1000 Watt Inverter Recommendations / Picked one and installed

[dreadlocks]

the '4x4 fridges' use very efficient DC motors that work in any orientation, they pull like 30W (2.5A) .. a normal mini fridge has a rather inefficient AC motor that pulls like >100W along with another 10% loss converting DC -> AC (9.1A).

I've found you need at least 120W and ideal solar to run a 4x4 fridge, 200W is better.. 400W would be a reasonable starting point for a normal fridge, but you may still find it lacking.

Wattage is king here, it stays the same as the voltage and amperage varies.. so converting loads to wattage and then comparing em is the best when your looking at an DC appliance vs an AC appliance.

 

[67cj5]

Yeah I see what you mean, I went to them for an Inverter and nearly came away with4 panels LOL, thing is they also sell 60 and 80w panels that they say in their sales pitch that will run a camper trailer or RV with a fridge and lights etc, But for some reason they say I need to invest in 5X the amount in panels so something is not right somewhere,

To settle this I am going to Stick a type 31 in a box with all the fittings and see how long it will run and I am going to put a 100w Panel in a shaded area and see how that pans out, After buying a few inverters and wasting money on microwaves and now I feel some things not right, I need a bigger inverter not more panels because Guys are out there powering their fridges off of 40 and 60w panels So I don't get why they think I need 400w In panels.

 

[dreadlocks]

that was basically my last tent setup, what I found was a 100W panel if it was in sun all day long could get the job done.. but in overcast/shade it was like a 10-20W panel, I'd park it in the sun and be getting 7-8A of charge power.. leave camp for a hike or go fishing, come back hours later and it'd be putting out 2A and sun was somewhere else.. 200W woulda doubled that overcast shade to 20-40W and that shoulda kept me above water w/my ARB fridge and I wouldent of had to hunt the sun.. but I'd of basically had no other loads to support.. with 100W it was easy to fall behind with any overcast and I found my self baby sitting the panels and batteries more than I wanted.. Fridge power varies, 24h of keeping drinks cold in spring is alot less power than middle of summer.. cooling drinks down from ambient temp and frequency of access can all increase consumption dramatically.. so kinda torture test it, dont give it ideal tests in a cool garage with chilled drinks and never opening it to see how long it runs.

play with it, if you got the controller run some tests and see what you get.. doing is how I figured most of this stuff out.. a mobile solar setup is alot more challenging, every location is different so a setup that works great in the desert might not be worth its weight in the woods.. Generally I think the solar boon docking formula is ~150-200W for each 100AH of lead, many places will suggest ~100W but those are assuming your getting ideal tilt in places w/out shade issues.. One dirty secret is the hotter your solar panels get the less efficient hey become.. a 100W panel is like an 80W panel when its 130F

Honestly this is why I went with generator first, before battery bank, before inverters.. was my first purchase on this go, with that I knew I could keep whatever I needed charged up and power any device.. from there I just worked towards independence from it so it just becomes a backup and I never have to sweat my batteries going flat and being forced to drive to charge.

 

[67cj5]

Yeah I see what you mean, this is starting to become a bigger problem.

I did a lot of this years ago and It was all fine but some where it has gone backwards, My backup plan is to have a small generator and run my NOCO 26A charger if I need to before my batteries get below 30% or even as low as 50%,

So Plan Number 2, I will fit the 100w panel to the Truck and get 3 or 4 100w panels as my main power source that should get me around 16 to 24 Amps on a winters day and over 280Amps in peak Summer, And then I can get back to buying the right inverter and then mount the 26A NOCO full time to the battery bank and only use it when needed.

 

[dreadlocks]

One solution you can do with a generator with solar is only use the solar for the absorb charge, you sound like you got a big bank.. use the gas for 3-4h to get the most of the bulk charge done, then turn it off and rely on the solar to provide the absorb part of the charge, where the amps are much lower but over a long period.. then you dont have to run the generator 6-10h mostly idling to get it back up to 100%, or get direct sunlight for a good portion of the day.. you might not get independence on solar but it should extend time between using the genset, and reduce the time you need to burn gas dramatically.

Downside to this is it requires you to check in on base camp every few days, if your backpacking/hunting/canoeing and want to leave your rig unattended for a few days then solar independence starts looking mighty attractive..

 

[67cj5]

No mate, the bank account has taken a beating, But I think with these batteries X3 + the starter I could easily last a week or more and with a few panels I would not expect to use the generator more than once a month if that,

I think your right about getting more panels I think between 400w and 580w should keep me powered up for a long time I have seen a small generator that is cheap to run, It will run on the smell of an Oily Rag using half a US gallon in 5.5hrs at 3/4 load and it will run for about 8 or 9 hours just running a smart charger So It's a cheap emergency fix if needed but more panels are my goal now, My 100/20 MPPT charge controller turned up today so that's one thing out of the way,

And now I have started doing a Battery Vs ARB fridge test so it will be good to see how long the battery will last,

 

[dreadlocks]

It ran the microwave for 5mins, used about 8AH of capacity.. voltage dropped low enough the LVD shut everything else off tho.. will take some tuning

 

[67cj5]

It ran the microwave for 5mins, used about 8AH of capacity.. voltage dropped low enough the LVD shut everything else off tho.. will take some tuning

View attachment 509713View attachment 509712

I think you might need another battery, I don't think one is enough to handle that load, 1123w that is the same problem I got except mine is 1288w, I think you got every thing else right you just need another battery to split the load.

 

[dreadlocks]

Another battery would help, but this is within the batterys rating.. I've got lvd set really high right now because lithium stays at voltage until flat, and it's not really a bad thing everything else shuts down while microwave is on.. they come back when it's done.

Mebe in future I'll get another $1000 lithium, but I wanna see how far I can go with minimal battery and tons of charge potential.. runs the coffee maker (950W) and microwave (1123W), so I can run those now when I dont want the generator running, like before/after sunset.. everything else will be rather small loads in comparison to those two.

Also keep in mind this is measured at the battery, if you take 9% off for the Inverter (rated 91% efficient) and my 11W base load it puts the microwave @ ~999W.. dont have BT on inverter yet so I have to guesstimate what it thinks its outputting.

 

[67cj5]

Another battery would help, but this is within the batterys rating.. I've got lvd set really high right now because lithium stays at voltage until flat, and it's not really a bad thing everything else shuts down while microwave is on.. they come back when it's done.

Mebe in future I'll get another $1000 lithium, but I wanna see how far I can go with minimal battery and tons of charge potential.. runs the coffee maker (950W) and microwave (1123W), so I can run those now when I dont want the generator running, like before/after sunset.. everything else will be rather small loads in comparison to those two.

Also keep in mind this is measured at the battery, if you take 9% off for the Inverter (rated 91% efficient) and my 11W base load it puts the microwave @ ~999W.. dont have BT on inverter yet so I have to guesstimate what it thinks its outputting.

This is why I went with 3 batteries because it spreads the load which gives me 345/2 = @50% gives me 172.5Amps to play with or 103.5 at 30%,, The trouble with using just one battery is if that one fails then you'll need to go shopping for another, It's a great concept but only having one battery is a bit risky.

 

[2Jeeps&PatriotX1]

I’ll start another thread so I dont derail this one but dreadlocks may need to pick your brain about my setup and picking the right inverter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dreadlocks]

in a bank when one fails they almost always all fail, and you should replace them all at once anyhow because its only as strong as its weakest one.

If you have one strong battery and one weak battery they will ping pong back and forth until they settle on the highest charge the weakest one can take, and then because the stronger one never gets fully charged it starts to sulfate and degrade performance which starts another round of ping pong.. til a whole cell goes and then it'll take out other cells and the whole thing circles around the drain really fast unless you isolate the batteries.. then if you put a new one in with the other abused but not yet dead yet it just quickly degrades in performance until it matches the others.. If you want redundancy, you run multiple banks that are isolated and switch between em.

with lead its best to just buy cheap and make em disposable after several seasons.. and with lead the more amps you draw the less capacity you have, so you absolutely need more capacity.. that 8AH my microwave consumed on lithium woulda been more like 18-20AH out of lead chemistry for the same test.

@2Jeeps&PatriotX1 thread is already derailed, but if you want to make your own feel free.. I dont like it when ppl DM me because then other ppl cant search and read my guidance in the future heh.. First thing you should do is pick up a Kill a watt and find out what the real needs you have are.

 

[67cj5]

in a bank when one fails they almost always all fail, and you should replace them all at once anyhow because its only as strong as its weakest one.

If you have one strong battery and one weak battery they will ping pong back and forth until they settle on the highest charge the weakest one can take, and then because the stronger one never gets fully charged it starts to sulfate and degrade performance which starts another round of ping pong.. til a whole cell goes and then it'll take out other cells and the whole thing circles around the drain really fast unless you isolate the batteries.. then if you put a new one in with the other abused but not yet dead yet it just quickly degrades in performance until it matches the others.. If you want redundancy, you run multiple banks that are isolated and switch between em.

with lead its best to just buy cheap and make em disposable after several seasons.. and with lead the more amps you draw the less capacity you have, so you absolutely need more capacity.. that 8AH my microwave consumed on lithium woulda been more like 18-20AH out of lead chemistry for the same test.

Well I had one 115 as the starter which was new last year So I took it out and put it in a battery box and I just bought a Type 27/85 A/h for a starter and I also bought 2 X 115A/h for my main power supply, So no matter what happens I have all bases covered.

 

[67cj5]

in a bank when one fails they almost always all fail, and you should replace them all at once anyhow because its only as strong as its weakest one.

If you have one strong battery and one weak battery they will ping pong back and forth until they settle on the highest charge the weakest one can take, and then because the stronger one never gets fully charged it starts to sulfate and degrade performance which starts another round of ping pong.. til a whole cell goes and then it'll take out other cells and the whole thing circles around the drain really fast unless you isolate the batteries.. then if you put a new one in with the other abused but not yet dead yet it just quickly degrades in performance until it matches the others.. If you want redundancy, you run multiple banks that are isolated and switch between em.

with lead its best to just buy cheap and make em disposable after several seasons.. and with lead the more amps you draw the less capacity you have, so you absolutely need more capacity.. that 8AH my microwave consumed on lithium woulda been more like 18-20AH out of lead chemistry for the same test.

Now you've started something, LOL

I started testing the oldest 115a that I was using as a starter by hooking up the Small ARB 47L/50Qt on it Set at 2c / 35.6f, That was over 45 hours ago and I still have over 12.6v left, I set the fridge power save mode at Hi = 11.8 which is an under load voltage which means the No Load voltage is going to be well above the lower limits of the battery,

No Charging, No Solar, Just a Type 31 / 115A battery in a Box with my fluke DMM hooked up to a pair of external Terminals, Can't believe how long this battery is lasting and the voltage I still have left., Hopefully it will get to 4 possibly 5 days, but we'll see Ay.

 

[RichieFromBoston]

look at dorm microwaves, I found a 600W rated one that pulls under 1000W actual.. its little, but I just use it for either boiling water fast or making kids something quick and hot (they live off mac and cheese).. does the job and has all mechanical controls.. double duty as a bread box.. was cheap.

Key benefits of lithium:

• Can be discharged to 90% SOC many times more than lead can be discharged to 50% SOC
• Does not loose capacity with high discharge rates like lead does.
• Quick Charge time, 100AH battery takes 50A charge current until full and does not waste hours in absorb wasting solar/gas.
• Quick Charge time means if your charging when driving you dont need to drive 7-8h or more to recharge batteries fully.
• High Discharge Rate, 200A off a single 100AH battery allows for big inverters on smaller banks.
• Holds voltage higher for longer with less losses due to cabling
• Charge/Discharge efficiency is near 100%, you take 50AH out of a 100AH battery.. you put 50AH back in and your at 100%.. lead you need to put 60AH+ back in.
• Weighs 35lbs for each 100AH
• Prefers to dwell at partial charge, can spend days/weeks/months at partial charge without damage.
• Supposedly Last longer Cycle more w/out capacity loss.
• more im forgetting

I paid the lithium tax because toy haulers are naturally tongue heavy, and only place for anything is on the tongue.. but I've ran dual GC batteries @ 220ah in my westfallia and this single lithium runs my same stuff just as long (~30AH a day base load), but unlike my westfallia I dont feel like I need even more capacity to make it through because it was so inconvenient to baby sit a generator for 6h+, or drive for 6h+, or chase the sun around for 6h+ when the batteries got low.. with 25A charger I can go from 5% SOC to 100% soc in ~3.5h, with 50A ~2h.. If I can obtain ~4h a day of direct sunlight on one solar panel, or ~2h a day on both I can consume 90AH every day indefinitely for the weight of 35lbs on the tongue, 45lbs over the axle on the roof, and 45lbs behind the axle.. if I get really good solar conditions I could get far more energy than that with crockpot/coffee maker/ice maker/radios/fans/fridge/furnace never consuming any battery in day and having that full 90AH just to make it through the night until the next day.

The price right now is still a bit absurd, but given the benefits gained they dont need to come down much further before they start making a whole lot of sense to some people.

Im guessing with both of us being new lipo owners when time comes to replace well be able to replace the one with two for les than we paid for one. does that make sense??