How to thrive on a non 240v site!

Tracey, it sounds like your laptop has a 'brick' type mains charger...

our iPads charge easily from a 12v USB adaptor....which I use whether on or off EHU...

with a mains charger (we have a pair of ebike chargers) ypu should be ok with a fairly small wattage inverter.....ours is 500w and does the bike batteries and the Sky+ box which is mains only.

your inverter should not trip the mains bollard as it is (should be) running from the leisure batteries....

good luck.

Thanks BoleroBoy.  The invertor we bought was tripping the caravan electric.  Ended up replacing a fuse twice.

 

ok, sounds like there might be an issue with the inverter install...has it ever worked, can you turn it on (without a device plugged in) and it not blow the fuse?

If not, perhaps it's wired wrongly to the battery....ideally it should be fitted as close to the battery as possible with sufficiently thick wires to support the current being drawn.....ours are fairly meaty (even for a 500w inverter) and short, with the inverter literally less than a foot from the batteries.  

AFAIK, my inverter has an internal fuse, rather than an external one...

im afraid I can't think of much else to suggest, there are far more (electrickery) knowlegable folk on here than me, but this does seem like a fault, either in the set up or in the inverter...

good luck.

 You can get a 12V power unit for most laptops that just plug into a ciggy socket. My MacBook is on one as I type.

If you were trying out the inverter with the EHU on then it is quite likely that the supply will trip. Like a motor mover, the inverter takes a massive amount of 12volt current and is designed to run just off of the battery. If the 240 volt system is connected then depending on the wiring the inverter could be trying to draw this current through the battery charger rather than just from the battery. The consequences could be dire!

Hitch, interesting....

we were travelling early in the year on a cold journey and we have electric blankets in our bed....I have inverter sockets in the garage next to a mains supply.

i put the electric blanket plug into the inverter socket, turned on the inverter, drove to our next overnight stop, lovely warm bed...

ok the draw is 100w or thereabouts but we had no issues....

i don't normally have the inverter on when driving as the appliances fed (sky box, bike chargers etc) aren't required when in motion, however I thought I'd give the blankets a go and all was fine...

BB, it’s very difficult to generalise because all depends on the wiring of the motorhome or caravan and that is different for every make and model. Seems like you were taking about 9 amps dc. If driving then the system is presumably topping up the battery, in other words your inverter was possibly mainly supplied from the engine alternator because the output voltage would be higher than the inherent battery voltage. 9 amps I guess is not a problem.

On the other hand, if you are taking 40 amps or more such as from a motor mover or 500 watt inverter and the mains supply is on and connected, then the load will want to take power from the battery charger circuit as it is around 13.5 volts rather than 12 volts. If you have an smart charger system I haven’t a clue what would happen, but hopefully it would self limit. Caravans tend not to have smart systems. Many movers have an isolation switch or relay which disconnects the battery charger from the circuit to avoid it tripping or even overloading and burning out.

I was using my tank heaters at home as frost was predicted and I disconnected the mains hook-up thinking the heaters would cut out but they are 12 volts. Next time I used the motorhome I had no main control panel. Turned out that one of the big 12 volt main fuses had blown, probably because the alternator was trying to power the battery and heaters. Fortunately I was on the way to get it serviced as I wouldn’t have found the fuse which was in a nondescript grey box behind the drivers seat. That’s the problem with electrics!

hitch, thanks.....as you say, with the small numbers involved, not reall an issue....

BTW, we do have a smart charger.

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DD, 'tis only a stand alone affair, fused and sited in the battery box, not a factory fit job which may be more sophisticated in its install.

i had the thing on the previous van and a similar set up worked pretty well, so as it was a simple job, the dealer set it up as before. obviously, on EHU I'd have no need of it.

i have routed the 230v supply into the garage (for the bike battery chargers) and there is a socket under the floor for the sky box, but these are dedicated inverter sockets, not a fully switched system....

however, a couple in the garage are most useful....

most of our 'appliances' run from 12v...the bike chargers and sky box being the primary items we got it for...