Whole RV Inverter/Charger

CA Traveler wrote:
None of us have yet suggested the obvious: You should do a energy audit and determine just how much DC power you would expect to use. Lights, TV, coffee maker, etc. The AC part involves the inverter DC usage.

All of this ties into the charger, inverter and battery size you will need. And it ties into how you will charge the batteries. Typically gen or solar. Or adequate battery capacity until the next pedestal is available.

Energy audit sounds necessary for sure.

Without running the numbers, I can tell you that main uses would be occasional and short use of the microwave, a pot of coffee in the morning, and maybe some TV when we get rained (or blown) in out at the lake. Would also be nice to be able to charge our phones with the bedside outlet at night. Lastly (and ideally), I'd like to be able to use the inverter to "boost assist" with appliance startups, like when I get greedy and want to use the microwave while the AC is running. (<-- this is where you guys tell me how lazy I am for not wanting to shut off the AC long enough to heat up some leftovers)

In a nutshell, any of my 110V inverter usage would be one of two categories - low-draw, longer-period use (think cell phone charger), or high-draw, short-period use (think coffee pot). I guess watching a movie in the rain would be medium-draw, medium-period use. Generators would be used shortly after these periods to top the batteries back off.

At this point, I have no aspirations to be able to go days on end without using the generators. I view my application as one of convenience, not necessity.

I would say that 99.9% of the time we boondock. To date, we haven't stayed in a campground yet. To continue on further with my laziness tangent, I'm not afraid at all to use the generators, that's what I bought them for. We bring plenty of gas and we aren't confined to certain times we can/can't use them. It's more about having to go out and start the **** things to do something like make coffee or nuke something. Generators with remote start would have been a good idea, but I've got too much sunk into these brand new Yami's to consider changing now.

Overall, I may just have to quit being so picky about not being power-conscious when camping. Maybe I need to get over running the microwave and AC at the same time with only 4000 watts of generator. I was thinking that maybe an inverter that can boost would get me over the hump, as well as providing some occasional 110V convenience without having to go start the generators.