Bought an new inverter

We have a little 400 watt inverter that we've been using to power the laptops when we're traveling. But it's meant for temporary power and there's no way to mount it permanently. So it's always kind of in the way by the entrance steps because it has to be hooked up close to the batteries.

I always wanted a more permanently mounted one, but the bigger inverters are pretty expensive. I found one for sale the other day on kijiji, and so yesterday I met the guy and had a look at it.

This particular unit is 1500 watts and is selling new at Sears for $269 and the guy was asking $105. He even included the heavy duty 6 foot cables he had made for it, and then never installed it. Says he was given a new generator and so didn't need the inverter. I paid him the $105 and was on my way.

Tried it out last night just by hooking up the cheap clip on cables that come with it. It powered Ruth's hair dryer, and the microwave with no problems. Yes, this sucks a lot of battery power, but on a sunny solar day we will have power to spare. But the intention was not to be able to power these big units, even though that will be convenient if we want to. And, it powers our fridge when we set the fridge on electric. On sunny days in Mexico, we should be able to power our fridge this way and be able to save on propane!

The real reason I wanted this was to be able to have our standard built in 120v outlets powered by the inverter. This requires a built in unit with heavy duty cables. Now, we will be able to park up and plug our motorhome built in 120v electrical system directly into the inverter. I've shut off the breaker to the charger section of our converter so we're not recycling the power, and tested it and everything works exactly the way I wanted it to.

Now, I just have to figure out where to mount it. It has to be sheltered from the elements, and within the 6 foot cable distance from the batteries.

New inverter and cables. Quite a bit bigger than the old one!