Inverters again - new chum needs advice (again)

I would not earth an inverter in a camping situation. It's a floating supply and, argueably, earthing it makes receiving a shock in a fault situation more likely.

How long and what power you can use the inverter for depends upon the capacity of your battery.

Mike Harding

Hey there, mate when they say ground or earth they generally mean making contact with the earth terminal of the battery. (The negative terminal on any car I know of). This completes the circuit. It can be clamped to any metal part of the car or motor or wire it up directly to the negative terminal of the vehicle. The reason they don't sugest clamping to the battery is if you accidently cause a spark it can be dangerous. (Battery gases are explosive)
As far as running a 75 watt light for 4 to 5 hrs I think you'll use about 6amps per hr. There are plenty of 12v lights which let out a lot of light with less draw (around 1amp). You'l pay about $90 for a good one.
Hope this helps.
Tom

A 75 watt light will use a lot more than a compact fluoro (~10 watts).
At 12 volts it will draw a little over 6 amps, so in 5 hours that will be 6 x 5 = about 30 of the amp-hours in your battery.

Hi Ray

Use the inveter for your laptop and camera batteries.

Rather use a 12V fluorescent light like the Torpedo light which emits about the same as the 75w bulb but will only use 0.4amps. (Note: There is a typo on the website that states it is a 13amp globe instead of 13 watt)

Don't worry about the earth wing nut. It is not needed in camp situations. Just don't get it wet.

Regards Derek.

They do mean a contact with terra firma.

An earth is for one thing only - to blow the fuse if there is a fault. Hopefully before you make contact with something that is alive.

Once the fuse is open circuit the device has no supply = no output, so no possibility of electric shock.

Agree entirely with Derick.
Use your inverter to run the Laptop, CD player, and recharge camera batteries etc.
For lighting, we use the Nelson 12V compact Flouros. (Bunnings)
They are 12W (=draws only 1 amp) but are equivelant to 70W bulbs.
There are many other 12V flouro options, and Flouros are many times more efficient than normal (incandescent) bulbs.....Regards.........Keith