I’ve had several pure sine wave voltage inverters in my cars over the years. The first “pure sine wave” inverter was a 400-watt unit by Wagan that I mounted under the front passenger seat. I carried a standalone power station by Jackery from 2020-2023.
I mounted a 3000-watt monster by LiTime on my rear seat delete in 2024. It proved to be overkill for my usual needs. Sure, I like overkill, but the LiTime also emitted radio frequency interference (RFI) on key frequencies that I use during ham radio events. I finally decided it was time to pay a little more for a quality inverter that’s “RF-quiet.”
I chose Victron Energy’s 12/1200VA. The model number might suggest that it is a 1200-watt inverter, but it’s not. Victron rates their inverters in volt-amps instead of watts.
It’s true that “volts times amps equals watts,” but a watt is real power while a volt-amp is apparent power that takes resistive loads and their “power factor” into consideration. Deeper explanation is beyond my technical knowledge and scope of this article. This image details the 12/1200’s actual capacity in watts, which derates in hot conditions.
Do I feel cheated? Not at all! I wanted a smaller inverter footprint as well as RF-quiet operation.
One drawback, and it’s small, is that there’s only one AC outlet. Most inverters of this size have at least two, often more. I have a self-installed AC outlet in the car from my first inverter that I had stopped using.
The cord for that outlet is a perfect length for the 12/1200! I routed it straight into the rear seat delete (see photos) and then to the extra outlet. Two of my battery chargers are too bulky to plug into this outlet. So I hardwired an extension cord to the backside and then placed its outlets under the passenger seat. It’s been a good solution!
This outlet expander features six outlets. Two of them are not usable and that’s okay. I have four outlets remaining, plenty for a computer, temporary charger, box fan, hot plate, kettle, microwave oven, or other things that I haven’t considered yet.
Yes, those are all things that I’ve used on some of my nutty road-going adventures! Obviously, the less powerful 12/1200 will not be able to run as much, but I don’t think I need it to. My selection of accessories are each rated for less than 1000 watts. Managing my consumption will be easy enough.
How do I manage my consumption? I added Victron’s VE Direct Smart Dongle. It allows me to monitor the inverter via Victron’s Android app.
This images shows all of the Victron devices currently installed in my car. I can click on any device and display more information or simply a larger version of what’s shown here. I can remotely control the inverter’s mode, whether it’s ON, OFF, or ECO, so long as the hard power switch is not turned off.
The inverter enters a standby mode when consumption drops below a set threshold. It consumes just one watt in ECO mode if no loads are active.
The only thing that I don’t prefer with the 12/1200 is Victron’s use of screw clamp terminals instead of studs with nuts. My inverter is mounted on a door, so the 12V connections are subjected to occasional stresses. A solidly crimped terminal ring is stronger than connection made by a screwdriver.
Also, when Victron calls for a wire of 35 sq-mm (2 AWG), I think something is lost in the conversion. A 2 AWG wire is a very tight fit that allows a few strands to stray. The same was true with the 4 AWG connection specified with their Orion Ts DC-DC charger. If the inverter had terminal studs, then I could have just used my existing 2/0 wires. Overkill, yes! But also convenient and not subject to overloading.
But is it “RF quiet?” I went to one of my isolated parking areas and did some testing. This photo shows that not even an “isolated” area is free of RF noise. I wasn’t far from a U.S. Navy installation that apparently had some emissions.
Regardless, I know that nothing was operating from the car’s power systems to generate this noise. Everything shown here was operating from battery power. I ran a series of “ON/OFF” tests with the inverter and didn’t find anything substantial noise problems.
Yes, there were a few instances where the noise floor changed or perhaps I saw something on this waterfall display, but none of it was audible beyond a light audio hiss. Obviously, I’m going to have receive challenges if I opt to park on a frequency with the noise. Thankfully, none of it is so broad that I lose entire swaths of any given band.
On a separate note, I look forward to a day when I can operate my primary radio and use the SDR receiver at the same time. Being able to see and avoid noisy frequencies is a great benefit of having a waterfall, not to mention simply being able to see and scroll to an active signal!
Overall, I’m very pleased with the new purchase. Sure, it doesn’t support 3000 watts or even 2000, but I never had an honest need for that kind of power anyway. Having 1000 watts available is plenty. In fact, I usually need far less! See a related video on my YouTube channel.
Pulling Back the Power,
Scott
