Plug RV into an invertor.
Hi. New camper is on its way soon. I pick up in a couple of weeks.. Man I cant believe all the stuff I had in the old camper... he he. I finally sold the unit in my sig.. Anyway Ill have to rein...
Forum Discussion
Of course much depends on what you want to power with your AC power. If you have a TV, try to measure the watts with something like a Kill-o-Watt:
link
Note that I've found the stated wattage on the back of most appliances to be really innacurate.
Personally I only use my AC power for charging laptops and occasional soldering, and for that I have a 1000 watt Xantrex inverter, which I love and highly recommend:
link
Its way overkill for my needs, but I'm glad for the headroom when I occasionally need to power a low power powertool like a sander or jigsaw, which it does just fine.
When installing, install it as close to your battery as possible, like within a couple of feet, since as was pointed out above the amperage on the 12 volt side will be very high. It comes with some heavy duty wires, and I recommend using them (or similar). And get the optional remote on/off box so you can turn it on without having to physically access the inverter:
link
I've been plugging inverters directly into my RVs for my last 4 RVs and a few friends' RVs, and I've never had a problem. That's not to say a problem is impossible, but I've had nothing but great experience with hit. It doesn't get much simpler. In case its not clear how to do that: I simply spliced an extension chord and plugged one end into the inverter and spliced into the AC power circuit of my RV. If you want to go even simpler, rig up a double ended extension chord where both the ends are male. You plug one end into the inverter and the other into any AC outlet and voila, all your outlets are live. You'll want to turn off your charger to prevent it from trying to charge off your inverter, which you can do by unplugging its fuse.
My inverter is on 24/7, even when I'm not in the camper, and I've never had an issue.
Of course you should only attempt the above if you're reasonably comfortable with electronics, since there's some danger of short circuiting if you do something wrong.
As far as this question:
> ive got a 250 watt panel 37 volts.. I run a 20 amp mppt. I recently acquired a second panel matching but dont know what to do with it as my controller cant handle all that wattage or voltage...
The 20 amp rating of your MPPT charge controller is for both its input (from the panel) and output (to the batteries), whichever is greater. Since you have 12 volt batteries, that means you're already at 20 amps (watts = volts * amps, so 250 watts divided by 12 volts = 20 amps). That means your charge controller is already maxed out. If you want to get another solar panel, which I highly recommend, you might consider just getting a 40 amp charge controller. I have and love this one:
link
Get the remote monitoring box with it, so you can mount it close to your batteries next to your inverter:
link
I currently have a 300 watt solar panel (@ 37 volts) and I'm about to add a second one, which is theoretically 50 amps, but I have my panels flat mounted so I'll never get near that. Besides, solar panel ratings are pretty optimistic...
link
Note that I've found the stated wattage on the back of most appliances to be really innacurate.
Personally I only use my AC power for charging laptops and occasional soldering, and for that I have a 1000 watt Xantrex inverter, which I love and highly recommend:
link
Its way overkill for my needs, but I'm glad for the headroom when I occasionally need to power a low power powertool like a sander or jigsaw, which it does just fine.
When installing, install it as close to your battery as possible, like within a couple of feet, since as was pointed out above the amperage on the 12 volt side will be very high. It comes with some heavy duty wires, and I recommend using them (or similar). And get the optional remote on/off box so you can turn it on without having to physically access the inverter:
link
I've been plugging inverters directly into my RVs for my last 4 RVs and a few friends' RVs, and I've never had a problem. That's not to say a problem is impossible, but I've had nothing but great experience with hit. It doesn't get much simpler. In case its not clear how to do that: I simply spliced an extension chord and plugged one end into the inverter and spliced into the AC power circuit of my RV. If you want to go even simpler, rig up a double ended extension chord where both the ends are male. You plug one end into the inverter and the other into any AC outlet and voila, all your outlets are live. You'll want to turn off your charger to prevent it from trying to charge off your inverter, which you can do by unplugging its fuse.
My inverter is on 24/7, even when I'm not in the camper, and I've never had an issue.
Of course you should only attempt the above if you're reasonably comfortable with electronics, since there's some danger of short circuiting if you do something wrong.
As far as this question:
> ive got a 250 watt panel 37 volts.. I run a 20 amp mppt. I recently acquired a second panel matching but dont know what to do with it as my controller cant handle all that wattage or voltage...
The 20 amp rating of your MPPT charge controller is for both its input (from the panel) and output (to the batteries), whichever is greater. Since you have 12 volt batteries, that means you're already at 20 amps (watts = volts * amps, so 250 watts divided by 12 volts = 20 amps). That means your charge controller is already maxed out. If you want to get another solar panel, which I highly recommend, you might consider just getting a 40 amp charge controller. I have and love this one:
link
Get the remote monitoring box with it, so you can mount it close to your batteries next to your inverter:
link
I currently have a 300 watt solar panel (@ 37 volts) and I'm about to add a second one, which is theoretically 50 amps, but I have my panels flat mounted so I'll never get near that. Besides, solar panel ratings are pretty optimistic...
