2kw Inverter + 4 GC2 6v batteries = wiring???

[DiskDoctr]

I now have 4- 6volt GC2 215 batteries, PD9270 converter charger, and and a ProSine 1800 watt inverter (2800 watt surge) and want to start wiring.

I have a quantity of 2 AWG wire on a spool, a supply of tin clad copper wire ends in various sizes, and a heavy terminal "hammer spike crimper thing"

I would like to add a battery turn off and shunt to measure amps and also be able to measure voltage/charge remaining.

So here's the setup.

1. Four batteries in a row, long sides against each other. Call them A, B, C, D. A&B pair #1, C&D pair #2

2. Two 2 AWG cables for each section to allow higher amps. Ex. two 2 AWG cables between battery A(-) and B(+), and two 2 AWG cables between battery C(-) and D(+), and two 2 AWG cables between B(-) and C(+) to make two sets of series then paralleled together to get 12v "super battery" LOL

3. Two 2 AWG cables from D(-) to one end of shunt and then two 2 AWG cables from other end of shunt to inverter (switch, then (-)) and PD9270 (-)

4. Two 2 AWG cables from A(+) to inverter (+) and PD9270(+)

5. 120v AC line to distribution box (30 amp transfer switch?) and PD9270

It's a little foggy, so I'll stop there and ask for input 😉

Wire size, wiring diagram, etc.

Caveat, the PS1800 has built in transfer switch, but I prefer not to use it. Want to keep a separate circuit and/or transfer switch at the 30 amp 120v incoming cable for pedestal/generator.

Help? 😉

[BFL13]

Good that you had a successful camping trip. That's what it is all about.

I am worried reading that you don't normally turn on your range hood fan every time you light a stove propane burner. (and also remember to open the side vent flap for that fan!)

There is a big warning label on ours that you must always do that. (incomplete combustion , etc, etc)

A few years ago I posted about that, and a surprising number of folks posted that I was being a wuss, and that they never turned on their fans. I even posted a photo of the warning label in our trailer but it didn't change anybody's mind.

Darwin explained how that all works out. Your choice.

[DiskDoctr]

Here is my current wiring, which worked quite well for our week plus trip.



I have to figure out the shunts, monitoring, chassis grounds and fuses.

[DiskDoctr]

I wired a 20 amp receptacle between the charger/converter and the inverter that goes to the "Shore power" line of the automatic transfer switch (per recommendations here), so the charger only runs if the house cord is plugged into power- shore power or generator.

Although I considered a switch for situations where I might not want the charger to run, I can easily unplug it for those (very uncommon?) situations, plus I have the ability to unplug the charger and power directly with a standard extension cord.

While working on the ATS wiring and such, that is how I got our initial battery charge, using an external extension cord.

Never did get a "Full" charge on the batteries, but should get it after plugging into power here at the house today.

Really wish I had an idea of their capacity, state of charge, remaining capacity, etc. Will have to look into options for that shortly 😉

[DiskDoctr]

time2roll wrote:
Very nice. My PS1800 ran my 13.5 Dometic air just fine. Not sure why you would have trouble.

I would heat shrink those cable ends to seal them up before the corrosion starts.

Thanks 🙂

That's a good idea. I have to get some bigger heat shrink to fit over the ends.

You ran your Dometic? I'll have to look into it some more, though I wonder how long the batteries would last?

[time2roll]

Very nice. My PS1800 ran my 13.5 Dometic air just fine. Not sure why you would have trouble.

I would heat shrink those cable ends to seal them up before the corrosion starts.

[DiskDoctr]

Here are some pics.















Edit: The inter-battery wires are 2AWG welding wire, the main battery leads go to the inverter terminals and are 4/0 welding wire. The PD9270 connects to the inverter terminals.

Connections at the battery are House DC and electric tongue jack.

I do NOT have FUSES yet or separate grounds for inverter and converter/charger, and my wires to the existing house DC/trailer are too small gauge.

[DiskDoctr]

Mex,

I think heat to the surroundings would be the primary limit to a stovetop burner with lots of BTUs?

I've used outdoor deep fryers and they make tons of heat, but everything around them gets very hot, too.

For the stovetop peculator, we have to have the burner turned down a little or the flame spills out of the recessed bottom and goes up the sides to be wasted and/or melting the plastic handle 😉

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Jumping the rails...

Stove coffee. Melitta

Burner. Outdoor kettle used indoors too

Stainless steel coffee pot. 12 cup.

Heats water 70F to 212F in four minutes.

Got a question. Coleman propane stove versus any RV or home kitchen range...

The Coleman will heat a large pot of anything 3x as fast. Would LOVE a stove top burner one out of the four to do this. Yes, the Coleman is noisy. Because of the pressure regulation between stoves is this impossible?

[DiskDoctr]

Reporting back after a week plus.

First, let me say THANK YOU to all who have contributed and read the posts to make sure I was on the right track for the proper gear :C

Next, I'll give some feedback from our trip.

1. Xantrex ProSine 1800W is a very nice and standby-efficient model inverter. Much of the time is was 0-1amp shown on the display, occasionally 2 amp. We left it running the whole time, no need to turn it off.

2. Inverter + LED 120V bulbs in our living room slide overhead lights was "nothing" to the inverter or batteries. We also left several 120v LED decorative night lights plugged in and running 24/7

3. GoPower TS-30 30 amp automatic transfer switch worked perfectly! Never missed a beat. Occasional flicker as it switched sources, but not even enough to reset the time on the microwave :C

4. PD9270 charger/converter worked just fine. Although it did take a while charging at 13.6v before it switched over to 14.3v or whatever. The pendant showed "Boost mode" solid light, which perplexes me. I'll play with it a bit more, maybe I missed something?

5. 4- 6v Duracell GC-2 batteries from Penn Mfg had no problem with our loads, though we did run the generator an hour or so here and there. Sometimes 2 days, sometimes twice a day. Played with it a bit 😉

6. Champion 3100 wireless remote start generator is pretty quiet. Even up close it didn't have the harsh frequencies, rather a muffled soft sound. We ran the house cord, plus a 25ft heavy extension cord out to a rock 'platform' next to a tree so we could cable-lock the generator and have a non-flammable surface to sit it on (though it never got hot). We covered the yellow extension cord with leaves and after cooling, kept the genny covered with a green tarp to protect from rain and reduce the bright yellow 'advertisement' LOL.

7. Inverter quite easily runs the microwave. I don't know how long, but it did fine.

8. Generator quite easily runs the air conditioner.

9. The inverter WILL NOT run the air conditioner (!) Genny ran out of fuel while I was away from camp and the family was there. The genny shut down, the ATS switched the power, the inverter shut down with 'overload shutdown' or some message and beeped an "annoying alarm" as they said, LOL. I turned off the A/C, switched inverter off for a few seconds, turned it back on, no problem. Refilled genny, switched it back automatically, no problem. Not the way I wanted to test that feature, but good to know)

10. Fantastic fan and even Vortex fan don't stress the batteries.

11. Radio, AC LEDs, 12v LEDs, etc are fine with the inverter and batteries. Losing the 'fear' LOL

12. Both slides can be put out, then in, then out again without draining. I don't know the level as I'm not setup for that yet. We arrived almost midnight in the dark and pouring rain, so we just backed in and deployed the slides and removed the plug to the tow vehicle overnight and then put them back in to go fill with water, position, and level the next day....and apologize to each of the neighbors for arriving so late in our diesel 😉

13. 120v cell phone chargers didn't bother the inverter at all.

14. Stovetop percolator makes EXCELLENT coffee! Takes about 30 mins for the 8 cups, but very superior to our electric coffee makers.

15. Cooking indoors (no bacon) was fine, without odor issues if we turned on the vent hood fan and turned the Fantastic ceiling vent fan to IN, it evacuated quite nicely. We'll likely do more indoor cooking now- except for the grillin' 🙂

16. I want to look into Solar now 😉

[DiskDoctr]

MrWizard wrote:
I have run a hand held grinder with my inverter, also a skill saw at 12 amps
The MW uses more per than either one,

Touche ! 🙂

[MrWizard]

I have run a hand held grinder with my inverter, also a skill saw at 12 amps
The MW uses more per than either one,

[DiskDoctr]

MrWizard wrote:

how big a compressor are you going to carry around
how big a jack hammer
how big of an electric arc welder

Funny you should ask that... 😛 :B

you will never draw 200 amps continuous load aka 2400,
you will never hit 2800 for more than a split second (IF EVER)

you don't have have anything that is going to draw 2400w
certainly NOT 2800w

that inverter won't carry 2800w more than a few seconds even if you had 10 batteries, thats a surge rating, aka motor start
its an 1800w inverter, thats max full load

That is reassuring to know, thanks 😉

[MrWizard]

DiskDoctr wrote:

MrWizard wrote:
A 200 amp shunt and meter, is going to more accurate at average RV power loads than a 500 amp shunt and meter

But what about the overload situation?

Won't I be limiting myself to 200a, instead of the inverter's max capacity?

NO.. you won't

did you even stop to think
that 2800w is a MAX start up surge on say a very large motor
how big a compressor are you going to carry around
how big a jack hammer
how big of an electric arc welder

its 1800w max continuous load aka a large MW or maybe Kureg coffee machine
thats 150 amps max continuous load going slowly up in amps as the batteries go down in voltage

you will never draw 200 amps continuous load aka 2400,
you will never hit 2800 for more than a split second (IF EVER)

you don't have have anything that is going to draw 2400w
certainly NOT 2800w

that inverter won't carry 2800w more than a few seconds even if you had 10 batteries, thats a surge rating, aka motor start
its an 1800w inverter, thats max full load

[DiskDoctr]

Some pics along the way....



Closeup of the proposed connections



I don't have the 4/0 leads from the bank yet, but should be picking up the cable in the am.

The lugs I used are actually 4/0 tinned copper lugs with purple labeling and UL stamps. We used a hammer down lug smasher-cruncher thingy (sorry for the technical jargon, LOL) to make good solid connections.

I tugged and twisted each of the connections. I cleaned with a terminal cleaner the inside of each. I'll wire brush each of the contact parts before final installation.

I ohm'd the first one and it's 0.00 @2k, with a nice spread of conductors around the inside of the lug.

The cables will get zip tied to the carrying handle brackets of the batteries to keep them away from edges, other terminals, top lid areas, etc.

We also had to put about a 30 degree downward bend about 6 inches from each end of the small connecting rod between the latches to clear the tops of the batteries.

The rod would float on top, but might get stiff or jammed, batteries might shift, etc. This way it won't happen. Better safe than sorry 😉

Please double check the wiring, it should match my first diagram, except for the long leads, which will be 4/0 tomorrow.

Enjoy the pics!