Inverter Question

[barryfriedman]

Getting ready to take delivery of my 2020 Entegra Accolade 37K.

I will be adding a Renogy 400W solar system and for the first several years most of my usage will be dry camping.

Not sure how many 110 outlets are wired to the inverter but I want to make sure I have one in the kitchen (for a coffee maker), and one in the bedroom (for an Amazon Echo). I am also adding a WeBoost wireless booster and a WiFi hotspot within the coach.

Any concerns about running the inverter 24 hours a day for the 3-4 days I will be camping. Will not be drawing much current during the day (will be out riding) and will be using the TV, lights, and recliner at night in addition to the WiFi booster, hotspot, and Amazon echo?

Barry

[Vicr]

What wattage inverter do you have? Coffee makers are 1200-1500 watts and the inverter is load rated at 80% of the wattage nameplate. What do you have for batteries?

[barryfriedman]

I have a 2000 watt inverter and the coach has 4 batteries plus 2 for the engine.

The wattage usage for the coffee maker is 950.

Barry

[seanreit]

Assuming you have lead acid batteries, you do NOT want to deplete them lower than 12.2 volts. If you do, the dying process starts and you will have diminished capacity. I always recommend you put an automated disconnect FIRST. This way, if your inverter tries to draw the batteries lower, the disconnect will save your battery. https://amzn.to/37nWXsO

In regards to coffee makers, here's an 800 Watt Keurig example (K kup) https://amzn.to/2RjVP44

Most people don't know those exist, but they work great on Solar Systems.

If you ever want to really increase your capacity, this is the system I have: https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...tml#post825771

[barryfriedman]

I have a programmable generator auto-start so I don't think I need to worry about depleting the battery. The coffee maker (950 watt) would only draw significant wattage while brewing and it would only be on for a couple hours a day.

[JimD]

First thing you should do is get a 12v voltage monitor so you know exactly where your batteries are at. This can be as simple as a monitor that plugs into a power receptacle. I have a remote one that hooks directly to the battery and shows voltage plus current being drawn. I constantly monitor it.

400 watts of solar is good. I only have 200 and it can't quite keep up with my inverter usage if I am running my Direct TV setup all day. My inverter only feeds the front and bedroom TV outlets.

You didn't mention what type of fridge you have. Hopefully it is a propane version as a residential fridge will suck batteries big time through an inverter.

I assume your rig has a generator so you can top off the battery charge if needed. I bought a little Ryobi inverter generator that I like to use to top off the batteries instead of putting a lot of time on my 4k genny. Best investment I made.

[barryfriedman]

I have a battery voltage monitor and the generator has a programmable auto start feature. I also have an RV (propane) refrigerator).

I am a little concerned about leaving the inverter on 24 hours a day for several days. Does anyone think that is a problem?

Not concerned too much about running down the batteries since I have the gen auto start.

[CreekLife]

Originally Posted by barryfriedman

I have a battery voltage monitor and the generator has a programmable auto start feature. I also have an RV (propane) refrigerator).

I am a little concerned about leaving the inverter on 24 hours a day for several days. Does anyone think that is a problem?

Not concerned too much about running down the batteries since I have the gen auto start.

From what I understand there is no reason you have to turn off the inverter outside of the fact that it will also draw power. I know many people that always leave it on and I used to leave mine on my old MH also. I have been trying to wrap my head around electricity for a week now but it appears your setup would be just fine for what your attempting to do.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by barryfriedman

Not sure how many 110 outlets are wired to the inverter but I want to make sure I have one in the kitchen (for a coffee maker), and one in the bedroom (for an Amazon Echo). I am also adding a WeBoost wireless booster and a WiFi hotspot within the coach.

Unless they did something different only the TV's, Fridge and the Micro are on the INVERTER.

[Rustynuts]

Originally Posted by barryfriedman

Getting ready to take delivery of my 2020 Entegra Accolade 37K.

I will be adding a Renogy 400W solar system and for the first several years most of my usage will be dry camping.

Not sure how many 110 outlets are wired to the inverter but I want to make sure I have one in the kitchen (for a coffee maker), and one in the bedroom (for an Amazon Echo). I am also adding a WeBoost wireless booster and a WiFi hotspot within the coach.

Any concerns about running the inverter 24 hours a day for the 3-4 days I will be camping. Will not be drawing much current during the day (will be out riding) and will be using the TV, lights, and recliner at night in addition to the WiFi booster, hotspot, and Amazon echo?

Barry

I have a 2018.5 Seneca and added the 400 watt Renogy system. We dry camp most of the time and about the only time we run the generator is for the DW’s coffee maker or microwave which are usually used at the same time. We leave our inverter on all the time with no issues, if you want to cut off the draw from say the rear tv or microwave you can unplug them or turn the breaker off as the inverter circuits are on their own breakers. We have the RB model and the rear tv and plug between closets on wall, the main living TV plugs (2 in tv cabinet), microwave, outside tv plug and one plug with 2-110 outlets and 2 USB ports under the dinette are all on the inverter from the factory. Even on cloudy days we have never run our batteries down to the point of having to run the generator to charge. I have a Victron Battery monitor and it will tell you how much battery life in hours based on your usage, it reads power in and out via a shunt...good to have while boondocking. The best thing you can do which I have is to swap out the 4 - 12volt batteries for 4 - 6volt deep cycles like Trojan 105’s or equivalent which are “true” Deep cycle batteries that can be discharged 80% and then fully recharged without damage which would kill a 12 volt hybrid start/deep cycle battery.

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by Rustynuts

I have a 2018.5 Seneca and added the 400 watt Renogy system. We dry camp most of the time and about the only time we run the generator is for the DW’s coffee maker or microwave which are usually used at the same time. We leave our inverter on all the time with no issues, if you want to cut off the draw from say the rear tv or microwave you can unplug them or turn the breaker off as the inverter circuits are on their own breakers. We have the RB model and the rear tv and plug between closets on wall, the main living TV plugs (2 in tv cabinet), microwave, outside tv plug and one plug with 2-110 outlets and 2 USB ports under the dinette are all on the inverter from the factory. Even on cloudy days we have never run our batteries down to the point of having to run the generator to charge. I have a Victron Battery monitor and it will tell you how much battery life in hours based on your usage, it reads power in and out via a shunt...good to have while boondocking. The best thing you can do which I have is to swap out the 4 - 12volt batteries for 4 - 6volt deep cycles like Trojan 105’s or equivalent which are “true” Deep cycle batteries that can be discharged 80% and then fully recharged without damage which would kill a 12 volt hybrid start/deep cycle battery.

I think Rustynuts is right on the target here...

First note that we have NO Solar charging... only the four house batteries (about 370AH) and the stock 2000W Inverter. we use the Generator's auto charging feature (it is great, once we figured it out) to keep our batteries in good shape without any deep-cycles.

We take an annual 10-day trip to a remote shoreline at the lake. We run our 1050W drip coffee maker each morning on inverter (Stacy gets up early, does not want to wake me with the Genny) that we plugged into the same outlet as the Microwave. The coffee maker only draws the full wattage during the brew cycle, then it draws about 250w keeping the carafe hot. she also Starts the TV, Satellite receiver and enjoys her morning coffee - all on the Inverter.

The Inverter has it's own built in settings to shut it down when the batteries get down to a certain level (it has not done this on us yet). The Generator is also on "Auto-Start" and sensing the battery state of charge constantly. Once the batteries fall to a point where they require a recharge - the genny takes care of it. (Our generator does this, and usually can run about an hour per day recharging the batteries while running other AC appliances we use thru the day). So if you add 400W of solar to offset the charging via generator - I doubt you will have your genny running much.