I understand that the inverter steps up the voltage, but what I want to know is approximately how many mAH a 6 in. CC + inverter will be drawning from my batteries so I will know how long I should expect my batteries to last and whether or not this setup is going to be efficient. This
page says that a CC consumes between 120 and 300mAH but it is very vague. Does this sound right to you? I'm planning on making a custom battery pack with either three or four
panasonic lithium-ion AA batteries, which would make the voltage either 10.8 or 14.4. However I don't know if the inverter will accept anything besides 12v exactly. I know theoretically 14.4v will make it a little more efficient and 10.8v requires one less battery making the pack lighter and smaller, but like I said I don't know if the inverter will accept either of these voltages. Does the inverter have a regulator which won't allow it to recieve any more than 12v DC? Will it work properly with less than 12v? If both voltages will work, which one would be best?