I gave away my small generator (too heavy, too much work).
I bought a small inverter, 750-1500 watts. I only will use 460 watts during a power outage (200w heater, 200w blanket, 50w heating pad, 1 LED bulb). Plus a wood stove.

I can park very close to the house, and I put a bushing in the exterior wall for a 10', 10 gauge extension cord to go through.

Now what about the little cables with the alligator clips that came with the inverter? They look thin to me. They say 9mm2, so I looked up the gauge, and a chart says that is 7-8 AWG. How can it possibly be, when they are so thin? Do I consider them together, and I'm OK?

Never knew I'd have to learn all about electricity. Not going to happen. I tried to buy heavier gauge short cable, of which there are plenty, but none have alligator clips on one end. Even companies that sell nothing but inverters.

So I am not going to fry my battery or electronics or burn my house down as is?
Thanks as always

You want a deep cycle battery for this application (with a battery tender to keep it charged when not using it)... not a car battery. Unless you will hook this up to car and leave your car running while using it (I've done this before). Using that little... you can probably get away with it... (very dependent on vehicle and what its alternator can put out at idle). You don't want to draw down the battery on the car, bad for the battery and would leave you stranded.

smoothy, I'm not going to buy a marine battery. A really long power outage hasn't happened here since 2011. I'd leave the van running. (Some sites say you only need 10 minutes/hour for this small an amount of power.)

Anyway I'm still wondering about the battery-to-inverter cable gauge.

Quck check if you are pushing it... trial run with everything you would have running, on... without the numbers and wire gauges tossed around, if its not even warm to the touch (the wires to the battery) after a few minutes of running, you are good to go... the inverter I would expect to get a bit warm. I assume you are running your extension cord out to the van where the inverter will be. Wires very warm to the touch...not a good thing. I'd keep the inverter as close to the battery as practical, run the extension cord to the house.

We rarely lose power long too, but I did a McGueyver about 10 years ago after a really bad ice storm using an old computer UPS I had laying around with a bad 12v battery, jerry rigged it it with a power cord out the window to my car that I left idling...ran tv and light for over 12 hours before power came back on.

And as Murphys law would dictate, got a hold of two used generators that didn't run that were found on a Foreclosure cleanup that I got working....haven't needed either since. (never leave sitting with fuel in them) but keep a full can handy with fuel stabilizer in it over the winter.

I'm just not a trial run type for something that should be calculable....

Would take me some time to look up the info and calculate it, at work now with too much else going on... could come up with something later tonight.

Couldn't find the right kind of calculator. Tried for 2 days.

Keep in mine even using OHM's law calculations to find current draw (amps) needed to determine wire size, the unknown with be the efficiency of the inverter. You can calculate your loads, but it will draw even more than it would require on paper as that assumes no losses. Quite honestly I have no idea what inverters are running at % efficiency wise these days.

OHM's law calculator

http://www.ohmslawcalculator.com/ohms-law-calculator

I have decided that these won't burn up my battery or burn the house down.
If they do, I will be sure to let everyone know!

From your neighbors computer I assume?

yes, y

:-) just so long as we don't get a "my house is on fire, what do you think I should do" post... :-)




Thats said tongue in cheek...hope you see the joke part of it....

Yes I do! I can't exist without jokes. Thanks. Bring marshmallows.