Inverter operation 2021 Tab 400 stock.

Simbionic

What can I run off the inverter (examples) and for how long, while Boondocking. Will it recharge on solar?

rh5555

The stock inverter on the TAB400 is not terribly useful.  It can run chargers for cell phones, laptops, etc.  Also good for CPAP machines (I believe).  Will not run the microwave, or any other device calling for more than about 1000W.  It is powered from your battery bank, so if you have solar panels which recharge your batteries, then your inverter will keep on going, too.  To calculate how long you can power a device, look for the Watts rating on the device.  Using up half your battery capacity (I assume you have about 220Ah) you'd get about 1200/Watts of hours of operation.

Be aware that if turned on, the inverter will draw power from your batteries even if no 120V appliance is plugged in.

pthomas745

First: what battery setup do you have?  Have you changed from the stock 225 ah setup? And, we are assuming your "stock" inverter is the Aims 1200 watt model.

The "1200 watts" of the inverter does not mean you can run a 1200 watt appliance.  Inverters are never 100 percent efficient.  In general terms, the most you "might" be able to run on a 1200 watt inverter "might" be a 1000 watt appliance.  You can find your appliance watt use on that little label somewhere on the appliance. The wattage listed will be the "maximum" wattage the appliance might use. Anything that "makes heat" uses the most watts: coffee makers, toasters, etc.  Most of these home type appliances top out at "maximum" of 1800 watts.  My toaster oven uses almost all of the 1800 watts, my toaster uses about 900.

So, you have to find an appliance that will fit with your "less than 1000 watt" limitation.  Read the labels.  Find one of the "Kill-a-watt" type devices and see how much they actually use.  There are many items that will probably work. 

I have a 900 watt inverter that I can attach directly to my trailer battery.  I have an "Insta Pot Mini Duo" that is rated at 700 watts that I have run off the battery/inverter on the trailer.  I have also run a small hair dryer, but only on the "low" setting, which also happens to be 700 watts.

How much power did they use when in use?  The hair dryer uses 700 watts constantly for as long as it is on.  You can compute the power use by dividing the wattage by the voltage. We will discover the "amp hours" used, which goes back to your battery setup.  We have a 700 watt appliance. Being run on a 12V setup.  700 watts divided by 12 volts= 58 amps.  This tells me if I run that 700 watt appliance for an entire hour, I would use up 58 amps from my battery.  58 amps is roughly 1 amp per minute.  Since I don't have an hour's worth of hair to dry, I only need to run the dryer for about 3 minutes.  So, this little dryer uses 3 amps from my battery.

The Insta Pot does not use power constantly to heat: it cycles the watts in use constantly as it brings the pot up to pressure.  (A coffee maker or oven will slowly "fade" the wattage needed as it reaches temperature, also).  But, the pot might take 10 minutes or so to bring the pressure up.  So, using the formula above (700W divided by 12V) It would take 10 amps to make dinner in this small Insta Pot.  (After the pot comes to pressure, the power needed to maintain that pressure is very small). 

Back when I had a "stock" 80 amp hour battery, with 40 usable amp hours, I had to closely watch my power use.  Using 25 percent of my battery to use the InstaPot had to be carefully planned, so that I would be reasonably sure to have the solar recharge my battery.  The few minutes of the hair dryer was not much of an issue.  But, the 700 watts of the cooker, even if it needed 700 watts for 20 minutes, would have been a much bigger planning issue.

These days: I have a 100 amp hour lithium battery.  If you have the stock 400 battery, you have about 135 usable amp hours (roughly).  I don't worry about these small items as much, but I still watch them closely. You still need to work these numbers out: forgetting that plugged in coffee pot, or deciding to run a "small" toaster oven for an hour, on a cloudy day, with rain in the forecast for the next day...might run your battery lower than you want.