| Author |
Message |
Bob Baldwin (Bob4106) (66.56.100.54)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 3:48 pm: | |
Can any one give me some input on this. (Trace Engineering (Xantrex) RV2012, 2000 Watt 12 Volt Inverter Charger) Is this a good one?How many battery would it need for the battery bank? And whats the going price on a used one like new condistion? |
Tom Caffrey (Pvcces) (65.74.64.127)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 9:53 pm: | |
You should use five times the maximum the charger will put out as a minimum for long battery life. This inverter will probably put out 100 amps, so six golf cart batteries ought to do a pretty good job.
They run around 220 amp hours, so a series-parallel hookup would give you 660 amp hours of capacity. That's almost 8 kwh installed with nearly 3 kwh usable between recharges if the discharge rate is not excessive.
I wouldn't want to go over $500 for that unit unless it was very new, and then not much over, unless it was a sine wave model. We got our 358 Combi which is a 2012 RV unit off ebay for $550 refurbished.
For what it's worth.
Tom Caffrey PD4106-2576
Suncatcher |
Bob Baldwin (Bob4106) (66.56.100.54)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 27, 2003 - 10:13 pm: | |
Thanks thats a big help |
jmaxwell (66.81.47.144)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 1:36 am: | |
Tom: Not disagreeing with your figures, but I believe that u have placed the cart before the horse here. The capacity of the battery charger really has no direct bearing on the size of the battery bank needed. I know that Trace recommends a 20% charge rate for flooded cell batteries but that really has no relationship to the AH capacity of battery bank, only the amount of time in which to accomplish a full re-charge. |
Richard Bowyer (Drivingmisslazy) (24.196.191.70)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 2:21 am: | |
I believe the size of the battery bank is determined on what you want to operate from the batteries and for how long a period of time. The recharge time of the bank will depend on the capacitity of the charger. An extra large charger on a small battery bank would be a waste, as the battery can accept only so much charge without overheating and out gassing. Conversely, a small charger on a very large bank of batteries would take a considerable longer time to bring the batterys back to full charge. You really need to think of it overall as a system and plan accordingly.
Richard |
FAST FRED (63.234.23.70)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 6:18 am: | |
If counting on a fast DC charge from a gen set, most inverters will only charge at about 80% of their rating .
The word is the Zantrex folks are bringing out a replacement for the Hart line , that will charge full cap from 85 to about 250V at 50 or 60 cps.
Also "true" sine wave to operate induction motors properly.
Might be worth the wait , but won't (marine) be cheap!
FAST FRED |
Geoff (Geoff) (66.238.120.26)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 11:37 am: | |
Bob-- Look on eBay for Trace inverters and you will find new and used ones. Right now there are both RV2512 and PS2512 inverters listed, and amazingly the RV2512 is more than the PS2512-- the PS series is much better than the RV model, it is pure sine wave and also has the 3-stage battery charger and automatic transfer switch. Also being sold is the remote control panel which enables you to have all the programing features of the SW series Trace including automatic generator start. The PS would be a much better inverter to buy.
--Geoff
'82 RTS CA w/ SW2512MC inverter (no longer made) |