Please HELP me not burn my camper down!

[Living Large]

Nope, I'm not sure they can handle it. Watching them is a priority. Home is literally on wheels and we can pack up and move at anytime. Sticking in Moab would be cool simply because I have a large network of friends and family that visit Moab. But I won't mind at all if we retreat to Montana, Wyoming, or Colorado. I might end up moving around for the adventure, and because I can. The only set plan I have is that my camper is equipped for off grid, and now with the solar plans, I have to park in the sun. Everything beyond that is flexible.

I guess I was thinking what some others were - that if you park in the sun for obvious reasons, the downside is heating the home up. But you sound confident of the plan. I visited those places in my distant youth - it's beautiful country.

[TwistedRiver]

I can appreciate yours and others concern for the well being of my pets. I am as devoted an animal lover as you could find and would express the same concern were the tables turned. I am supremely confident in the "plan" because the only real plan I have is freedom. Everything else, like Moab area for the next 6 months, though it is my plan, it's more an idea, a starting point. Freedom is the plan. I have gone through substantial personal changes and losses over the last year. Hard as it has been, they have given me this opportunity and I am inspired to take full advantage of it.

Now to sort out this solar power set up!

[bulldrummerbullies]

What you tell the OP in the Red Text is what others call Firebomb,

This is a manufacturers description I guess "others" could be confusing. So To others, with a little Common sense. I will try to clear this up. 2500watts / 120v = 20.8 amps out I did make it clear but if you fuse a 2500watt inverter out put to 15 amps. the most your battery side can draw is about 1800 watts now if you continue this thought if the load on the 120volt side is only 7 amps your amps on the battery bank side is only 780 watts this is the most my load was or less. So you can have a 2500 watt inverter and not have a fire hazard. We were talking a camper you then plug your camper into invertor your camper should be fuse 15 amp for you wall out lets mine is, so you can not use the full 20.3 amps this is adding more safety and if your load is 7 amps will not have a problem you do not run your roof air off your inverter ( it may be fuse at 20 amps.) you use your generator. there are good reasons for some people to stay on a12volt system even if it is in inefficient. You would not put your battery bank in camper or your invertor in your camper your invertor is as close to your battery as possible use the correct battery cables as you used to connect your battery bank 02 or 04 awg.. since your in a camper you can move it very close to your solar bank to keep wire cost down. So you don't need welding wire. If you know of a 2500 watt invertor that is selling for about $250.00 and free shipping that is Ul and meet your standers please help us out and tell us. Yes a invertor that could be wire 12v 24v or 48v would be much better there are a lot of guy on fix in come retired that would like to look into a better inverter in that price range or even a little higher I hope you can help use with this. My Power Jack has preform well for 3 years. But as I have said on another post the review on power jack now are not good they were ok when I bought it..

[Bala]

This is a manufacturers description I guess "others" could be confusing. So To others, with a little Common sense. I will try to clear this up. 2500watts / 120v = 20.8 amps not 200 amp. So you don't need welding wire. If you know of a 2500 watt inverter that is selling for about $250.00 and free shipping that is Ul and meet your standers please help us out and tell us there are a lot of guy on fix in come retired that would like to look into a better inverter in that price range.

i think you will find it is not the a/c side of the inverter that is the main issue,

if you calculate the D/C current @ 12v required to supply the inverter output of 2500w a/c,

then calculate the cable size for that D/C you will arrive at so called welding cable, and the internals of the inverter need to be able to handle that current as well.

Hence why 12v inverters are not reccomended for over 1000w a/c

[Living Large]

This is a manufacturers description I guess "others" could be confusing. So To others, with a little Common sense. I will try to clear this up. 2500watts / 120v = 20.8 amps not 200 amp. So you don't need welding wire. If you know of a 2500 watt inverter that is selling for about $250.00 and free shipping that is Ul and meet your standers please help us out and tell us there are a lot of guy on fix in come retired that would like to look into a better inverter in that price range.

That is the output current. The input current is 2500/12 = 208A.

[Sunking]

This is a manufacturers description I guess "others" could be confusing. So To others, with a little Common sense. I will try to clear this up. 2500watts / 120v = 20.8 amps not 200 amp.

Your joking or stupid. Which is it?

You are suggesting a 2500 watt inverter running on 12 volts. If you have a top of the line Inverter which none exist at 12 volts efficiency runs 85%. 2500 watts / .85 / 12 volts = 245 amps from the battery. That is a recipe for a big ass fire.

[Living Large]

Your joking or stupid. Which is it?

You are suggesting a 2500 watt inverter running on 12 volts. If you have a top of the line Inverter which none exist at 12 volts efficiency runs 85%. 2500 watts / .85 / 12 volts = 245 amps from the battery. That is a recipe for a big ass fire.

But it comes with free shipping.

[Willy T]

Your joking or stupid. Which is it?

You are suggesting a 2500 watt inverter running on 12 volts. If you have a top of the line Inverter which none exist at 12 volts efficiency runs 85%. 2500 watts / .85 / 12 volts = 245 amps from the battery. That is a recipe for a big ass fire.

Could you define " Top of the Line " ??

[bulldrummerbullies]

i think you will find it is not the a/c side of the inverter that is the main issue,

if you calculate the D/C current @ 12v required to supply the inverter output of 2500w a/c,

then calculate the cable size for that D/C you will arrive at so called welding cable, and the internals of the inverter need to be able to handle that current as well.

Hence why 12v inverters are not reccomended for over 1000w a/c

Your 100% right that is why you put you invertor as close to your battery as possible use the correct wire size. awg 04 or 02 -18 inch.
think of it this way the guys using this kind of equipment do not have the income required to build the system we would all like. They go to garage sales, gunk yards and e-bay. I have not said this before because I know I would be firebomb again but one disable vet did buy welding wire at a garage sale cheap, he did not stop talking about it for a week, he was as proud as we would be buying a $1200 inverter. and yes you should buy a better inverter with 12, 24, 48 capability.

[SunEagle]

This is a manufacturers description I guess "others" could be confusing. So To others, with a little Common sense. I will try to clear this up. 2500watts / 120v = 20.8 amps out we were talking a camper you then plug your camper into invertor your camper should be fuse 15 amp for you wall out lets mine is, so you can not use the full 20.3 amps this is adding more safety you do not run your roof air off your invertor run roof air ( it may be fuse at 20 amps.) with your generator. You would not put your battery bank in camper or your invertor in your camper your invertor is as close to your battery as possible use the correct battery cables as you used to connect your battery bank 02 or 04 awg.. since your in a camper you can move it very close to your solar bank to keep wire cost down. So you don't need welding wire. If you know of a 2500 watt invertor that is selling for about $250.00 and free shipping that is Ul and meet your standers please help us out and tell us. Yes a invertor that could be wire 12v 24v or 48v would be much better there are a lot of guy on fix in come retired that would like to look into a better inverter in that price range or even a little higher I hope you can help use with this. My Power Jack has preform well for 3 years. But as I have said on another post the review on power jack now are not good they were ok when I bought it..

I actually purchased a 2500/5000 watt Whistler inverter for under $200. That is when the reality of realizing that hooking it up to a 12 volt battery bank could generate over 300 amps on the DC side for even a short time made me switch to an Xantrex 600 watt pure sine wave instead.

The Whistler now sits on a shelf and is available to anyone that doesn't mind playing with fire.

[Willy T]

I actually purchased a 2500/5000 watt Whistler inverter for under $200. That is when the reality of realizing that hooking it up to a 12 volt battery bank could generate over 300 amps on the DC side for even a short time made me switch to an Xantrex 600 watt pure sine wave instead.

The Whistler now sits on a shelf and is available to anyone that doesn't mind playing with fire.

You weren't smart enough to limit it's output to what ever you wanted with it's DC Fusing or Breaker ??

[Living Large]

You weren't smart enough to limit it's output to what ever you wanted with it's DC Fusing or Breaker ??

Could you define "smart"?

[SunEagle]

You weren't smart enough to limit it's output to what ever you wanted with it's DC Fusing or Breaker ??

I could have but then it would just sit there and consume watts due to it's inefficiency so why use it at all. Besides you know what those in line DC fuses cost?

I made a number of wrong purchases before I really started to read and learn about how to balance a solar battery system. Now I try to make sure others don't make the same mistakes I did.

[Sunking]

Could you define " Top of the Line " ??

90+% efficiency, true Sine wave, .8 PF, less than 2% harmonic distortion. That will be your 24, 48, and 96 volt inverters one would use over 1000 watts.

[Sunking]

You weren't smart enough to limit it's output to what ever you wanted with it's DC Fusing or Breaker ??

A large Inverter like that can burn up to 100 watts just sitting there doing nothing. Inverter should be no larger than panel wattage as a general rule.