Makes sense and I could see people messing that one up. I did not know my water heater had electric and lp until I was blowing the breaker at a rv park this spring. Once I turned that switch off everything was good and runs on lp. Need to find out the model and lookup how to fix. I will probably be asking you where to start when I do

Second thought I need to see if it works on electric at home.

 

I'm running a Xamtrec 1800 watt with a transfer switch, I ran a separate circuit to my chest freezer and entertainment center. When we are traveling I leave everything on the inverter and let it transfer to shore power for short stays but when we are setting for a longer period I change it over to normal shore power and power the inverter down.

Denny

 

A guy at work gave me a Xantrex PROwatt 1000 Inverter. The box is kind of beat up but the inverter appears to be brand new. The plastic cover on the front panel is still there.

It took me a while to find it in the owner's manual but this is a modified sine wave unit. If it will run my coffee pot in the morning without having to run the generator then I'll make use of it.

 

Watt of coffee pot? Likely to be a pretty good draw so batteries, etc, have to be up to it.

Steve

 

Check the wattage on your coffee pot, I'm using a Xantex modified inverter and the only thing I have that doesn't like it is my amplifier and it just has a hum everything else is fine. Not all modified sine wave inverters are the same, the cheap ones are a square wave and the more expensive ones are a step wave that will run almost everything, the Xantrex is a more expensive one.

Denny

 

It's a small Mr Coffee unit. Manufacturer spec says 650 watts.

 

Inverter should handle that. Make sure batteries are fully charged, load on batteries will be 50-60 amps by rough calculation.

Steve

 

Now I just need to figure out how to wire this in. Any recommended sites to review for this. I'll be reading the owner's manual of course, but sometimes they aren't quite oriented to the novice like me.

 

Pages 11-13 of the owner's manual seem pretty straightforward. Just pretend you are wiring anything to run off your batteries. According to the manual size the cabling no smaller than 4 ga and use a 150 amp fuse as the inverter has substantial surge capacity. You can add a shut-off on the positive cable if you like, but that is really is not necessary as when you hit the off switch on this inverter it draws no power at all from the batteries.

Does that make sense?

Steve

 

I'll need to come up with the 4 gauge wire and a fuse. Will I be able to daisy chain off of the wires to the converter? Or will I need dedicated wires to the battery for just the inverter?

 

Inverters cables are always dedicated, at least I have never wired one or seen one wired any other way and that is what the manual explicitly shows. Review the fuse indicated in the manual on Amazon or such. It will look a little different than the fuses you are used to and it will require a block designed to hold the fuse. However, it works exactly the same way. Here are some ideas
Steve

 

I read the owner's manual and I think I'll need 2 gauge wire. My run will be 8' long if I'm lucky. I'm going to call around to see if I can find someone to make a set of cables for me and do the crimps. I have tools to crimp small stuff but not for the big stuff. Thanks for the link to the fuse, I ordered it tonight.

 

For sure go with the manual instructions. I just glanced over it and thought it said 4 ga., but sure could be wrong. I don't really think you will have any trouble with this install. It really is basic.

Steve

 

The manual does say 4 gauge, but only for a short run. Their spec says 2 gauge for 8' and not to exceed 8', which could be challenging.

I thought I had a line on some locomotive cable but that fell through.

 

The issue for sizing is the amp draw. I have 2/0 on the inverter in our fifth wheel. Sizing can get really large.