Video Bob Loc: Norfolk, Va

Don't know how much help this would be to you people that are snowed in down Texas way. Living blocks from the Chesapeake Bay here in Va we lose power about every time a Hurricane or northeastern passes by. Bought a inverter yrs ago to use at shows/cruise in's when there was no electric available to power my tv/vcr's. Soon after we moved here to Va was hit with a northeastern & lost power for 5 - 6days. Had a 1500 watt generator in the shed but couldn't get any gas due to no power in the Hampton Rds area. Wife suggested I pull our old inverter out of our storage locker & see if it still worked. Pulled our car up to the window & hooked the inverter to the 12 volt battery & ran a extension cords thru the window into our house & over the neighbors who ad a new born. The 1000 watt inverter wasn't strong enough to use a space heater but did allow us to power the puter, one lite & keep our fridge & freezer down to 10 below until the power came back on.
When doing shows on site where there was no power the inverter would run 2 small tvs/vcrs for close to 3 hrs before we had to fire up our van & let it run for 30 min's or so to re-chg the battery. We still use this same inverter here 2 - 3 times a yr with out fail.
Hope this info is some help to some of you out there

Egghead

Thanks Bob, I think that info would work for slit of us all over the world. Good job.

Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

Well, a lot of folks in the Gulf coast area have power generators, maybe what you call Inverters, in case of hurricanes. That is a disaster that regularly happens here. But an extreme ice storm is new. I guess that we will also have to have inverters for both hurricanes and ice storms. Just Sayin...RJS

Frank romero Loc: Clovis, NM

I was reading that Texas hasn’t had it this bad since the 1800’s. Not used to cold. Happened inMexico a few years back, they had a lot of people die. Their houses are not insulated. We had temps below zero for a few bites here in Eastern New Mexico. Had snow but not as bad as Texas next door. Stay safe all of you.

Video Bob Loc: Norfolk, Va

RJ
A generator & a inverter are two different animals. A generator which is quite larger needs gasoline to produce 110 volt power while a inverter use's your 12 volt car/truck battery to produce 110 volts of power.
Some people tend to forget that when there's a power outage, unless they have a xtra supply of gasoline on standby they'll be "dead in the water" when the generator run's out of gas
Depending on wattage the average inverter is the approx size of a cigar box which allows it to be placed any where under the hood,. It has up to 4 fused 110 volt outlets, cooling fans to prevent over heating & 2 short neg/pos cables for attaching to your 12 volt battery. Paid $129.00 for the unit in June 2002 & have used it not only for our "annual northeastern/hurricane power outages" but also for our weekend fishing & camp outs. Using a 100 watt flood lite bulb our inverter kept us in the lite for most of the nite with out running the battery down. There are larger units then we have that are available
that may run a small space heater if need be.

fishinphil

right on video bob

Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

Glad you straightend me out on the difference. A lot of folks wil buy a generator for fishing for trout on South Padre Island at the land cut. Seems that by setting up an a generator with strong lights, the small plankton and shrimp are drawn to it, and the pedator fish, like trout show up. Just Sayin,...RJS