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  • Electric Water Heater

    Hi everyone! New to the solar life and just installed a system on my Sprinter van.

    I'm hoping to run a 120 volt 11.3 ac amp water heater from my 600 amp battery bank through my 1500/3000 watt inverter with a 500 watt mono solar array. Does this sound doable?

    It has a 2.5 gallon tank and takes 18 minutes to fully heat and has a standby draw of 370 ac watts per day.

    I'm not planning on running anything else with high amperage.

  • #2
    So that is a 120v x 11.3 amp = 1,350 Watt element? That would be Watts per hour. I would say no. Even in full sun, with no other load your array is hardly going to produce half that much, and you are very close to your inverter max (which would be ok unless there are other loads). And then there is array/panel and inverter inefficiencies to factor in. So most of that load for the element will come from the battery
    - how many times day will the element come on?
    - how many Watt hours (not watts) do you need per day total for all you plan to do?

    Do not know what inverter you have but it is likely to need 8-30 Watts per hour just to be on. What is the voltage of your battery bank? I have an 1,150 Watt AC element being powered by my 3400 Watt inverter. With my 24v battery bank it takes about 45 DC amps to power that element. At 12v it would be double that. At 48v it would half that much. And Yours will be more if the element is 1,350 Watts. So battery cable size will be very important. Probably 6 AWG. Maybe 4 AWG depending on other loads for 24v
    Last edited by Matrix; 02-07-2018, 05:39 PM.
    285Wx9 / MNClassic 150 / CSW4024 / TrojanL16H-ACx4

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Matrix View Post
      So that is a 120v x 11.3 amp = 1,350 Watt element? That would be Watts per hour. I would say no. Even in full sun, with no other load your array is hardly going to produce half that much, and you are very close to your inverter max. And then there is array/panel and inverter inefficiencies to factor in. So most of that load for the element will come from the battery
      - how many times day will the element come on?
      - how many Watt hours (not watts) do you need per day total for all you plan to do?

      Do not know what inverter you have but it is likely to need 8-30 Watts per hour just to be on. What is the voltage of your battery bank? I have an 1,150 Watt AC element being powered by my 3400 Watt inverter. With my 24v battery bank it takes about 45 DC amps to power that element. Yours will be more. So battery cable size will be very important. Probably 6 AWG. Maybe 4 AWG depending on other loads.
      I believe it will be running for less than an hour a day.

      My battery bank is 12 vdc. The wiring can handle the load, as for the inverter, I am concerned.
      Last edited by IThinkIDidItRight; 02-07-2018, 05:45 PM. Reason: Nothing was published

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      • #4
        You can buy a small propane instahot water heater for about $80.00. They work great. Mine is nearly 10 years old and is still working flawlessly.

        Insta hot water heater.jpg
        2.2kw Suntech mono, Classic 200, NEW Trace SW4024

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        • #5
          Originally posted by IThinkIDidItRight View Post
          Hi everyone! New to the solar life and just installed a system on my Sprinter van.
          IF you have extra solar capacity, and you are off-grid, a heating element is an excellent "dump load" - but running it off battery is pretty painful. I'd consider solar direct but not battery driven.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by littleharbor View Post
            You can buy a small propane instahot water heater for about $80.00. They work great. Mine is nearly 10 years old and is still working flawlessly.

            Insta hot water heater.jpg
            I have an outdoor Camplux that I was planning on using, but I wanted to avoid making a hole for ventilation.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by IThinkIDidItRight View Post

              I believe it will be running for less than an hour a day.

              My battery bank is 12 vdc. The wiring can handle the load, as for the inverter, I am concerned.
              So your only going to need hot water once a day within a few hours of the time that it cut off? Once my element from my dump load turns off, My temp has dropped a good bit 3-4 hours later. And remember, once you start using hot water, if the tank has an inlet supply the element will turn on again UNLESS you have turned it off with a switch.
              285Wx9 / MNClassic 150 / CSW4024 / TrojanL16H-ACx4

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              • #8
                Originally posted by IThinkIDidItRight View Post

                I have an outdoor Camplux that I was planning on using, but I wanted to avoid making a hole for ventilation.
                I hang mine on the outside of my trailer and shower in a Potti/shower tent, The water hook up is a quick couple connected to the city water or trailer pump, whichever is most convenient at the time..
                2.2kw Suntech mono, Classic 200, NEW Trace SW4024

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