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Inverter for PC advice needed.

  • 06-05-2009 7:02pm
    #1
    netwhizkid
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,558 ✭✭✭


    I need a bit of advice on this one so bear with me! I have cross posted this on the Electrical forum to get the opinions of any "bright sparks" :pac: over there!

    A friend who runs a small business from home is having the ESB cut off next week for several hours as they are working the area and got notification today. He works long distance and has his office in full flight all day, with a printer, fax, desktop PC and laptop going. This as you can imagine uses a nice bit of juice and he needs an alternate supply of power. He originally came asking to borrow the generator but I refused as AFAIK they produce "dirty power" unsuitable for his plethora of electronics. Anyway he needs to keep working and needs power. I have suggested an inverter and I can loan him a fully charged lorry or tractor heavy duty batter in 12 or 24v to power the inverter which should do it for the day.

    He can trim down to the laptop for the day and not use the PC and will have around 2hours battery charge to begin with and about 1.5hours usage and charge before getting another 2hrs from the laptop battery. The fax will need to plugged in but will only be on standby all the time unless he needs to send off one or receive. The printer (inkjet instead of laser for the day for power saving) will consume around 60 or 70 watts while printing and his usage should be around 3 or 400 hundred watts an hour at peak capacity. We will plank a battery in the corner of the office and run a 4 way gang from the inverter to the devices and it will be completely independent of the grid or house wiring.

    My plan sounds straight forward, what I want to find out about is inverters and sine wave, I know little about each and my man will spend the money no problem up to around €100 or €200 as it is important he have contact with the US always.

    I have researched Maplin, Argos and Halfords and got results in each place it is only a matter of picking a good one.

    Maplin Inverters
    Argos Inverters
    Halfords Inverters


    Any suggestions? :confused:

    Would a higher wattage inverter burn more power from the batteries eg. would my mates gadgets pulling 350W/hr on a 1000W inverter use more/less or the the same amount of power on as say gadgets pulling 350W/hr on a 500W inverter or would power consumption from the battery be the same regardless of the output of the Inverter? I will be giving him a large battery so I think it should hold out either way.

    thanks, we have a week to get him powered up:cool:


Comments

  • #2
    seamus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    Can't really help you on that, but who are his ISP and can you be sure that their local exchange won't be powered down too? Local branches or whatever of NTL could also possibly be powered down.

    Unlikely I'd say, but could be a waste of a lot of time and energy if it is.


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