newbie needs help PLEASE

[kartaker]

I have been trying to renovate a 1992 Eagle travel trailer for a year now. Its always one step forward and a million backward.
I have one more battery to attach. have no idea how to attach the pure sine wave 1500 watt inverter to the whole thing and feel like I am missing something.
i have 8 led 12 volt lights, propane on demand water heater, propane stove, 12 volt fridge, a 12 volt stereo, a 24" led tv, 2 interior outlets and 1 exterior and a 9500 btu heating/ 9000 btu cooling 115v minisplit for heating and a/c.
1. Am I going to have enough power for all that?
2. should all my lights have switches on them since i only use 1 at night?
3. can i just leave the 110 volt breakers turned off if im not using them?

I was going to purchase the Champion duel fuel portable 3500 watt inverter generator to hook up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated since its getting cold here in MN and I dont want to freeze.

thank you
Tracy

[Jagiven]

Welcome Aboard!

Just to confirm you want to connect your "Inverter" or are you talking a "Converter"?

An "Inverter" takes 12V DC power and changes it to 120V AC power. A "Converter" does the opposite it takes 120V AC power and converts it to 12V DC power. Most of the items you listed (led lights, on demand water heater, 12 volt fridge, stereo) are 12V, no need for an inverter, they will just run off of the battery.

Your 1500 Watt inverter is probably rated for 80%, so 1200 watts continuous run. The TV and AC unit along with other devices like a microwave are part of the 120V AC system. The TV will not be an issue. The AC might be an issue. Per Google, a 9000 BTU mini split needs about 1100 watts of power (on high). Your 9500 BTU will draw a bit more, and it alone will be close to that 1200 watt threshold.

One thing you do not want to do is have your inverter power the converter, this will just drain your battery. Having all your other circuits live is not a big deal. Some Inverters are capable of having a 120V line tie to it (aka TV circuit), then it continues onto the device. This way, when you do not have shore power, all you do is flip on the inverter, and that single circuit is now live, and you do not have to worry about the rest of the circuits within the TT.

If you have not done it, I would recommend pencil drawing up your electrical plan. Pencil sketch, simple lines, showing each circuit, and how things are tied together, for both the 12V and 120V systems. If you have done this already, can you post an image of if.

What is your battery plan? Single 12V deep cycle battery, dual batteries, Lithium battery bank?? The reason I ask, when running the AC unit a single 100 amp AMG deep cycle battery, it could be discharged within 30 minutes. You can get a lot more power out of a 12V Lithium battery, it is lighter but costs a LOT more. With a good size lithium battery bank, you could run the AC unit for a number of hours. There is someone on the forum, who has a MH who has 6(??) lithium batteries, and can run his AC unit I think for about 4 hours. Well worth doing a search for this mod, I think he posted this about a year ago.

Good luck, please post images of your rebuild.

[craigav]

You will definitely need to charge the batteries and a generator certainly will be your friend if you don't have shore power to plug into. With that said, you are not going to be able to run all of that off of batteries alone, you will have to limit the power consumption and with that said, it is not if the batteries will run down completely as it is more of a question of how quickly they will run down... which can only be answered by knowing the capacity of the batteries and how many amps you are drawing them down.

One other thought is to diagram your setup. It doesn't have to be an electrical engineering drawing, but something basic listing the components and what is connected to what, that would be a big help in the long run...

and not to forget to mention...

Welcome to the JaycoOwners Forums. ~CA

[kartaker]

my inverter is a pure sine wave. 1500W 24V Off Grid Inverter. it takes DC power and turns it into 120v. i dont need a converter.

Continuous Power: 1500W
Input Range: 21-30V DC
Output Volt:110V-60Hz/220V-50Hz
Waveform Pure Sine Wave
Surge Power: 3000W
Non-load Consumption: <12W
Efficiency: >90%

[kartaker]

i think i attached my diagram

[kartaker]

i dont even know the amps of anything. how do i find that?

[ARoamer]

Amps...Look at your appliance documentation or data plates to see how much it uses.

Pretty much anything 12v should be do-able, a RV furnace would probably be the largest draw. I see a solar charge controller, but no figure on solar panel wattages. I am guessing your 115v minisplit for heating and a/c probably wont run on a 1500 watt inverter, and if it does it probably won't for long before your inverter drains your batteries. Your 115v loads will be the battery killer. At max your inverter may draw around 125 Amps. A generator (or ideally shore power) may be best for the large loads.
In your drawing it appears you have 1 -100AH battery and 2 -50AH batteries. Not recommended to use different size batteries. All should be the same type, lead acid, sealed lead acid, or lithium, all same AH rating and preferably the same manufacturer and age.

[TaftCoach]

You are getting excellent help, so I will just say welcome! And best of luck getting everything tied together.

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by kartaker

i dont even know the amps of anything. how do i find that?

Many appliances post their amp usage on a label, or in the manual. If not amperes, then they post wattage.


amps = watts / voltage


Say you've got two 120 watt light bulbs. One runs at 12V, the other 120V.


Bulb 1 amps = 120 / 12. 10 Amps
Bulb 2 amps = 120 / 120. 1 amp

[craigav]

Originally Posted by kartaker

i think i attached my diagram

The diagram helps to understand your plans, thanks for sharing.

Items you need to consider:

You don't have any 24v setup to power the inverter, I would consider selling what you have and obtaining a 1500 watt 12v inverter.

If you don't have a converter, then you should consider adding one as that is needed to charge your batteries back up and power the 12v system whenever you are plugged into shore power (120V) or a generator. Some inverters are also converters (chargers).

Using batteries with different capacities can be ok in parallel, however you need to verify that the resting voltage of each fully charged battery is equivalent to each other otherwise you will run into issues that could damage the batteries.

Hopefully this is just a project as winter is coming fast and I suspect this winter will (could) be a dark winter for many reasons.

Best Wishes, CA

[16WhiteColly]

That was the first thing I noticed was the mismatched batteries, which is not usually a good thing.

[Johnynorthland]

To not waste power by charging the house battery on an inverter like others has said, I installed a battery cutoff. I found it was the easiest thing to do.

[kartaker]

can i hook my panels up this way using the extra connector on each 4 connector to connect to each other to make a series?

[kartaker]

Originally Posted by kartaker

need help with solar panel connections. is my diagram going to work?

xx

[kartaker]

could you look at the diagram i just posted re:my solar panel connections

[ARoamer]

Originally Posted by kartaker

can i hook my panels up this way using the extra connector on each 4 connector to connect to each other to make a series?Attachment 83453

From what I see if you hook those 2 wires together it will short all of your panels together, connecting all + and -. Not good.
Is your controller capable of handling the higher voltages that series produces?

[Johnynorthland]

Go to diySolar forum. You can get the best advice there, and you just might be able to get some schematics too.