nny12972
NY
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Joined: 10/25/2006
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....BUT, NO unit is EVER gonna' ".....automagically turns on its high power stages as the demand requires.....", or ANY stages for that matter, without consuming at least a few "standby" watts! (That's what power switches are for!) Convenience has it's price....minuscule as it may be.....
J
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2manytoyz
Central FL
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Joined: 06/16/2002
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nny12972 wrote:....BUT, NO unit is EVER gonna' ".....automagically turns on its high power stages as the demand requires.....", or ANY stages for that matter, without consuming at least a few "standby" watts! (That's what power switches are for!) Convenience has it's price....minuscule as it may be.....
J
Only 1.5 Watts (I have measured this) for my Prosine 1800 Watt inverter in the PowerSave mode (sends out a pulse every 2 seconds). 22 Watts in idle mode. The only downsides to the Powersave mode are the potential 2 second delay for the inveter to "see" the load, and come up to full power, and a light load isn't likely enough for the pulse to wake up the inverter.
Full load efficiency: 90%
1/3 load efficiency: 95%
I'm using this inverter at home for emergency power. I have made some automatic transfer switches to transfer loads (such as a refrigerator) to the inverter. A solar array keeps the batteries charged, and take care of the tiny power draw of the inverter.
I've not measured the actual efficiency of my inverters, but everything else I've measured, are right on the money. Have no reason to doubt the figures quoted by Xantrex.
Here's some info about a few of the inverters I own, and use daily:
http://2manytoyz.com/inverters.html
Robert
Cocoa, FL
2007 Rockwood TT 2502
Equalizer Hitch
Prodigy Brake Controller
2005 Nissan Xterra
2006 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
Yamaha EF2400iS
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sbingham
Payson, AZ
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Joined: 10/01/2004
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Thanks, guys. Your responses pretty much summed it up - and affirmed my suspicions. That is, nobody really knows when it comes to the small 400-800 watt converters.
Steve and Bobbie (and Shotgun - my 115 lb dog)
Down sized to a Nash 25S 
My web page is www.dustylens.com
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Matthew_B
The boonies near Dallas, Oregon
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Joined: 08/18/2005
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I have a whistler 400W unit - it's a cheapie "MSW" unit.
At 375W it's 86% efficient. No power draw was 4W.
Here is what the waveforms look like at 1/4 load:
The sag is due to ripple in the 180V DC link. During the zero portions of the waveform, the DC link voltage climbs, then sags back down during the top and bottom of the waveform.
That's a sign of a real cheap DC-DC section.
---------
MSW can be more efficient, but usually they are also cheap so they tend to be lower than the sine wave units.
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sbingham
Payson, AZ
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Using some of the information above I was able to go here (http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/1/type.asp)for some very realistic answers.
90% looks average with no-load. Watts run from 2-3 when simply on.
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nny12972
NY
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Joined: 10/25/2006
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Based on your OP, I would have expected you had already been to the mfg. sites----was REALLY wondering why you would be looking ANYWHERE ELSE for that kind of definitive info! (My 88% was/is FACTUAL, and is the result of the mfg's. TEST!)
J
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Hurricaner
Hurricane Utah
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Joined: 02/17/2007
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The other thing you have to consider is the high power inverters like the Prosine 2000 are very inefficient when running under 100 watt loads. So don't expect a 2000 watt inverter to be 90% efficient at a low load like running a TV as the efficiency drops way off when they are lightly loaded.
Sam
Sam & Kari
Hurricane, Utah
2004 34' Damon Challenger 315
Damon owners forum
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sbingham
Payson, AZ
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nny12972
I was looking in all the wrong places. Obviously. Wrong questions for Google. Your mention of Xantrex provided a clue as to who a major mfg might be. Now you know.
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