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If so, any tips and advice?
I'm looking for enough power to play a laptop (use for turbo sessions) and lighting when fettling etc. Would also then take it camping for extra source of charging phones etc.
Any advice and where to get decent cheap leisure battery and inverter appreciated...
Cheers..
Do you need an invertor? 12v lights, laptop car charger, car charger for phones. Easy enough and more efficient. You could just get a big 12v LIon power pack which will do the same thing in a smaller package.
I have a small solar panel controller and leisure battery, hooked up to a 300w inverter it's fine for lighting,dab radio etc. Ideal in the summer but I do sometimes struggle in the depths of winter due to lack of sunlight.
I also have a 12v led floodlamp outside.
When funds permit I will also add a small wind turbine but the most basic are about £400
No, but I've got a car battery hooked up to a solar panel to run 12v lights in my shed. As said above you should be able to charge a lap top from 12v so no need for an inverter.
Spend the money for the inverter on a 12v laptop charger. Its not efficient to convert 12v to 240v, then convert the 240v down to ~19v for a laptop.
Get 12v lights, not 240v.
Inverters are inefficient and don't like it when the battery isn't well charged. They also drain the battery whilst on standby.
In six years or so of campervan ownership, my inverter was used for:
1) Laptop
2) A jigsaw as I needed to use it in the middle of a field (it didn't run properly as I don't have a megabucks pure sine wave invertor)
3) Electric Toothbrush (killed two before I worked out it was failing to charge after being plugged into the inverter)
Other stuff that don't like cheap invertors:
Fluorescent Lights
Battery Chargers
12v LED van kits can be quite cheap, I got a set similar to these and put them in a horsebox, they chuck out a decent amount of light...
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Oh, and I found it made more sense to buy a 12v jump start pack for the trailer, its got 2 cigar plugs and 2 USB ports on the front, plus the obvious benefit of being able to start your car with it. AND...its east to carry, and comes with 240v and 12v chargers...you don't get them with a leisure battery!
Does the laptop not have a battery ?
Useful replies - Cheers. I'll look at a 12v battery pack of some sort.
@trailrat...laptop I use for Trainer road has no charge left in battery..so bought a £30 Chinese imported replacement and a year later it won't hold its charge for longer than an hour. So instead of buying another I was looking into some kind of power kit that would run the laptop and have other uses too...
During day I can run a long power lead from house into the garage (over communal ground) but don't want to do that at night - a neighbour will break a leg and sue me!!
Any advice and where to get decent cheap leisure battery and inverter appreciated...
travelvolts
Managed to do the electrics in my van using their stuff despite knowing less than nothing about 12v or vehicle electrics. Call them and they will probably do you a bundle with all the cables made up ready.
As trainer road now runs on Android, you may be better ditching the laptop and running TR on a cheapish Tablet. Would charge easier via USB and save more powerz...
A dynamo?