How far is too far for the inverter?

[JRRNeiklot]

My inverter is going to be about 4-5 feet from the battery bank, and maybe an additional foot or two by the time I run the wire. I am using 2 gauge wire. Is that too far? The inverter will only see occasional use for a tv and microwave. Maybe a fan or two in the summer.

[BFL13]

I have a zoo for wiring between inverter and battery, but it is somewhere equivalent to about 6 feet (one way) of #1 AWG with a 2000w inverter and the battery bank (four or six batteries depending on winter or summer)

With the 6 batts I get about 0.6v voltage sag when the inverter is drawing 115 amps (as seen on Trimetric). With 4 batts it is more- ISTR 0.9V sag last time I did it.

Your sag amount is a combo of battery AH amount and wire gauge amount.

The aim is to stay over 11v as seen at the inverter for as low an SOC of the battery bank as you can get. You fatten the wires and add batteries in some combo as convenient.

[burningman]

If you already have a bunch of 1-gauge, I'd say give it a go, double it up and see how it works.
I've got mine tripled! Giant sewer pipe size cable would be great too, but if you have what you have and it works, no need to spend the $$.

I make my own cable lugs for the ends from little pieces of copper pipe. Just use a size that fits over the cable, squish the other end flat, and drill a hole to fit the terminal you need to bolt onto.
I squeeze my cables into my end lugs in a vise, then I feed in some solder, heating it with a small torch.

[wa8yxm]

The longer the run the bigger the wire
The bigger the inverter the bigger the wire
2 Ga is kind of small for 1,000 + inverters even if it's a 3' Run

Think Zeros, multiple Zeros.

[time2roll]

Yes if spending money get 2/0 or 4/0. Since you have 1/0 and it may fit your needs.... give it a go.
Ampacity of 1/0 with 105C insulation is 285 amps and your inverter will not likely go over 180 for your usage.

http://www.genuinedealz.com/voltage-drop-calculator

I would fuse at 250 with ANL or 200 with Class T to protect wire from dead short.

[BFL13]

With some (all?) inverter manuals they call for wire to handle the surge amount, which is twice the rated amount, so you can way over-do it by following the rules.

You actually "need" wire to handle what you will actually do with the inverter, not just the max what the inverter could do. Same with the fuse size they want. Pick the wire for more than what you will ever do, and then fuse for that wire. Never mind what the inverter "could do."

At least one inverter seems to be saying the ANL fuse is what gives it the "surge" capability, by when it will blow, never mind the wire.

(If you do more than you set it up for, it will blow the fuse chosen for that wire you actually used. So don't do that again. 🙂 )

[JRRNeiklot]

The manual calls for 2/0.

[time2roll]

1/0 has the ampacity so give it a go.
If you have voltage drop issues then slap another cable on.

[JRRNeiklot]

burningman wrote:
The bigger and shorter the cables, the better the inverter will work.
One good way to get enough current to the inverter is to double up on the cables. Use cable big enough to run the thing by itself, then double up and use two + and two - cables instead of one each. This is a case where the old hot rodder's axiom "too much is not enough and when in doubt, double it" is absolutely correct.

So, could I double this 1/0 cable I have? I have plenty of it.

[burningman]

The bigger and shorter the cables, the better the inverter will work.
One good way to get enough current to the inverter is to double up on the cables. Use cable big enough to run the thing by itself, then double up and use two + and two - cables instead of one each. This is a case where the old hot rodder's axiom "too much is not enough and when in doubt, double it" is absolutely correct.

[ktmrfs]

If your concerned about power draw, get a panasonic true inverter microwave. the power is adjusted based on the power level. none of the 0 or 100 percent cycling.
My panasonic 900W draws about 1500VA at 100 percent, around 850VA at 50 percent. and 50 percent does not take twice as long for most things like heating water, cooking veggies etc. what takes 2 minutes on full power usually takes about 3 minutes at half power.

1000W sine wave inverter runs it just fine.

[BFL13]

If the inverter is MSW it will run the microwave at lower power and pull fewer amps from the battery doing that. Eg my microwave wants about 1500w input, which would be 150 DC amps drawn by a pure sine wave inverter. But my 2000w MSW inverter pulls more like 115 amps to run that MW.

Of course the lower power makes for a longer "cooking" time, but this is not an issue in real life in my case. Also the lower amps for a longer time actually gets you a lower AH draw than a higher amp but shorter time does thanks to Mr Peukert.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Allowing for inverter losses it may draw 135 amps from the battery bank. The Peukert corrected amps are about 247 amps given a 360 amp-hour battery bank.

The question is how long can the inverter sustain the surge? If it is 1/10 of a second that's pretty much useless. If it is ten minutes--that's a quite respectable amount of time.

JRRNeiklot wrote:
You're right, input power is 1350.

The inverter is actually 2,000 watts/4000 peak.

[JRRNeiklot]

You're right, input power is 1350.

The inverter is actually 2,000 watts/4000 peak.

[time2roll]

900 cooking power or 900 input power? Input power is about 30% higher.