Dry camping electrical questions
Hey all, so we've been camping for quite a while now and are starting to transition to no hook-up camping and have a couple of questions. We are looking to add an inverter and solar charging and could...
Forum Discussion
doughere wrote:
1. You can wire the inverter to a spare breaker, turning on when used, turning off the main input (that would make the prongs on your power cord live if left on, and turning off the converter breaker. This is DANGEROUS.
2. If you want to use a 1000 watt inverter, you need at least 200 AH battery capacity (you'd be drawing about 80 AMPS).
3. To run a 600 watt microwave, you need a pure sine wave inverter (not the $90 dollar Harbor Freight variety).
4. 100 watts is probably the bare minimum most people can get by with; very, very seldom using a plug-in 100 watt inverter for anything like charging PC's or phones.
5. Couple hundred isn't gonna cut it. If you want to start, I'd suggest getting as much solar and controller as you can, and use a plug-in inverter for small things such as TV-DVD, charging phones, PC's, etc. Stepping up to power the microwave is gonna get into the bigger bucks.
Doug
Thanks for the info Doug. If I were to wire it into the breaker I would use something similar to an interlock kit to make sure the converter and main breakers are both off before the inverter one can be turned on.
The 80 amps assumes I am pulling a full 1000W which is extremely unlikely to happen but I get your point. We currently have about 150Ah of battery capacity. We already have the inverter and it is indeed a pure sine wave as is the generator we've been using, I know how sensitive electronics can be.
