13
Nothing
Comes Close to a Cobra
™
12
Power Consumption
•
For each piece of equipment you will be operating from
the inverter, you must determine the battery’s
reserve
capacity
(how long the battery can deliver a specific amount
of current – in automotive batteries, usually 25 ampere) or
ampere-hour capacity
(a measure of how many amperes a
battery can deliver for a specified length of time).
Example – Reserve capacity:
a battery with a reserve
capacity of 180 minutes can deliver 25 ampere for 180
minutes before it is completely discharged.
Example – Ampere-hour capacity:
a battery with an
ampere-hour capacity of 100 ampere-hours can deliver
5 ampere for 20 hours before it is completely discharged.
To determine the battery ampere-hour
capacity you require:
1.
Determine how many watts each piece of equipment
consumes. This can normally be found on the product
label. If only the current draw is given, multiply the
current draw by 115 to get the watt consumption.
2.
Estimate the time (in hours) that each piece of equipment
will be running between battery charging cycles.
3.
Calculate the total watt-hours of energy consumption
(power x operating time) using the average power
consumption and the total estimated running time
(in hours).
Power x Operating Time = Watt-Hours
.
4. Divide the watt-hours by 10 to determine how many
battery (12 volt) ampere-hours will be consumed.
Ground Wiring
•
There is a screw on the rear panel for
Chassis Ground
.
This is to connect the chassis of the inverter to ground.
The
Chassis Ground Screw
must be connected to a
grounding point, which will vary depending on where
the unit is installed. Use a #8 AWG copper wire
(preferably with green/yellow insulation) to connect
the chassis ground screw to the grounding point.
In a vehicle:
Connect the
Chassis Ground
to the chassis
of the vehicle.
In a boat:
Connect to the
Boat Grounding System
.
In a fixed location:
Connect the
Chassis Ground Screw
to earth ground by connecting to a ground rod (a metal
rod pounded into the earth) or other proper service
entrance ground.
Power Consumption
Ground Wiring
Installation
Installation
Chassis Ground
Laptop
100 watts x 2 hours
= 200 watt-hours
TV/VCR (up to 25")
115 watts x 3 hours
= 345 watt-hours
Blender
300 watts x 15 minutes
= 75 watt-hours
