Car Inverters
12V Car Power Inverters
If you need to run a 240v household electrical appliance from your car, 4WD or caravan then having a 12v inverter at your disposal is the easiest and most cost effective way to do it.
Car inverters are designed to run mains powered household appliances directly from your cars 12v battery by converting 12 volt DC to 240v AC. This offers several benefits and not only does it allow you to be portable but also saves you from having to buy expensive 12 volt versions of anything you want to run from your car.
You can power a 12volt inverter either via the cigarette lighter adapter in your car or directly by connecting the inverter to a 12v car battery. For safety reasons powering an inverter through a cigarette lighter is only recommended for power draws of 150W or less eg smaller appliances like laptops, lamps, fans, small TV’s, Game consoles etc. For anything greater than 150W we recommend connecting your 12v power inverter directly to a car battery to achieve best results.
There are two main types of inverters, modified sine wave and true sine wave power inverters. True sine wave reproduces mains power exactly, which some equipment will require or should be run on, whereas modified sine wave creates a ‘close enough’ AC power which is usually fine for a lot of common appliances, especially simpler electrical devices eg fans, lights etc
True sine wave power inverters (also called pure sine wave) will always be more expensive than the equivalent wattage modified sine wave power inverter simply because they are far more complex to design and build and require more components to reproduce 240 volt AC mains power exactly than it does to create a modified sine wave.
Most equipment, especially simple appliances, will run perfectly powered by a modified wave inverter but some devices will either only run off a pure sine wave inverter or their power supply life will be reduced if they are not. Eg PS3, Xbox 360 etc. For this reason it is important to pick the right power inverter for the job.
For more information and to help you decide which inverter is best for you please have a look at the difference between modified and pure sine wave power inverters. To see the typical power consumption of many common appliances and electrical devices have a look at our Inverter Selection Guide which will point you in the right direction and help you determine the right Wattage inverter for your needs.
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