What maximum power inverter for car?

You'd need to tell us more about what you're doing.

NT

Keeping 5 cu.ft. of space at 150 degree for an hour (local driving).

You're not going to get far if you don't give us enough detail are you? Piping the exhaust into a pile of shoeboxes would answer that, but is hardly likely to be the right choice.

NT

There are whole cookbooks devoted to cooking food on the exhaust manifold of cars and pickup trucks. (Assuming you can get at them, these days.)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

We prefer to keep it at the rear, or even a trailer, rather than the engine compartment We don't need to cook it, just keep it hot/warm.

If you preheat the food and the heater with mains power before putting it in the car, you sure don't need 1000W to keep it warm. You can probably do this with 100 W or less, if the insulation is good. If not, get better insulation. Wrap the whole thing with a thermal blanket of some kind. I think the pizza delivery guys know all about this stuff.

Jon

Keeping 5 cu.ft. of space at 150 degree for an hour (local driving). ======================================================

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If we can do it with 500W or less, we can certainly build a box for it. Yes, preheat with main power and swap in the inverter without opening the box.

Put the inverter inside the box and we get 100% heat source.

That should be trivial with decent insulation and not a lot of additional heat. I took a quick look, so someone needs to check my math. Using round numbers at 8 cubic feet. A box 2x2x2' has 24 square feet of surface. If it's 50F in the car, that's 100F difference. Two inches of foam insulation should be about R10. Loss 240 BTU/Hr >> 70 watts...unless I screwed up the math.

Hardly seems worth messing with the cooling system or exhaust.

I'd be sorely tempted to take a controller from a gas fired hot water tank and some gas fittings and build a propane powered heater for your box.

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If the inverter can handle it, i would rather not mess with propane, coolan t or exhaust. I just wasn't sure how much power to maintain a warmer (rate d 1200W). If necessary, a few pieces of charcoal inside the box might keep the electrical power low. Customer probably don't mind charcoal smell as compared to the others.

If the inverter can handle it, i would rather not mess with propane, coolant or exhaust. I just wasn't sure how much power to maintain a warmer (rated

Ed, did you see the link I posted yesterday to

Hot water heaters are like 30K BTUs! Maybe the PILOT light on the water heater would be enough heat to keep it warm. How about a Sterno can?

Jon

I wasn't suggesting using the burner, just the controller (pilot, thermostat and all the safeties) to operate a much smaller burner.

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Actually, it's more convenient to have a large chamber, as well as 120V pre heating. It will probably be a push cart type of box that will stay plug i nto the wall outlet until it's ready to be moved. It's 12V in the vehicle, but 120V before and after. It's more likely to have 120V than 12V at the delivery site.

Actually, it's more convenient to have a large chamber, as well as 120V preheating. It will probably be a push cart type of box that will stay plug into the wall outlet until it's ready to be moved. It's 12V in the vehicle, but 120V before and after. It's more likely to have 120V than 12V at the delivery site. ======================================================================

I'd care more about efficiency in the car, so 12V heaters make the most sense, then get one of those cigarette lighter power supplies to power it from 120V as needed. But, I couldn't find anything bigger online with 12V heaters so you'd either have to build it or maybe ask tailgatehotbag if they would make a custom size for you. Anyway, good luck.

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Cigarette plug would not be big enough. If we put the inverter in the box, we don't care about inverter efficiency. Wasted heat is not wasted. But we need a very thick cable to the battery. There are plenty of 110V warmer available. We just need to insulate the box.

While i am making the prototype box: "Can you double the size?", they said .

it depends on the appliance you connect to the inverter, a 1600W hair dryer would be bad after a while.