| Author |
Message |
Mrbill4108
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 26, 2004 - 9:27 am: | |
Seems the engineers that use to work for Trace left and formed their own company (Outback) when Xantrex bought Trace. Now for my next question of the day, anyone using an Outback inverter? If so what do you think of it? Anyone do a comparison review between Outback and Trace/Xantrex? I personally like the looks of the Trace/Xantrex but wonder if Outback might not be a better product. I have an old Trace 2012 which is not big enough to run an A/C but does fine for the refrigerator when we dry camp. I’d like to have a bigger one so that the next time my generator decides to quit I can still have a few luxuries, like A/C going down the road. Once I decide on which manufacture to buy from my next thing to decide is do I want to run a 12v or 24v inverter.
Given that the compressors don’t cycle at the same time do you think a 4000w inverter will be large enough to handle the 2 A/C units? (120vac x 15 amps = 1800 watts x 2 = 3600watts running without the surge of starting.)
Thanks,
Mrbill4108 |
gabby
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 26, 2004 - 5:50 pm: | |
You will not have enough battery to run 2 a/c for very long. I would suggest that you not run a/c when you dry camp. I don't even think a roof of solar panels would help. |
Stephen Fessenden (Sffess)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 26, 2004 - 7:02 pm: | |
He was talking about running on the alternator. There was a device made to allow the use of two ACs on a 30 amp service or less. It prevents both from starting at the same time. Camping World had it I believe, but that was 4 years ago. If the Inverter can handle the starting surge for two ACs then the extra device would not be necessary. |
neomax
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 26, 2004 - 10:44 pm: | |
I don't know the exact numbers, but the surge rating of a 4kw SW inverter is probably in the area of 6kw for at least 5 minutes. I think the surge rating is rated at 20-30 minutes and a larger value yet for periods up to 5 minutes. Next problem, is alternator and battery capacity. The alternator, DN50 will output close to 5 and 6KW, 12v & 24v, respectively. That leaves the batteries and that is probably the weak link here. If the power is missing anywhere in the chain, it won't work, and especially at the batteries. |
Tom Caffrey (Pvcces)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 27, 2004 - 12:26 am: | |
I think that the SW4024 is skookum enough to run two airs at one time. If it's not, it will let you know by shutting itself off. Using EER 10 air conditioners will make it a lot easier.
However, if you slow idle while those big loads are on the 50DN, it may overheat because of too little oil flow due to too low oil pressure. I would only run airs on the inverter on high idle when stopped for more than a minute or so.
For what it's worth.
Tom Caffrey PD4106-2576
Suncatcher |
CoryDane RTSII
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 27, 2004 - 5:06 am: | |
This is a re-post from Nov 24th of one of my posts
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Just a thought on the Xantrex(TRACE)4024.
When Xantrex changed the inverters name, it also changed the programing. THe Xantrex (trace)4024 does not have all the functions that the old TRACE brand inverter did. I selected the old TRACE brand because it allowed more control that I was interested in the the Xantrex (TRACE) did not.
In some cases, the Xantrex (Trace) inverter can be upgraded with more $ to try to come close to the old TRACE inverter.
Don't be mistaken, the Xantrex(TRACE) inverter and the old TRACE inverter are only physically identical. Operational, they are very different.
find a site with the manual for both the TRACE inverter and the XANTEX(TRACE) inverter and you can compare for yourself.
"thinking that you should see the whole picture before you layout all that money"
cd |
Jeff Pritchard (Jeffpritchard)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 27, 2004 - 8:21 pm: | |
Don't know anything about Outback, but I've been running the 3kw Xantrex for a year now (in my little gasser - no bus yet). The big Xantrex inverters are very good. They include very good chargers for when you are plugged in or running the genny. I routinely run one A/C off mine, and with a very full charge on my 4 deep cycle 8-D batteries I can run it on full for over 4 hours.
The only downside to these larger inverters is that they have a rather high idle current (i.e. when the inverter is there providing AC to run the alarm clock in the bedroom and not much more). The idle current is 4 amps @ 12V, or half as much as running a 100W lightbulb. What that means is that you have to turn it off much of the time in order to avoid running the batteries down when you're not using it. I would much prefer to be able to just leave it on all the time and have full-time AC in the rig.
Someday I plan to wire up a few of the outlets in the rig on a low power (and low idle current) secondary inverter, and set up the Xantrex in it's "watch for a load and fire up the inverter quickly when something gets turned on" mode. In this mode it doesn't supply power for things like clocks and nitelights etc, but it will turn on immediately if you try to run the micro or the A/C etc. The second inexpensive low power inverter would be running full time for the bedroom clock and nitelights and TV, etc.
jp |