . If you have 400Ah of lithium batteries , you may get two hours or so of air-conditioner runtime before the batteries go flat .
CAN I BUY AN INVERTER AND CHARGER ALL IN ONE UNIT ?
When you think about all the equipment we put into the electronics of RVs these days , ( battery chargers , solar controllers and now inverters ) it would be a good idea if we could integrate some of these into one unit . The fact is you can .
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