Mid cabin inverter install

[aaronbocknek]

pics please!!

[trojanmanXSagain]

I have a 300 watt inverter connected to a deep cycle 12v on my blow boat and I don't have a charger . I have used it to brew coffee , run the 19" plasma and dvd AND surround sound , normally no more then 2-3 days and Ive never had the batt drain. Now on the Trojan the plan was to install a 700 watt inverter and somehow wire it to the main breaker panel, any ideas on howto do it ? pics?

[prowlersfish]

To wire it into the main system , you would need to have a switch to go from shore power to inverter power and to prevent both shore power and inverter power from powering the boat at the same time . Same as you would with a gen set


like this
http://www.bluesea.com/products/6337/AC ... 20V_AC_30A

or http://www.bluesea.com/products/9010

There are others and the one need would depend on if you have single or dual 30amp shore power .

you would wire it like a gen set . I asume you don't have a gen set installed

[yorklyn]

no Gen in Bobs boat but looks like he can now run a small town off of battery power!

[BobCT]

http://s1170.photobucket.com/user/A8CT/ ... t=3&page=1

Ok, here are some pics along with a couple of other cabin shots. Here are a couple of youtube videos too. A little shaky, it never prompted me to autocorrect when I uploaded.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnFeTdvarnE Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywEK-pZadgo Part 2


Bob

[kjpf25]

Pretty amazing run times considering when a 1500 watt inverter is running, it is drawing 150 amps at 12VDC if it 85% efficient.

[prowlersfish]

It will only draw that much near full load .

[daylategeorge]

Hi Bob,
Would love to see video if possible. Thinking of adding an inverter myself and could use some direction.
Thanks, George

[BobCT]

George, take a look a few threads up, I posted a couple of YouTube clips. Not a how to but will give you general layout. One tool that's worth buying is the hydraulic battery crimping set from Harbor Freight. You can get cables made up but I don't see how you could figure out the lengths (in advance) and get it right. I added two batteries so that made it a little more involved... Lots of crimping.

Bob

[alexander38]

That's a sweet setup

[P-Dogg]

tool that's worth buying is the hydraulic battery crimping set from Harbor Freight

The right tool for the job will make a huge difference. So will buying your terminals in bulk in advance from Amazon or Ebay. Have you shopped terminals at We$t Marine???? Ouch!

[RWS]

Bob,

I just got caught up on this thread.

Thanks for the video you posted !

This kind of support is one of the reasons why our orphaned BRAND remains so popular, even after being out of production for 20 years.

RWS

[BobCT]

Thanks for the compliments, glad to help!

[hanybop]

hi this is just my 2 cents of what I have learned about battery power and draws
you should never draw your deep cycle batteries down past 60-70% of full capacity and charge them often to train them (first 150 charges or so)and you should get 800-1000 or more re charges with little fade on the performance of the batteries, considering what you will spend for a good house battery system (I have 6 Trojan 6v 225 ah batteries giving me 725 ah of power $800 or so )
if you only have batteries for power away from shore you should calculate your total power usage over the time away from shore and only consume a max of 40% of usable amp hours to keep happy and healthy batteries.
heres a quick example of power draw over 1 hour for a coffee maker

1500/120=12.5ah
watts divided by volts equals amps
other items have the rating of amps and you can count that as you see fit
a/c units are approximately 1 amp per 1000 btu's

having a generator will extend that when you fire it up for cooking as needed and have it wired to your chargers, or having a secondary charging generator on the engines to top up the batteries while underway (one of my next year projects)hate running the generator unless I have to.

hope this sheds some light for all (or correct me if im wrong as I am still learning myself)

cheers paul

[gardnersf]

Bob,

I'll have to check out the crimper

I had my cables made up. I used string to model the lengths and added 2". They worked out great.