| Author |
Message |
doctor al
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 - 8:25 am: | |
Got my inverter and generater and batteries all hooked together. Got juice now. one step closer to independence. I managed this feat with only a few token "discusions" with the other half. And a few sparks, (one battery was in the bank backwards)really stumped me till I got some light in there and spotted the problem. I am amazed at how little wattage some of these appliance's use. ran the portable a/c, 3 lights, radio, fan, and icemaker and drew a whopping 690 watts. The convection microwave pulled 1000 watts. So I'm well within the range of the 3000 watt coleman inverter. I ran everything but the micro for about an hour off the inverter. then I fired up the generater and tried all again.
Ran the a/c, a fan, all 6 lights (including 2 flourecents), refrigerator, icemaker,radio, and microwave and never even grunted hard. |
gillig-dan
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 - 8:52 am: | |
The only problems I get with my Coleman inverter is I can't start the second small window air conditioner when the other is already running. Also, my wireless speakers for the temporary sound system have a buzz that can be heard when we're parked. I am currently piecing together a split air system that will run from the generator (still need a fuel tank or propane carb if anyone has one).
Yes, I would rather have a pure sine wave inverter, but it's hard to justify with two more kids off to college in a couple years. So, I guess I'm still roughing it when we take our camping trips! Still, seems like we've come a long way since we'd pack up a rain-soaked tent after a weekend camping trip.
One day, I'll have one of those toilets that burns your crap so you don't have to mess with black water; all in good time. For now, I'll just pull the valve open and scrunch up my face.
Congrats on the milestone Doc,
Gillig-Dan |
niles steckbauer (Niles500)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 - 9:39 am: | |
GD - you may be able to find a filter to plug your speakers into that will stop the buzz - probably need to know the hz of the inverter - try some one like Radio Shack - Niles |
Gillig-Dan
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 - 7:55 pm: | |
Thanks Niles,
I plan to install a sound system on the bus when I get 'a round tuit'. The speakers I use now are a pair of wireless Advents with the transmitter coming off the portable DVD player.
As a product review, I'd rate the Advents about a 2 on a scale of 1 - 5. They sound great but are terible for picking up interference no matter where I've tried to use them.
I am an audio nut so, I'm going to eventually want a nice sound system. I will probably need to run that from a sine wave inverter to keep the noise down.
As I write this, I'm sitting with my cordless keyboard and mouse in my easy chair with the computer projecting a 5 foot image across the room. One day soon, I'd like to add a ceiling mount to bus so the projector can come on road trips and be ready for those rainy days.
The great thing about the bus is that it's usable now and will provide endless projects for me to enjoy over the years.
Ain't this a great hobby? Wonder when I'll ever get back to working on the project car....
Gillig-Dan |
Jim (Jim_in_california)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 - 9:28 pm: | |
For expensive but low-drain items, I've been looking at the Samlex 600w true sine inverters @ $300 a pop. I might even be able to use those exclusively if I avoid running the ACs off 'em.
Put it like this: the 1986-era conversion I'm looking at already has a complete wiring system in place via a 4kw genset (or shore power), old-style single-stage "charger", AC unit and wall plugs. There's a couple of decent 8D flooded batteries @ 250 amp/hrs each that right now just drive the lights and other 12v interior items.
OK. Leave all that in place, except swap the "battery boiler" for $175 worth of Iota modern charger with a smart-charge multi-stage add-on. And maybe change the 12v light bulbs to modern lower-drain flourescents or whatever...it's already wired compatible with them.
Add wires coming off the 12v battery bank, heavy 12v wiring to a pair of Samlex 600s in the front area, another in the bedroom. Split your electronic loads between all three. These little mini-inverters act like "wall plugs", you run power strips straight off 'em. One dies, you can still map around it and get by on any two. Only thing electrical in the kitchen is the microwave, just fire up the genset for that when boondocking, I for one don't use it that often. Stove and fridge are propane.
Yes, this means you end up with two kinds of 110v "wall plugs" inside, the inverters and the regular ones that are live only on shore or genset power. Kewl. It's simple, redundant as hell, what's not to like? |
niles steckbauer (Niles500)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 1:05 am: | |
Jim - its obvious that you've done a lot of planning with your electrical needs - but it seems you may be better off purchasing an all in one inverter/charger that will manage your needs while maintaining the health and maintenance of your batts w/o a whole lot of time and attention - by the time you have purchased, assembled and installed all the sub-systems you are contemplating it may be more feasible for you to 'bite the bullet' and not re-invent the wheel - just my opinion - FWIW -
GD - I forgot to mention - my limited experience w/ wireless speakers also cautions me that an improper neutral/ground (bond) connection could be the source of the buzz - not knowing the intricacies of your electrical system only gives me the ability to point that out - good luck -
Niles |
Jim (Jim_in_california)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 2:03 am: | |
Niles, an independent "smart charger" such as an Iota with the "IQ4" plug-in module is every bit as good at charge management as the charger built into a Trace/Prosine/etc. all-in-one charger/inverter.
I don't see any gain in piling all the functionality into one unit. Unless I'm missing something?
What I see is that $900 gets me three good 600w pure sine inverters and $200 gets me all the AC-to-DC smartcharger I need (75amp). $1,100 total, 1800w which is as much steady power as I need.
$1500 gets me a Prosine 2.0 with 100amp charger. A bit more power, yeah, but if that one bit breaks I'm hard down and screwed.
Wiring differences: all I can see is that I've got to run some moderately serious 12v DC wire to three places in the coach for the three inverters. OK, cool, I can cope with that. Wiring the Iota charger is no sweat, it uses the same wires now on the 1986-era "battery boiler" single-stage charger. All my existing wiring regarding shore power, AC, genset and wall plugs are unaffected.
Where's the downside here?
Boondocking, lesse, microwave: fire up genset. Big whoop. Power tools: again, fire up genset for bench grinder, industrial heat gun or the line, or some milder ones like a Dremel tool (which I use a LOT) or small drill can run off the bedroom "entertainment center" 600w inverter. |
Tom Caffrey (Pvcces)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 12:55 am: | |
Jim, I wonder what the idle current is on those little inverters? I did some searches on Google, but that information did not come right up.
Tom Caffrey PD4106-2576
Suncatcher |
Jim (Jim_in_california)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 2:59 pm: | |
Yeah, I'm not sure either. Something I'm going to find out before buying.
BUT, let's say it's fairly high. Does it matter that much, since you mount them inside the rig like a "secondary wallplug" and turn them hard-off when not in use?
In other words...they're not used quite the same way you'd use a "bolt it into a bay area and forget it" $2000 Trace/Heart/Prosine unit. |
Tom Caffrey (Pvcces)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 1:03 am: | |
It sounds like you have a handle on how these things work, Jim.
Good luck.
Tom Caffrey PD4106-2576
Suncatcher |
Jim (Jim_in_california)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 1:44 am: | |
Keep in mind that I'm used to computer data centers where there were two sets of plugs all over the walls - orange meant heavily filtered juice, plain beige meant normal utility power. So you were careful which plugs you used for what.
I have no problem running a bus the same way and I can see significant advantages to doing so. For starters, a big drop from a power tool or something won't affect the inverter-driven electronics. |
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