Power inverter question

[Bulldoggr]

Ok, i have this idea in my head. I am sure someone here has done it. I have a 2011 Spirit Ice castle. I have a 4 battery bank inside it. when I am not on the ice i have the Spirit plugged into an out let in the shop.

My question is I would like to install a Power Inverter to supply AC to the rest of the house, or perhaps a certain circut.

I want to keep the factory wiring in, and at the same time be able to throw a switch when I am plugged in AC or into my Honda 2000.

Can someone explain to me how to do this. If you have any pics of your set up that would be great.

I primarly want to power a 24" Flat screen HD TV, with the Satelite receiver box. I do have a Microwave in the house but will use the micro wave when i am hooked to the generator.

Even though i have a quiet generator, i would like to utilize the 4 bank battery system and only use the generator when i need to charge the batteries up.

[Bulldoggr]

all these people looking at this thread and not one has thought of this or has done this?

[tip-up king]

Does your house currently have a convertor load center?

[Bulldoggr]

I have to be honest, I don't know. I can plug an extension cord from the outlet in the garge to the recpticle on the outside of the House. I do know that there is something n there that charges the batteries. and what looks to be simular as to what I have in my 5th wheel.

[BLACKJACK]

For my Ice castle I just bought a 12 volt TV, seems to work just fine off the batteries. When I set up the house, I added an onboard charger to the battery box, hooked up to the two batteries, when I get home, I plug it in and it starts charging. Works fine for the one night trips that I've done so far. When I start doing some longer trips, I'm going to get a generator, which I'll run for a few hours during the day, and plug the house into too charge the batteries. No invertor needed.

[Creek Kid]

What is your main concern w/the inverter? Leaving the wiring alone? Having enough power? I have a 750 watt (1400 surge). I've run my 32" flat screen w/a single deep cell. There's a formula for much power you are supplying, by how much power is being used, to how long it will last. I can't remember the exact site but I know there's good data to support what you want to do. As far as wiring I'm not familiar the generator setup on a wheelhouse but if it hooks into a generator, the inverter would do the same thing. Not sure about "flipping a switch" - you may have unplug and plug in. We're renting a sleep next weekend that is set up for a generator and the same thought crossed my mind. It sure would be quieter for awhile! Let me know if you do an experimenting. Good luck!

[Tom7227]

Could you set up the permanent shack so that a lot of what you want to power is done with 12 vDC and then use the inverter for the stuff that you have to power with 120 vAC? You can get a lot of different LED lights that give off pretty decent light and don't use much juice. You can even get DC light bulbs at auto parts stores. I am by no means an expert but I would think it would be very unlikely that you could run a microwave off an inverter.

[tip-up king]

The simplist thing for you to do would be to hook a 400W continuous run/ 800W peak inverter to the battery that is closest to where your tv will be and run an extension cord to the tv and satelite receiver.

[Bulldoggr]

I already have a couple of inverters, the power of each is not the concern. I just am trying to figure out a nice clean look. I am using an extension cord now. I just don't like having the cord laying across the floor. I will not run an exposed cord on the walls or ceiling to get to the point of access that I want.

I am trying to get a neat and not a clumsy look in the house.

I can run my generator and have that nice clean look, but I am also trying eliminate the amount of gas I use, as well as noise.

I just hink it would be a great idea to put a circuit specific outlets that have been converted from dc to ac with out having the inverter sitting out in the house.

[Bulldoggr]

that is a great idea, and I have already switch out all the light fixtures that Ice castle put in with super bright LED lights. they were a bit spendy. However, the lights that Ice castle put in. it takes 16 of these new light fixtures to draw as much power as one of the fixture that was factory installed. plus this one fixture is ezily 2 to 3 times more brighter.

The furnace is DC, and of course the car radio they install is DC. it also has 2 lights that are ac. and several outlets thru out that are AC. I have 2 DC cigarette lighter style outlets.

SO there is a good mix of each. I think it would be great if either a 4 gang outlet or 2 two gang outet side by side were install. In the manner of 2 of the plug ins in the 4 gang or one 2 gang was wired right from the inverter.

thus if you want to soley rely on the batteries you can plug into the inverter side. yet when you are using the generator or plugged into the outlet in the garage or campsite you have a dedicated ac side.

[woodsmanmn]

I don't think this is what you are looking for, but here is a suggestion for an easy fix. There are self adhesive plastic cable raceways that you can stick to the wall to hide the wiring without having to cut into the walls.

[Twisted]

A SPDT switch will allow you to change which power source is supplying power to the AC circuits in your ice shack.

It opens one side while closing the other so there won't be a collision with two seperate power sources.

[Redlineracer12]

A SPDT switch will allow you to change which power source is supplying power to the AC circuits in your ice shack.

It opens one side while closing the other so there won't be a collision with two seperate power sources.

Would you have issues sharing a common ground/neutral though by only breaking the hot wire?

[Twisted]

I have no idea. I'm not an electrician.

A DPDT switch would work if that is the case.

Also unhook that automatic battery charger when running on battery power.

I thought about that as soon as I hit submit on the last post but I wanted to see if anyone would see an issue with it.

Trying to charge the batteries with power from the same batteries. That will make some heads spin.

[Redlineracer12]

I have no idea. I'm not an electrician.

A DPDT switch would work if that is the case.

I'm not either, that's why I have never tried running my generator charging the battery while using the battery/inverter to run the outlets. As the ground/neutral would be shared and I think that's probably not the best idea. To be safe I think breaking all three wires to completely isolate the circuits would be ideal.

[Twisted]

There is a very simple/cheap/clean way to do what you're looking for but I don't dare tell you. Sorry.

It can be unsafe if not used properly. I'm sure if you look at some forums where people hook up generators to their homes, the idea will come to you.

Best of luck on the project. It is a great idea.

[Bulldoggr]

Well I like the conversation so far. I think it would be a pretty cool intragrated system once I get it figured out.

[Whoaru99]

I think it would be more or less like connecting some of the circuits to a transfer switch. However, without having the wiring schematic making any specific recommendations would be risky, at best.

[Whoaru99]

I am by no means an expert but I would think it would be very unlikely that you could run a microwave off an inverter.

A microwave and more can be run from an inverter but it needs to be adequately sized. Inverter of 5000 watts and more are easily available. However, you have to be able to feed the beast so you need big battery banks and thick wires.

For example, if the microwave draws 1500 watts, you need more than that at the inverter input due to inefficiency. So, say you need 1800 watts from the 12v batteries, that means the draw on the batteries would be 150 amps (assuming 12v battery bank). Most of the big inverters run at 24 volts or higher to cut voltage drop in the supply wiring and the need for cables the size of fire hoses drops to garden hose size. :-)

[Bulldoggr]

yeah not looking to run the microwave. just want to run the TV, the satelite receiver, an aquarium air pump that keeps fresh oxygen on the minnows. Run the laptop.

[Whoaru99]

I understand but as said earlier, without a schematic of what you have now any specific suggestions are not really possible.