Inverters and Power Stations

[mtbjeep]

Hi all. I have a Goal Zero 1000x and I have their 12v car charger which provides pretty meager charging compared to their 120v house charger. I saw this video where an inexpensive pure sine wave inverter could be used with the house charger to drastically improve charge times. Can someone confirm my thoughts on using an inverter with the rear 12v plug:

Rear 12v plug is 13amp 12volt supply providing 156 watts.
Goal Zero home charger input is 16volts 7.5amps 120 watts.
This inverter provides 300 watts at 110volts.

Seems like it should be a plug and play solution to cutting the charge time in-half, unless I'm missing something.

Thanks!

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[ELJL]

?what are you trying to charge again?

 

[THAW]

You should also consider a DC-DC converter attached to the solar input.

 

[Ratbert]

You really want to avoid an inverter if possible. That's taking 12 volts, converting it to 11 volts, then converting that to 12 volts. Each of those conversions loses in the neighborhood of 10 to 20%.

Instead consider a DC-to-DC converter as @THAW mentioned.

 

[THAW]

That's taking 12 volts, converting it to 11 volts, then converting that to 12 volts. Each of those conversions loses in the neighborhood of 10 to 20%.

Excellent point.

The conversion inefficiency (lost to the alternator) may be an acceptable tradeoff for plug and play and low cost.

A big advantage of DC-DC plus the solar input is even faster charging. In the case of the Goal Zero 1000X, the solar input can handle 4 times higher wattage, though the converter and alternator will probably be limiting factors.

 

[mtbjeep]

Excellent point.

The conversation inefficiency (lost to the alternator) may be an acceptable tradeoff for plug and play and low cost.

A big advantage of DC-DC plus the solar input is even faster charging. In the case of the Goal Zero 1000X, the solar input can handle 4 times higher wattage, though the converter and alternator will probably be limiting factors.

To your point the low cost and plug and play nature of the inverter are attractive. I'm not living off the grid for weeks at a time where I would be really relying on the power station. I am however interested in simple ideas to boost the in vehicle charging.

 

[THAW]

To your point the low cost and plug and play nature of the inverter are attractive. I'm not living off the grid for weeks at a time where I would be really relying on the power station. I am however interested in simple ideas to boost the in vehicle charging.

If you're driving for long periods and/or not using much of the power station's capacity, the 120W charger may be sufficient.

If you find you need/want even faster charging, DC-DC with dedicated wiring to the 600W charge port is the answer ?

 

[mtbjeep]

Well it worked….

It pulled 9.9 Amps through the rear 12v socket, well within spec.

However, the 12v plug and socket got pretty hot; well beyond “warm” territory. I wanted to assume that the setup was safe because the math worked out. I was trying to avoid running a new wire to the cargo area, out of laziness, and this pure sine wave inverter seemed like the perfect solution. Oh well. Back to the shitty 5 amp car charger that Goal Zero makes. Maybe if I drive cross country I can reach 50% of my capacity . Always wanted to Jeep out west.

 

[C.Sco]

Well it worked….

It pulled 9.9 Amps through the rear 12v socket, well within spec.

However, the 12v plug and socket got pretty hot; well beyond “warm” territory. I wanted to assume that the setup was safe because the math worked out. I was trying to avoid running a new wire to the cargo area, out of laziness, and this pure sine wave inverter seemed like the perfect solution. Oh well. Back to the shitty 5 amp car charger that Goal Zero makes. Maybe if I drive cross country I can reach 50% of my capacity . Always wanted to Jeep out west.

I would highly recommend just biting the bullet and running a proper power wire to the rear. I ran a 4AWG wire straight off my battery (with an inline fuse near the battery), through the cabin under the carpet, and into the cargo area. I put a terminal block, and now I've got as much power as I could possibly need for anything. I ran a couple of 18awg wires alongside it in the conduit, that I can use for aux switches in the future. It's worth doing the labor once, because after that's done, now you've got an easy place to draw power from for anything you add in the future: air compressor, fridge, whatever.

I put the terminal block where my scissor jack used to go, i like that spot because it's easy to access, but unlikely to ever get in the way of anything.

 

[Chadrad]

I looked into doing this with my Goal Zero 500x. What you're describing will work, but efficiency losses and potential overheating of the car's 12V system are real concerns. Also, not all inverters are truly pure sine wave despite the marketing. Honestly, I ended up picking up an OUPES power station for road trips instead—it has better charging flexibility and handles direct input better, including solar and car charging without needing an inverter middleman.

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