Video: Installing a 600 Watt Pure Sine Inverter

Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli wrote:
600 watts needs 50 amps. The wire is rated 55 amps and is just under 4 feet long connected directly to the battery protected by a 40 amp fuse. What's the problem? I don't need bigger wire, Discount Solar confirmed that . . .

Agree. If you used 4ft of 6 gauge to the batteries and a short length of 8 gauge (less than 4 ft.) straight to the nearest ground point (mentioned in your first post), then, yup, you should be perfectly fine. That should be less than a .2v voltage drop (<1.5%) at 50 amps. Just fine. Most inverters will run fine down to 11 volts or so, so a .2v drop is not a concern.

Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli wrote:
. . . Can't please everybody!

Very true!

NRALIFR wrote:

Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:
Than why spam with video not showing full potential for such installation?

Really? I make a short, friendly, to the point, How To video, meant to be informative and helpful to other members who may be wondering how to do the same or similar project, and It gets called spam!
Priceless...
Not showing full potential? Still scratching my head on that one...

I’m equally bumfuzzled by this remark Jeff. I appreciate the time and effort you put into the video. A medium to large inverter install isn’t an easy task, and there’s nothing wrong with installing it to meet your immediate needs. I used to have that same inverter, and installed it so it met my needs at the time. My needs eventually outgrew it, and I had to not only rip out all the wires I installed for it, but pull out the water heater and galley sink in order to install the shortest length of the 0 gauge wires my bigger inverter needed.

As long as it meets your needs, and it’s safe, it’s a good install.

:):)

Thank You!

Kayteg1 wrote:
Let me make my point more clear.
It took other members to show flaws and inadequate installation of titled "600W inverter installation"
Why Jeff does't feel like including other options in his comment?
When I can understand that lower standards work for him, luring others to build system to low standards does not pass my ethics.
When spamming with youtube links is allowed on this forum, too often it is getting out of hand and bad attitude is not helping.

600 watts needs 50 amps. The wire is rated 55 amps and is just under 4 feet long connected directly to the battery protected by a 40 amp fuse. What's the problem? I don't need bigger wire, Discount Solar confirmed that. I don't need an auto switch or remote monitoring as nice as it would be. Installing a bigger wire would be nice but not necessary.
What is the beef with YouTube? As far as I'm concerned, a video is an improvement over pictures and text. I've done plenty of how to in pictures and text here too. I find the videos more helpful. RV net can always create an imbed for videos like Facebook has if you want to have the video play in RVnet.
Can't please everybody!

Let me make my point more clear.
It took other members to show flaws and inadequate installation of titled "600W inverter installation"
Why Jeff does't feel like including other options in his comment?
When I can understand that lower standards work for him, luring others to build system to low standards does not pass my ethics.
When spamming with youtube links is allowed on this forum, too often it is getting out of hand and bad attitude is not helping.

Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:
Than why spam with video not showing full potential for such installation?

Really? I make a short, friendly, to the point, How To video, meant to be informative and helpful to other members who may be wondering how to do the same or similar project, and It gets called spam!
Priceless...
Not showing full potential? Still scratching my head on that one...

I’m equally bumfuzzled by this remark Jeff. I appreciate the time and effort you put into the video. A medium to large inverter install isn’t an easy task, and there’s nothing wrong with installing it to meet your immediate needs. I used to have that same inverter, and installed it so it met my needs at the time. My needs eventually outgrew it, and I had to not only rip out all the wires I installed for it, but pull out the water heater and galley sink in order to install the shortest length of the 0 gauge wires my bigger inverter needed.

As long as it meets your needs, and it’s safe, it’s a good install.

:):)

burningman wrote:
Even though 6-gauge is rated to handle the current, heavier gauge will actually work better.
You can’t go too big on the battery cables.

I just installed a Xantrex ProWatt SW2000 in my camper, I used 2-0 (that’s minus-2 below zero gauge).
Xantrex sells a very nice auto transfer switch, it’ll default to inverter power and switch to shore power whenever there is any. I put in two, one for the microwave outlet and one for the kitchen counter outlet. They’re like $50, and then you don’t have to do anything.

Also for like $20 Xantrex sells a remote control switch for the ProWatt SW series.
Then it’s really easy to use the thing.

Are you describing an install for your Northern Lite? Curious where you installed the inverter.

For electrical efficiency I prefer to mount the inverter as close as possible to the battery, then run wire from the inverter's AC output (which has much lower loss vs. an equivalent DC run) to a suitably-rated transfer switch mounted behind/near the breaker panel (power center). Behind the breaker panel it's easy to pick and choose which entire circuit to power with the transfer switch. Some may even choose to power the entire camper (with the inverter) by intercepting the primary 30 amp input to the breaker panel (power center).

Kayteg1 wrote:
Than why spam with video not showing full potential for such installation?

Really? I make a short, friendly, to the point, How To video, meant to be informative and helpful to other members who may be wondering how to do the same or similar project, and It gets called spam!
Priceless...
Not showing full potential? Still scratching my head on that one...

Than why spam with video not showing full potential for such installation?

Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli wrote:

burningman wrote:
Even though 6-gauge is rated to handle the current, heavier gauge will actually work better.
You can’t go too big on the battery cables.

I just installed a Xantrex ProWatt SW2000 in my camper, I used 2-0 (that’s minus-2 below zero gauge).
Xantrex sells a very nice auto transfer switch, it’ll default to inverter power and switch to shore power whenever there is any. I put in two, one for the microwave outlet and one for the kitchen counter outlet. They’re like $50, and then you don’t have to do anything.

Also for like $20 Xantrex sells a remote control switch for the ProWatt SW series.
Then it’s really easy to use the thing.

I saw those accessories and for the right person, they'd be great.

I'm just showing the steps, materials, methods, I used to install an inverter. All this information applies to any other similar installation. Just make appropriate selections of size for, wire, fuse, connectors, batteries, inverter, etcetera, for your installation/application of a 2000 or more watt inverter installation. It may not be smart to use a large inverter with only 2 batteries. I also just added 170 watts of solar. When I post that video, I'm going to be inundated with what I did wrong or should have done again. My setup as done will work fine, as is, for the rest of the truck campers life. I used it today with complete success. Ground my coffee, ran laptop and printer flawlessly and charged phone in the USB port on the inverter. What could be better. The remote and switch would be nice, I just don't need them for how we will use things.

All valid points. I think that others are just pointing out some significant flaws in your install compared to your inverters potential.

If your install works for you that's really all that matters.

burningman wrote:
Even though 6-gauge is rated to handle the current, heavier gauge will actually work better.
You can’t go too big on the battery cables.

I just installed a Xantrex ProWatt SW2000 in my camper, I used 2-0 (that’s minus-2 below zero gauge).
Xantrex sells a very nice auto transfer switch, it’ll default to inverter power and switch to shore power whenever there is any. I put in two, one for the microwave outlet and one for the kitchen counter outlet. They’re like $50, and then you don’t have to do anything.

Also for like $20 Xantrex sells a remote control switch for the ProWatt SW series.
Then it’s really easy to use the thing.

I saw those accessories and for the right person, they'd be great.

I'm just showing the steps, materials, methods, I used to install an inverter. All this information applies to any other similar installation. Just make appropriate selections of size for, wire, fuse, connectors, batteries, inverter, etcetera, for your installation/application of a 2000 or more watt inverter installation. It may not be smart to use a large inverter with only 2 batteries. I also just added 170 watts of solar. When I post that video, I'm going to be inundated with what I did wrong or should have done again. My setup as done will work fine, as is, for the rest of the truck campers life. I used it today with complete success. Ground my coffee, ran laptop and printer flawlessly and charged phone in the USB port on the inverter. What could be better. The remote and switch would be nice, I just don't need them for how we will use things.