How do I wire in an inverter

bigrigfixer wrote:
To only power the microwave, the outdoor kitchen fridge, and the outlet beside the bed for a cpap?

"Only" a MW oven, compressor fridge, and CPAP? :h Not expecting much from a 12 vdc system are we?! :E

I wouldn't be worried about it normally, but our new trailer has the outdoor kitchen with a fridge that runs on 110, and it would be a shame to only be able to use it on shore power.

Power requirements for these dorm style fridges obviously varies but I'd bet yours is rated at least for 200 watts, if not more ... 200 watts / a nominal 12 vdc = ~ 16 amps, not even accounting for inverter loss. That's a heck of a load on the battery just for the convenience and IMO unnecessary when you already have a gas absorption fridge designed specifically to run with minimal battery draw. :E

So then I thought about putting in the inverter, and remembered reading about splitting the control panel. So then I figured it would be nice to have a microwave, and while we're at it, have the cpap working too.

"Nice" to have? :h Wow, that "nice to have" your MW oven running is by definition going to require a substantial inverter, probably at least 2000 watts, a substantial battery bank, probably dual 6 volt batteries if not 4 running series / parallel, and some method - solar or generator - to properly maintain those batteries. Since any solar system suited for this task would also have to be substantial that then raises the question as to why you wouldn't just invest in 2K genset such as a Honda EU2000i or Yamaha EF2000iS that can power anything in your rig other than A/C but including your MW oven AND recharge whatever battery you have, as needed, regardless of whether it's sunny or not. I can see where running a CPAP on battery power may be necessary when dry camping but a MW oven will only unnecessarily suck the life out of any battery. :E

On our last trailer, I installed a 12 volt outlet for the cpap to plug into with a manufacturer supplied adapter. I may still go that way...

If this worked for you before then there's no reason it shouldn't work for you with your current rig ... K.I.S.S. ;)

But after searching all night, I can't seem to find the post of who and how splitting the panel was done.

There's no need to "split" anything, especially if you're going to invest in a substantially sized inverter capable of running a MW oven. Simply install it as close to the battery bank as you can using appropriately sized cables and plug the trailer's main service cable into the inverter's 120 vac output. This "whole house" scheme means the trailer will behave just as it would when plugged into shore power, of course within the limits of the inverter and the battery bank powering it. That said, I still see a 2K inverter genset as your best overall solution for what you say you expect to power when you don't have 120 vac shore power available.