![]() ![]() When we demand power from the 12volt system we eat those peanuts with our best cocktail party manners, one at a time with our pinky sticking out. ![]() An AGM 6volt battery is the best companion to an inverter due to its life span and the maintenance-free design. Like their 12volt cousins, 6volt batteries come in the traditional wet cell variety as well as sealed options in the AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) construction or a gel cell battery. This is why many RV owners choose to go with 6volt or “golf cart” batteries if they use an inverter. Wait, 6volt? You’ve been talking about DC Voltage as 12volt this whole time! Relax, two 6volt batteries wired in series will produce 12volts, and are equivalent in amp hour storage to roughly three 12volt deep cycle batteries. As you add additional batteries you add available DC Voltage, thereby extending the ability to boondock.ĭeep cycles come in multiple levels of quality and in both 12volt and 6volt. This slower charge and discharge rate means that consumption of the DC Voltage is also at a slower rate, with a Group 24 12Volt deep cycle battery generally lasting two to three days. See, now we are back to the batteries.Īn RV/Marine deep cycle battery is designed to charge and discharge at a slower rate than a start battery, and a deep cycle battery will recover from being fully discharged where as a start battery often will not. The inverter will allow you to run the AC Voltage appliances but only as long as the DC Voltage lasts. Unless your RV is plugged into AC Voltage (110V) the power available to your RV is DC Voltage (12V). The third part of the converter’s job is to distribute the incoming AC Voltage (110V), through a breaker panel, to the AC Voltage appliances.Īn inverter uses the existing DC Voltage (12V), transforms it into AC Voltage (110V), and then distributes that AC Voltage to either a single dedicated outlet or through a breaker panel to multiple outlets used by 110V appliances. This DC Voltage (12V) is sourced either from incoming AC Voltage (110V) that is transformed by the converter into DC Voltage (12V) or from the DC Voltage (12V) stored in the house batteries. The second portion of a converter’s job is to distribute the DC Voltage (12V), on separate fused legs, to the required components. A large part of the converters job is to take the incoming AC Voltage (110V), transform it to DC Voltage (12V), and then use the DC Voltage to charge the RV’s house batteries. Whether we are converting or inverting the trail leads back to the batteries. Am I right? Of course I am! Excuse me, I get a little carried away but I take my comforts seriously.Ĭonverters, Inverters, and Batteries: An RV Love Triangle After all if I can’t microwave a burrito and watch the game I might as well be tent camping. As RVs evolve more and more they become a second home on wheels. The exceptions are an RV’s air conditioner and TV, which run on AC Voltage. Your RV is designed and equipped to be used with no AC Voltage for at minimum several days before you deplete your DC Voltage which is referred to as boondocking or dry camping. The DC (12V) system runs the vast majority of the electrical components in your RV from the lights, interior and exterior, to the water pump, to the circuit boards on the gas appliances. RV Electrical Systems: DC and AC, Why Do I Need Both? Less of a stretch is an INverter which INcreases voltage. It’s a bit of a stretch but a con is negative and a converter transformers voltage in a negative direction. When thinking about the pros and cons of an issue cons are the negative aspects. A CONverter decreases voltage, or takes the voltage in a negative direction. An easy way I have found to remember which is which is in the components name itself. The names are so similar that the question becomes, “how will I keep them straight?” Over the years I have had many conversations with customers about their inverter that turned out to be conversations about their converter and vice versa they had the right information but they had turned the names around. Nope, we are talking electrical transformers and more specifically about the difference between converters and inverters. Okay, full disclosure, neither a converter nor an inverter will transform into a car, or a plane, or a robot. Both transform voltage, but in opposite directions.Ĭonverter versus Inverter: The Ultimate Transformer Battle An Inverter transforms DC Voltage to AC Voltage or 12V to 110V in an RV. ![]() The Converter transforms AC Voltage to DC Voltage or 110V to 12V in an RV.
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