Lance camper inverter wiring

ewarnerusa wrote:
I plug my shore power cable directly into my inverter and it supplies AC power to everything. I shut off the breakers to converter, air con, and water heater.

This is essentially what your talking about OP.

-Jeff

coorskurt wrote:
I have a 2001 Lance 1010 camper. It DOES NOT have a generator but it is wired for one. I have 2-12 volt batteries. My question is, can I install an inverter and wire it to the generator wiring.In other words use an inverter rather than a generator. I have traced the generator wires to an automatic switch between shore power and generator power before it goes into the main panel. I only plan to use inverter power for occasional microwave use and charging cell phones etc.. and would leave it off until needed. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thank You

That should work out pretty slick based on the way I understand things! I would suggest installing the inverter as close to the batteries as possible to minimize the 12V wiring length. Also use as fat of power wires for the 12V supply as possible within reason. This will allow your inverter to perform as close to advertised as possible. The length of 120V AC output wire isn't as critical, you can just run an extension cord from the inverter AC outlet to the wires that would hook up to the generator output if needed. As the other poster mentioned, microwave use off an inverter drawing 12V power is kind of hard unless you've got a huge battery bank. I wouldn't count on it happening unless you've got a very lower power microwave. The comment about the converter trying to charge your batteries using power drawn from the batteries is legitimate; however, it is easily remedied by cutting the AC power supply from the converter. Either unplug the converter or flip the AC breaker off that supplies the converter. It is best to isolate the converter in the AC panel to accomplish this if it isn't already, then you are only shutting off one item and not switching off other AC items/outlets that you may want energized. I also suggest flipping off breakers to high draw AC items like air con and water heater to avoid accidentally trying to run them off the batteries.
I plug my shore power cable directly into my inverter and it supplies AC power to everything. I shut off the breakers to converter, air con, and water heater.

naturist wrote:
Short answer: NO

Firstly, two batteries will not run your microwave long enough to make but a couple batches of popcorn. (Just did the math: at best the microwave will run for around 20 minutes and completely kill the batteries.)

Secondly the generator is wired to power the battery charger along with everything else on the 12 volt system. Taking power from the battery to run the inverter to power the battery charger is insane. Separating the 12 and 120 volt systems is not as simple a task as it appears.

When you want to use the microwave, hook up shore power or buy a generator. The cheap shortcut of just adding an inverter is neither cheap nor effective.

I disagree. It is very effective and is as cheap as you want your inverter investment to be. The simple answer is to isolate the AC supply for your converter in your AC control panel (if it isn't already) and flip that breaker off when you want to supply AC power from the inverter. This is what I've always done in our TT and the inverter supplies AC power through the shore power cable to everything. I agree with the microwave analysis. I also shut off breakers to the electric portion of the water heater and to the air con just to avoid accidentally turning it on which would overload the inverter.

Some of the newer inverters have a USB receptacle for easier charging capabilities. Microwave use on an inverter involves a more complex arrangement than most folks want to endure. You would have to pay more capitalization $$$ for ease of use involving the microwave. In any event, placing the inverter close to the battery/s is very important. There are some significant DC draws from the batteries when using AC devices that draw higher watts. Those devices would be microwave ovens, hair dryers, toasters, coffee makers, and heaters.

I found a good PURE SINE WAVE 600WATT Inverter direct connected to my 255AH Battery bank was all we would ever need for our OFF-ROAD Camping in our POPUP trailer.. I normally only use 300WATTS to run my things but nice to have some reserve when needed. Momabear likes to run her lap electric blanket sometimes watching HDTV from the OTA batwing antenna.

I ran two 120VAC cords from the INVERTER with one going to the home entertainment area and the second one going to where we sleep.

This is a layout of my OFF-ROAD POPUP setup... I am planning on increasing my battery bank to 300AH capacity as shown here. I also have a 1500WATT PSW Backup INVERTER as shown here which terminates into a 120VAC PLUG right next to the Shore Power plug. I can add a short jumper here to power up the whole trailer but of course have to flip a few breakers as 1500WATTS won't run the whole trailer. I like this idea to just power up my 120VAC receptacles around the trailer. I re-charge my batteries by connecting the shore power cable to my 2KW Honda EU2000i generator and let the on-board converter/charger re-charge my battery bank each day for three hours using smart mode charging technology.



This setup has been in place for a few years now and if you watch the battery bank DC voltage and never let it get below 12.0VDC before re-charging then your batteries will last a long time. I'm going on 5-6 years with my present 255AH battery bank and they are still going but are nearing the end of life. Want to replace them with a 300AH deep cycle battery setup. Also thinking about adding three 120WATT Solar Panels on the roof of the POPUP trailer as well sometime soon...

Roy Ken

I found that the switch that turns battery power off, also won't allow batteries to be charged. That would mean turning battery power to the when using the inverter. Probably too much hassle. 12V outlets are sounding better. Thanks

Would the inverter idea work if you turn the converter off at the breaker panel, and make certain the furnace and fridge are on propane?
I would think you'd be better off charging cell phones with a car-charger, so you're not going from 12v to 110 and back to whatever the charger puts out. Sounds like you might be good by adding a couple 12v, cigarette-lighter style plugs. Easy peasy.

Thank you for the info.I did wonder about the batteries charging while running the inverter. I do have a 2k honda generator. I do want to install an inverter at least for charging cell phones. Just thought I would use the generator wiring. I will probably just install a dedicated plug off of the inverter for charging phones etc...

Short answer: NO

Firstly, two batteries will not run your microwave long enough to make but a couple batches of popcorn. (Just did the math: at best the microwave will run for around 20 minutes and completely kill the batteries.)

Secondly the generator is wired to power the battery charger along with everything else on the 12 volt system. Taking power from the battery to run the inverter to power the battery charger is insane. Separating the 12 and 120 volt systems is not as simple a task as it appears.

When you want to use the microwave, hook up shore power or buy a generator. The cheap shortcut of just adding an inverter is neither cheap nor effective.