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05-02-2010, 03:09 PM
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#1
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Senior Member
Excel Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Fulltime TX Escapee
Posts: 8,901
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Install of 800 Watt Inverter in Excel
Even though Hermandutchman posted this in the OT thread....I thought I'd start a fresh one.
We have a little 800W Xantera Inverter and I simply put it as close to the batteries as possible, which in my case is in the bay just over the batts. If you haven't noticed copper wire is quite spendy these days. I used #6 gauge wire and an 80 amp fuse (water resistant holder ordered off Ebay) and used a knife switch from CW. Then I ran the 120V portion in the unit with multiplex extension cord. If I had to do over...I would have fused this circuit with a auto set relay about 60 amp. Each floorplan will have a different way to route the 120V into the house. Since I have the open bath floorplan I ran mine in the bay area into my liquor cabinet just left of the stove. I will then run another extension over to the TV area. There, I can run my network router, TV, charge for computer, cell charger, etc.
Sometime I wished I would have about a 1200W unit but that gets a bit heavy on the batts. (2 standard 6 volts). With our current set up we can comfortably run this this stuff for about 4 hrs. without hitting the 50% charge guidelines. Works for us.....as we dry dock it about 5 times a year. Thank you Walmart!!! Obviously, there are much fancier ways to do this setup.......but as little as we use it.......it works fine. Be cautious not to get anything too close to the open points of contact near the bay opening, not just with the inverter set up, but Peterson's setup of wiring as well. rockin'.
__________________
2012 Excel L33ft. GKE named Charm as in 3 times is a Charm. Love Fulltiming. Bullet '14 Chevy D/A 3500 LB CC DRW Summit White - Ebony Interior. Check out our blog at: https://claphamstravels.blogspot.com
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05-02-2010, 05:00 PM
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#2
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Registered User
Tiffin Owners Club Freightliner Owners Club
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Where ever GPS takes us
Posts: 908
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05-02-2010, 05:17 PM
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#3
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Senior Member
Excel Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Fulltime TX Escapee
Posts: 8,901
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Endeavor2BnC
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What you saw was not the basement......but our fine wine celler!!! That's where I keep the Oak Poop Reserve....oh brother....I'm sampling some right now. Thanks for noticing Timo.....I need the attention!
__________________
2012 Excel L33ft. GKE named Charm as in 3 times is a Charm. Love Fulltiming. Bullet '14 Chevy D/A 3500 LB CC DRW Summit White - Ebony Interior. Check out our blog at: https://claphamstravels.blogspot.com
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05-02-2010, 07:35 PM
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#4
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Senior Member
Excel Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Oakley, Kansas
Posts: 2,066
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Tom, is the ground connected to the frame of the fifth wheel? If so it really needs to connect directly to a ground wire connected to the battery. It will work this way, but to the battery is the correct way.
I bet you did this while testing the supply in the wine cooler as you call it.
__________________
Larry & Billie Eberle
2010 Wild Cargo SKM
'98 Volvo, HD Mule
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05-02-2010, 10:04 PM
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#5
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Senior Member
Excel Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Fulltime TX Escapee
Posts: 8,901
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Still, I have it grounded to the major frame near the batts. If this was a higher watt system.......I would agree with you. Both B+ and ground straight to the batts....but this is just a little 800W system. Little girlie stuff.........
__________________
2012 Excel L33ft. GKE named Charm as in 3 times is a Charm. Love Fulltiming. Bullet '14 Chevy D/A 3500 LB CC DRW Summit White - Ebony Interior. Check out our blog at: https://claphamstravels.blogspot.com
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05-03-2010, 06:48 AM
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#6
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Senior Member
Excel Owners Club
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 240
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thank you SKIA, I just knew you would come thru. The pictures help a lot too. Of course Tim would notice the bottles.
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05-03-2010, 07:26 AM
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#7
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 1,334
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Originally Posted by Hermandutchman
I just purchased an 800 watt inverter and would like to know how I should hook up and the best use for it. I mostly wanted it for the TV and to shave so I would not have to start the gen. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thank you
Who made your inverter? Did it come with an install sheet?
Would assume because of the size of your inverter that you are looking for an installation like Rockin' did?
It looks like he used normal power cords to supply the 120vac power to his TV and his 'wine celler'. Are you considering the same thing. I'm not sure of your floor plan and where the TV is located. On my unit, the entertainment system is on a slide which makes things harder to install wires and not have things exposed for an easy installation.
Did you have any thoughts as to how you wanted to run to the TV or into the cabinet with the cords or were you considering using outlet boxes.
workhorse
__________________
2000 Alpenlite, 29 ft Valhalla - 2014 F350
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05-03-2010, 08:01 AM
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#8
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Senior Member
Damon Owners Club Workhorse Chassis Owner
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 24,024
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Sounds good.. Re the larger inverter: Save for the instant when you turn it on the load presented is dependent on the load on the inverter.. Most inverters both TSW and MSW are in the 85-90 percent range efficency so if you are sucking 10 amps AC (1200 watts) you are sucking about 110 amps DC, it's that simple
'
But if you are sucking only 3 amps AC (a couple of TV"s) you are sucking perhaps 40 amps DC (yes, as load goes down efficency drops too, some overhead is fairly constant)
But the fact is with your 800 watt unit.... you'd still be drawing close to the same current at 360 watts load (3 amps)
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Home is where I park it!
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05-03-2010, 09:38 AM
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#9
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Senior Member
Excel Owners Club
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 240
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Workshop
Originally Posted by Hermandutchman
I just purchased an 800 watt inverter and would like to know how I should hook up and the best use for it. I mostly wanted it for the TV and to shave so I would not have to start the gen. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thank you
Who made your inverter? Did it come with an install sheet?
Would assume because of the size of your inverter that you are looking for an installation like Rockin' did?
It looks like he used normal power cords to supply the 120vac power to his TV and his 'wine celler'. Are you considering the same thing. I'm not sure of your floor plan and where the TV is located. On my unit, the entertainment system is on a slide which makes things harder to install wires and not have things exposed for an easy installation.
Did you have any thoughts as to how you wanted to run to the TV or into the cabinet with the cords or were you considering using outlet boxes.
workhorse
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My inverter is a Super Start 800 watt with 1600 watt surge. The instruction manual has very limited instructions. It says to have the on/off set to off before plugging anything in to it. If I have it in the bay this would be very inconvenient,I wonder if this is realy neccesary. I think it would work good to use the cords. Tom said to install 80 amp fuse but this has fuse built in. I understand I should have unit as close to battery as possible to reduce power lose but if it could be maybe 6 ft away then I could mount it under bathroom sink. With the on/off switch built in would it still be wise to use knife switch? Thanks for any and all info.
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05-03-2010, 09:56 AM
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#10
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Senior Member
Excel Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Fulltime TX Escapee
Posts: 8,901
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wa8yxm
Sounds good.. Re the larger inverter: Save for the instant when you turn it on the load presented is dependent on the load on the inverter.. Most inverters both TSW and MSW are in the 85-90 percent range efficency so if you are sucking 10 amps AC (1200 watts) you are sucking about 110 amps DC, it's that simple
'
But if you are sucking only 3 amps AC (a couple of TV"s) you are sucking perhaps 40 amps DC (yes, as load goes down efficency drops too, some overhead is fairly constant)
But the fact is with your 800 watt unit.... you'd still be drawing close to the same current at 360 watts load (3 amps)
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You are exactly right....my point was that IF you have a larger unit you'll find ways to load it up, thus reducing useful batt. time. Kinda like have a 3 bedroom house...it may meet you needs fine, but a 4 bedroom will shurly get filled with stuff!!! rockin'
__________________
2012 Excel L33ft. GKE named Charm as in 3 times is a Charm. Love Fulltiming. Bullet '14 Chevy D/A 3500 LB CC DRW Summit White - Ebony Interior. Check out our blog at: https://claphamstravels.blogspot.com
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05-03-2010, 01:53 PM
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#11
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 1,334
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Most everything I've learned about inverters have been in the past few days, will admit I don't have one installed but willing to learn new things....it's an allowance thing......
Couldn't find any information on the Super Start 800 except its sold by O'reily's Auto parts...does it look like Rockin's unit or bigger....
One would have to determine the size of the wire the unit will accept and the 12vdc inline fuse that would be needed when connecting to the battery. would assume this fuse will be needed to protect the battery and wire and the built in fuse will protect the inverter?
Here are a few links that I've found and haven't gotten all the learnin' out of yet...
The inverter store - video
The inverter store - FAQ
The 12v side of life - Part 2
RV education 101 - inverters
Amazon - wire and fuse holders
Rockin' is right about the cost of large guage wire...has gotten expensive. Almost cheaper to find premade cable as to buy the wire/connectors and make them up.
workhorse
__________________
2000 Alpenlite, 29 ft Valhalla - 2014 F350
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05-04-2010, 07:33 AM
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#12
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Senior Member
Excel Owners Club
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Winter Haven, FL
Posts: 385
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We have a 200-watt inverter we use for the bedroom TV when we are boondocking at Cracker Barrel with the slide-outs in. It is small enough to be powered from our 12-volt receptacle. It is a far cry from the old Trace 2400-watt inverter that powered our straw bale house in Colorado. Our next coach will have a 600-watt solar PV system with two inverters, a 3KW one for the whole coach and a small one for the entertainment system only.
An old Class A coach here at the campground has a 600-watt wind generator mounted on the rear hitch on a platform with telescoping mast ... he is a solar guru selling systems for homes in the area.
Dave
__________________
David, Sheila & Stella the Beagle pup SKP Full-timers since 2008
'12 FORD F-350 Dually King Ranch crew cab, Firestone airbags, 52" hitch extension
'12 Lance 1181, all options + 250W solar, pushed by '09 Jeep Rubicon Unlimited + Blue Ox 5K tow bar
'93 Fleetwood Oak Park w/12'x34' lanai @ Pioneer Village in N. Ft Myers, FL
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05-04-2010, 12:00 PM
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#13
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Senior Member
Excel Owners Club
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 240
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Workshop
Most everything I've learned about inverters have been in the past few days, will admit I don't have one installed but willing to learn new things....it's an allowance thing......
Couldn't find any information on the Super Start 800 except its sold by O'reily's Auto parts...does it look like Rockin's unit or bigger....
One would have to determine the size of the wire the unit will accept and the 12vdc inline fuse that would be needed when connecting to the battery. would assume this fuse will be needed to protect the battery and wire and the built in fuse will protect the inverter?
Here are a few links that I've found and haven't gotten all the learnin' out of yet...
The inverter store - video
The inverter store - FAQ
The 12v side of life - Part 2
RV education 101 - inverters
Amazon - wire and fuse holders
Rockin' is right about the cost of large guage wire...has gotten expensive. Almost cheaper to find premade cable as to buy the wire/connectors and make them up.
workhorse
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I went to the video from the inverter store and they recomend that you use an inline fuse about 6 inches from battery and that cables to inverter not be more than 20 feet. I think this would work good for me as then I could put inverter in bathroom along with a disconect switch . I could plug in shaver direct and run cord to TV which is about 8 ft away. My inverter is almost the same as toms but about 2 in. wider. thanks for all the info
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05-04-2010, 02:24 PM
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#14
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Senior Member
Excel Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Fulltime TX Escapee
Posts: 8,901
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You're welcome.
TMI Herman.....whatever happen to your one liners??? Just kiddin'
We want to see the finished product on your inverter. My little inverter has some nice features, including digital Watts draw on 120V side, also a volt meter and alarm on marginal batt voltage on DC side and will shut itself off after a specified voltage. Nice features. Not bad for $69. rockin'
__________________
2012 Excel L33ft. GKE named Charm as in 3 times is a Charm. Love Fulltiming. Bullet '14 Chevy D/A 3500 LB CC DRW Summit White - Ebony Interior. Check out our blog at: https://claphamstravels.blogspot.com
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