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01-18-2020, 12:28 PM
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#1
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,434
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Upgrade Bay Star Inverter?
I'm sitting here thinking...dangerous, I know. We would love to add a whole house inverter to our 2018 Bay Star. We've already got two 1000 watt inverters, one for the TV's and one for the fridge. We've upgraded our batteries to three 100 Ah Battle Born batteries for 300 Ah total. We've got solar and will be upgrading from our current 300 watts to 800-1000 later this year.
But I know wiring a whole house inverter/charger is a real pain in the neck. Now, we could, and probably will if this doesn't pan out, just install a new inverter and wire it to a 30 amp plug in the power bay so we can just plug our power cord in. Much easier than a sub-panel and all that.
What if I upgraded to a 2000 watt Xantrex inverter and ran inverter power over to the other breakers with outlets on them. Seems totally doable assuming the inverter output goes to the main breaker panel like I'm guessing.
BTW, I'm not dumb enough to overpower the circuit(s). We just want to charge our phones, tablets, camera batteries and electric razor where it's convenient instead of the power strip covered in wall warts and charging cords that sits next to our TV when were boondocking. Heck, I might not even need to upgrade inverters if all we do is charge that stuff because we're doing it now but just on that one circuit.
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2018 Newmar Bay Star 3113 - "Chewie"
2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon - "Battle Born"
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01-18-2020, 12:42 PM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 35,349
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You may have to upgrade the wiring, if you use a 20 amp or more breaker in place of a 15. That could be a nightmare.
14 gauge is most often used in 15 amp circuits.
Upgrading either 1000 watt inverter to 2000 watt will involve larger battery cables, so be prepared for that.
Just plugging in to shore cord means switching off the converter, electric water heater and AC every time you do it.
If your microwave is less then 15 amps or 1800 watts input current, not cooking watts, , it should be able to run on 14 gauge wiring and a 15 amp breaker.
Then swap one inverter for 2000 watts and run larger or double up the battery cables.
If the inverters are close to each other, use the battery cables from both to one 2000 watt inverter and share the output to all of the circuits.
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01-18-2020, 01:04 PM
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#3
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,434
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The more I think about it, I don't even need to upgrade the inverter unless I want to run the microwave or power a coffee maker or hair dryer. I don't.
I basically already run everything I would want to run in the future off the inverter. But I'm running it all on the 15 amp breaker in the main panel that the inverter powers.
I don't see why I can't also power a couple of other 15 amp breakers already in the panel that are for the living room/kitchen outlets and the bedroom/bath/basement outlets.
As I said, I wouldn't over power the circuit. I'd be boondocking and wouldn't want to power the MW or the wife's hair dryer (I don't have a coffee maker) without the generator anyway. But I could charge the devices and run my laptop without being tied to the outlets in the slide with the TV.
In essence, I'm not adding electrical draws, I'm just powering other outlets to used them on.
__________________
2018 Newmar Bay Star 3113 - "Chewie"
2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon - "Battle Born"
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01-18-2020, 01:05 PM
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#4
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Member
Newmar Owners Club Ford Super Duty Owner
Join Date: Oct 2019
Posts: 56
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If all you are charging are a few electronics, you can just add a small pure sine wave inverter that plugs in to the 12v plug by the passenger chair. I attached mine to the wall with velcro for convenience. I think it is a 300 watt inverter.
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JL, San Marcos, Ca.
2019 Bay Star 3124
2013 Jeep Wrangler Sahara
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01-18-2020, 01:23 PM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,434
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jl2000
If all you are charging are a few electronics, you can just add a small pure sine wave inverter that plugs in to the 12v plug by the passenger chair. I attached mine to the wall with velcro for convenience. I think it is a 300 watt inverter.
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Thought of that but power isn't the problem. I have all the power I need in the dining slide powered by the 1000w inverter. It's that all the power is there so it's a mess of cords and chargers.
I'd prefer to charge our tablets in the bedroom, my razor in the bathroom, camera batteries somewhere out of the way, etc. I could add 12v power taps all over the place and use usb chargers or inverters as needed. But if I'm going to do that, why not just wire a whole house inverter. Both are a lot of work.
__________________
2018 Newmar Bay Star 3113 - "Chewie"
2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon - "Battle Born"
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01-18-2020, 03:46 PM
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#6
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Senior Member
Newmar Owners Club Ford Super Duty Owner
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 1,152
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Isn’t the bedroom TV also powered by that inverter? You could set up a bedroom charging station from that outlet.
If you can get to the refrigerator outlet you can tap into that circuit and add an inverter outlet next to the couch.
The wiring from the inverter output on my 2017 model does not go through the breaker panel.
__________________
2017 Newmar Bay Star 3113.
Former owner of a Morgan powered Bennington
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01-19-2020, 03:01 AM
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#7
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2018
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 193
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan McMartin
Seems totally doable assuming the inverter output goes to the main breaker panel like I'm guessing.
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This may be where the flaw in your logic is. We're trying to figure out how to get just one 15amp outlet inverted. But we believe our current setup is from breaker to inverter to one outlet (not back to another breaker or sub panel). Newmar does it different than my prior coach which went from inverter to breaker and fed all of that one circut. I've been trying to get my hands on a wiring diagram but can't find one so far.
And I totally understand not wanting to piecemeal outlets all over. Our Newmar is so superior to our prior coaches except for electric and electronics.
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01-19-2020, 06:29 AM
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#8
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: near Atlanta, GA
Posts: 56
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I agree the Baystar inverter setup is less than ideal. However, I used the extra plug on one of my inverters to power an extra outlet in the galley area. All the parts came from Home Depot. See picture. All the wires are hidden in the cabinets. Maybe you could do something similar.
Also, in the bedroom we had the TV outlet powered by the inverter but also another outlet that wasn’t obvious under the TV. Have you checked all the outlets for power with the inverter?
__________________
2023 Storyteller Overland Stealth
2016 Newmar Baystar 3124 (Sold)
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01-19-2020, 06:42 AM
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#9
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Senior Member
Newmar Owners Club Ford Super Duty Owner
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 1,152
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When I turn off the associated circuit breakers, the inverters still power the refrigerator and AV cabinets.
This is a photograph inside the cabinet under the living room television. In the lower left there are two plastic connectors where the flexible wiring entering the slide joins the wiring inside the slide walls. There should be something similar behind the kitchen slide cabinetry. It’s not easy to add wiring after the walls and cabinets are installed. For the bathroom, mount a small inverter in the cabinet with the fuse panel and breaker box.
__________________
2017 Newmar Bay Star 3113.
Former owner of a Morgan powered Bennington
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01-19-2020, 07:53 AM
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#10
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,434
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All good ideas. I hadn't considered that the wiring from the breaker box to the inverter. That pretty much kills my idea. Nothing's ever easy...
I agree, our Bay Star is top notch but when it comes to electrical and electronics they really miss the mark. We even asked to have more outlets wired to the TV inverter and we got a solid no.
As I said, all the ideas up there are good ones and I might throw some temporary power strips on those powered outlets but when all is said and done, if I'm going to wire up power strips and additional outlets all over I might as well install a 2000-3000 watt inverter and wire up a 30 amp outlet in the power bay and be done with it.
Since it's an independent system, the two existing inverters can remain to be used when we're dry camping for just a night or two. But otherwise, I can simply plug the coach into the inverter via that new 30 amp outlet and unplug the converter/charger. With our solar upgrade, we'll only have to run the generator occasionally and I can just go plug the converter back in if the batteries need to be charged.
If I buy a inverter/charger, I can always rewire it through a sub-panel and get rid of the converter/charger someday but that's a lot of work that I'm not qualified or willing to do myself.
__________________
2018 Newmar Bay Star 3113 - "Chewie"
2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon - "Battle Born"
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05-26-2020, 01:51 PM
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#11
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Senior Member
Newmar Owners Club Ford Super Duty Owner
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 1,152
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Dan -
Did you ever do something with this? I’d love to have an inverted outlet next to the couch.
__________________
2017 Newmar Bay Star 3113.
Former owner of a Morgan powered Bennington
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05-26-2020, 10:14 PM
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#12
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,434
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Quote:
Originally Posted by knightstorm
Dan -
Did you ever do something with this? I’d love to have an inverted outlet next to the couch.
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Yeah, I did. I just used extension cords as we're not going to power anything that requires significant amps. Charging phones, tablets, camera batteries, shaver, etc and powering our AT&T hot spot. I ran one 10 foot cord from the inverted outlet (it's a single outlet so I added a small surge protected outlet multiplier), through the cabinets and through a 2 inch hole I cut, capped with a desk grommet.
We snaked that behind the sofa and ran two shorter cords with two traditional outlets and two USB outlets each and attached them to the wall with 3M strips. Since that outlet is dedicated to the fridge, you might able to power something that requires more amps but you need to watch it since it's a 15 amp circuit.
I also put a surge protected multiplier behind the TV. We run our TV, sound bar and my laptop off that. I hid the laptop cord in the cabinetry and just the last foot of so of cord emerges from the opening in the cabinet for the table. The way the table supports are constructed, there's no chance the cable will get mixed up in the table mechanism.
Were on battery power now and it's great. Removing the power strip from the counter by the TV, along with all the associated wall warts, cords, etc. means we can use that counter for something else now.
I can post some pics if you want.
__________________
2018 Newmar Bay Star 3113 - "Chewie"
2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon - "Battle Born"
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05-27-2020, 05:23 AM
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#13
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Senior Member
Newmar Owners Club Ford Super Duty Owner
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 1,152
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Thank you. Photos always help, either on this thread or the 3113 mods.
__________________
2017 Newmar Bay Star 3113.
Former owner of a Morgan powered Bennington
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05-27-2020, 03:05 PM
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#14
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,434
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I'll do a post over there. Not sure how the pics will turn out since most of the stuff in under the cabinet and purposely out of sight but can't hurt. I'll get that done here in the next few days.
__________________
2018 Newmar Bay Star 3113 - "Chewie"
2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon - "Battle Born"
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