Power inverters that create 120VAC current from a car's 12VDC are always rated in capacity by watts and it's important to know how many watts you're drawing from your car's battery because you don't want to overload it and at some point you're going to have to start the engine. So it seems to me that with the new prevalence of the $15 'power meter', it would only be logical to add one of these to an inverter to display power usage.

I recently had to purchase a 750 watt inverter to run my sump pump and a shop vac, then the refrigerator when we had a three-day power outage that flooded my basement. I was pretty sure that the sump pump would get in under the 750 watt, and it did. I only guessed that a shop-vac would run--and it did--but then to run the refrigerator and two fans--well, I didn't know. Turns out I had to unplug the fans. Most equipment is labeled in amps somewhere--yes I can convert--but a fridge only uses power intermittantly, so a rating may be confusing.

Also, I did most of this with the car engine off, but the inverter does fault when the battery gets low and you'll need to be starting the engine. Great, but I don't hear the beeeep when I'm not sitting out there next to the inverter. So if I had a wattage number, I could make a guess as to how long I needed to go before starting the car.

I see inverters that run the price gamut from $15 to $900, but of all of them I've seen on the internet, none of them have a wattage meter. Why not?

What do you think of this idea or comment?
(You can change your vote at any time)

I agree

No opinion

I disagree