Will the Car Power Inverter Drain the Battery?

Posted by ai on January 3rd, 2020

Adding a car power inverter to a car, truck or RV opens up a whole world of possibilities in terms of the types of electronics you can use on the road, but nothing in life is free. All that power has to come from somewhere, and if it happens to come from the starting battery, that world of possibilities can collapse into a world of hurt with almost no warning.

While the issue of an inverter draining a car battery is fairly complex, the general rule of thumb is that the inverter won't drain a battery when the vehicle is running, and especially not when it's driving around. However, using an inverter when the engine is off will run the battery down, and it doesn't take much before the engine won’t start back up again without a jump or a charge.

The easiest solution to this problem is to simply stop using theinverter before it gets to that point, although bringing along a separate deep cycle battery just for the inverter, or even bringing a generator with a built-in battery charger, are both great options as well.

Draining the Battery While the Engine Is Running

Whenever the engine in a car or truck is running, the alternator charges the battery and also supplies power to the electrical system. The battery is still important since alternators require battery voltage to work properly, but the alternator is supposed to do the heavy lifting whenever the engine is running.

When everything is working properly, the alternator charges the battery if it needs to be charged, powers electrical systems and components like your stereo and headlights, and has power left over for accessories like an inverter.

If the alternator isn’t equal to the task of providing all that juice—either because it’s going bad or just isn't powerful enough—then your electrical system may enter into a state of discharge. At that point, you’ll notice the charge meter on your dash, if you have one, dip down below 12 or 13 volts, which indicates that power is actually discharging from the battery.

When that type of situation is allowed to continue for too long, the battery will eventually discharge to the point where you don't have enough power available to run all the electronics in the vehicle. At that point, or even before, you will typically experience drivability problems. The engine may even die.

Idling the Engine vs. Actually Driving

It’s also worth mentioning that the power curve of an alternator is higher at high engine per minute (RPMs) than low RPMs, which means an overtaxed electrical system may enter a state of discharge at idle even though it’s fine when you’re cruising down the highway.

If you do find yourself in a situation where the electrical system seems to enter a state of discharge when the vehicle is stopped, raising the engine RPM by applying a little gas may help. However, raising the engine RPM too high can cause damage, so simply unplugging power-hungry devices from the24v to 110v inverter is often a better idea.

Every situation is different, but you’re typically fine to power small electronic devices like laptops, DVD players, and phone chargers without overtaxing the electrical system. If you need more power, or you also have a high-end audio system with a powerful amplifier, subwoofer, and other components, you may need to invest in a high-output alternator.

Draining the Battery When the Engine Is Off

Whenever your engine isn’t running, the battery is responsible for providing power to the electrical system. This is why leaving your headlights on overnight drains your battery down to nothing. The exact same thing happens if you use an inverter when you’re parked.

Some inverters come with a built-in low-battery-voltage shutoff feature, but that may or may not actually leave you with enough reserve power to operate the starter motor. Since starters require a tremendous amount of amperage in order to crank, running an inverter when you’re out camping can indeed leave you stranded.

If you want to be able to use your inverter when you’re camping, you may want to hedge your bets by buying an additional deep cycle battery to power the inverter. You can also start your engine to charge up the battery every so often​ or bring along a generator that has a built-in battery charge just in case you end up with a dead battery.

How Long Can You Run an Inverter Before the Battery Drains

The amount of time you can use an inverter to run your electronics depends on how much power you're using and the capacity of your battery. If you know the wattage of the devices you want to use and the reserve capacity of your battery, you can plug those numbers into this formula:

(10 x [Battery Capacity] / [Load]) / 2

So if your battery has a capacity of 100 amp hours, and you just want to use a laptop that uses 45 watts, you can see that you'd be able to get about 11 hours out of your battery:

(10 x [100 AH] / [45 Watts]) / 2 = 11.11 hours

In practice, it's best to err on the side of caution. If you were to actually run a 45-watt load on a 100 AH battery for 11 hours, there's a good chance that there wouldn't actually be enough juice left in the battery to operate the starter motor. Bigger loads—like a desktop computer, television, and many other electronics—will drain a battery even more quickly.