Husqvarna inverter

[Dan Maynard]

I think regarding charge times the no free lunch rule applies.

power = volts x amps

So on a cigarette lighter you might get 7 or 8 amps, lose a bit in conversion and the charger will output 80watts.

 

On a 13A domestic socket the most you can have is about 3000watts, you'd need a bigger circuit to do 5000 (eg electric showers are typically 7500 to 10000 watts). Edit have just thought about this, 300 or 500 watts makes a lot more sense.

 

I'm sceptical about that inverter running 1500watts because that would need at least 125amps at 12volts, chipper alternator likely to output half that, need cables as thick as your finger etc. If the charger is really 500 watts though then it would manage it as that would need a more realistic 22 amps at 12 volts. Still heavy though.

 

What about a small petrol generator like campers and caravanners use? Lot quieter than running the chipper.

 

 

[AHPP]

I’d suggest a second battery for the inverter. Your van or chipper starter battery is designed to boot out a lot of power hard and then get charged straight back up with the alternator. A leisure battery is designed to be discharged lower with a constant draw. Use a voltage sensing split charge relay to charge the leisure battery from the starter battery. It’ll only charge when the van is running and prevent you from draining the starter battery when you draw from the leisure battery.

Bear in mind that for the cost of a leisure battery, inverter, split charge relay and some wire, you could probably buy another tool battery or two. Not that that’s what I’d do. 240v AC in the van is mega useful.

[AHPP]

I wouldn’t start adding stuff to the chipper btw. They give enough electrical grief, cunting around with malfunctioning no-stress etc, without adding more things to go wrong. Loads of people have leisure batteries and inverters in vans and they work.

 

[donnk]

11 hours ago, Dan Maynard said:

I think regarding charge times the no free lunch rule applies.

power = volts x amps

So on a cigarette lighter you might get 7 or 8 amps, lose a bit in conversion and the charger will output 80watts.

 

On a 13A domestic socket the most you can have is about 3000watts, you'd need a bigger circuit to do 5000 (eg electric showers are typically 7500 to 10000 watts). Edit have just thought about this, 300 or 500 watts makes a lot more sense.

 

I'm sceptical about that inverter running 1500watts because that would need at least 125amps at 12volts, chipper alternator likely to output half that, need cables as thick as your finger etc. If the charger is really 500 watts though then it would manage it as that would need a more realistic 22 amps at 12 volts. Still heavy though.

 

What about a small petrol generator like campers and caravanners use? Lot quieter than running the chipper.

 

 

its not going to pull 125amps to charge a little saw battery. Thats just the max rated, I would expect it to actually draw maybe 150w at peak dropping to 50 or so when it trickles.

[openspaceman]

18 hours ago, NorthboroughDarren said:

 

They also do a charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket but it’s only 80 Watts & the charge times Husqvarna are quoting are not really workable. 

The BL 200 battery is rated as 36V and 5.4Ah so at full charge it holds about 200Wh of energy. Now what I cannot see is how far it can be discharged and it is probably only 50%. It is probably a good idea to keep the battery topped up even in lunch breaks as deep discharges tend to shorten battery life.

 

The charger QC 330  is rated at 330W yet it claims to take 50 mins to recharge from flat to 100% which would point to an average charge power of 2/3 it's capacity.

 

I'm sure there are better ways of charging from 12V than an inverter and  240V charger but if I only wanted to pay for one charger I'd go down the inverter and leisure battery route with split charge and low voltage battery protection as advised above. Worst case it means running the vehicle engine for 15 minutes or so.  I doubt it would be good enough to run off a standard  cigar lighter circuit as it will probably draw 30A initially and most cars are fused for 10A.

 

[bankhouse builder]

I have a sine wave inverter 1000w for my battery tools mainly bosch 18v and 36v and the charge times are no different to mains. I agree with the point of having 2 batteries on the truck as I don't think 1 will be enough my transit tipper has 2 as the tipper is electric and my inverter is hardwired onto them. I wouldn't be without this set up it has saved me hours in lost time and is so convenient there is nothing more frustrating than not having enough charge to finish a job.