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Old 06-05-2010, 08:13 PM   #1
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Inverter questions

We just returned from a 3 day stay without any services. I have two house batteries plus the engine battery. I ran the hot water, and the fridge on LP. I found my 110 outlets did not have power. Wanted to turn on coffee pot, had to start genny for 110. The TV did work front and rear. I know to conserve but being my first time without outside source I wanted to see what it was all about. I did run the gen about three hours a day. We would leave around eight am, and return around five pm(nothing was on at that time). We only used appliances while running the gen. I was suprised to have a shrill sound at 2 am the last night warning me of low battery(to late to run the gen). I found that by turning off the 12 volt system it stopped the shrill, but it also stopped the refer (atleast I think it did) I heard the normal hiss when the 12 volt came back. I like the idea that the engine battery stands alone. I started the MH then turned on 12 aux switch before starting the gen. I might add I turned off the inverter before turning in as I remember reading it would cause a drain.
I am a bit long but I hope my experiance can be explained so I will know what I'm doing the next outing. I think the inverter is 55 amp? One of the house batteries is a deep cycle .
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Old 06-06-2010, 05:31 AM   #2
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We just returned from a 3 day stay without any services. I have two house batteries plus the engine battery. I ran the hot water, and the fridge on LP. I found my 110 outlets did not have power. Wanted to turn on coffee pot, had to start genny for 110. The TV did work front and rear. I know to conserve but being my first time without outside source I wanted to see what it was all about. I did run the gen about three hours a day. We would leave around eight am, and return around five pm(nothing was on at that time). We only used appliances while running the gen. I was suprised to have a shrill sound at 2 am the last night warning me of low battery(to late to run the gen). I found that by turning off the 12 volt system it stopped the shrill, but it also stopped the refer (atleast I think it did) I heard the normal hiss when the 12 volt came back. I like the idea that the engine battery stands alone. I started the MH then turned on 12 aux switch before starting the gen. I might add I turned off the inverter before turning in as I remember reading it would cause a drain.
I am a bit long but I hope my experiance can be explained so I will know what I'm doing the next outing. I think the inverter is 55 amp? One of the house batteries is a deep cycle .
Have your power systems been modified at all? It appears your inverter is a 600 Watt (55x12). That will operate a couple TV sets and satellite or OTA converters for a few hours. That will drain your batteries rather quickly depending on your battery reserve. Winnebago only places the inverter power to a few outlets so the others are powerless.

If you want 110V powered appliances, the generator is the best/easiest and probably the only efficient way.
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Old 06-06-2010, 06:48 AM   #3
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I guess I thought by running the generator for a couple hours in the evening would give me enough of a charge to hold over night. I should have checked all outlets. The two nearest the kitchen were dead. I thought one of those would work to run the coffee maker ( gen hrs 7am to 10pm coffee 6:30 am). When turning in all that is on is the LP onthe fridge, and the warning detectors. I believe that I do have a 600 watt.
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Old 06-06-2010, 10:21 AM   #4
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You mention one of the house batteries is a deep cycle. How many house batteries do you have. One of the things that may have been a large current draw is lights. The standard lights draw a couple of amps each and that can really add up.
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Old 06-06-2010, 10:37 AM   #5
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I guess another question is was your generator charging the house batteries while running? Also, how old are the batteries?
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Old 06-06-2010, 12:08 PM   #6
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Coffee pot is about 1000 watts for most models. Microwave about 1500. For appliances like these you need a larger inverter, and the outlets need to be wired to it. As stated above, most likely Winnie wired only outlets whose purposes are within the inverter's capacity. Others require shore power or gen.

Fridge takes 12V to run the electronic controls (likely igniter also), so w/12V off, no fridge. If it is only off for a few hours but you don't open it, shouldn't be a problem.

If you like boondocking (most folks do) you can
1) pack extra batteries along & jumper to them (takes some 12V knowledge for safety)
2) add more house batteries for larger reserve capacity
3) study your 12V uses and learn to live within the rig's contraints.

Helps to start the gen soon as "quiet time" is over in camp in the a.m., and run for coupla hours as needed to top off the house batt's before quiet time starts again in the evening. Also helps if the gen is charging the batteries at a good rate (commensurate w/the size & type of batteries). E.g. my 4 ea. 300AH 6V batteries are AGMs, and the inverter/charger has a setting for type & size of battery string; that takes the max charge rate to 150 amps when the batteries are low. Your setup is deifferent and you will want to know how much charge the gen puts out, and/or if you have a separate charger that puts a good charge rate on your house batts.
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Old 06-06-2010, 02:06 PM   #7
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Thanks for that information. I do have two house batteries. When I ran the generator in the eveving one night I checked the batteries and it showed 13.3. The batteries were replaced two years ago by original owner, they are NAPA. I will have them checked and also will check to see if something else is pulling them down. The refer was off about five hours and even the ice cubes were still frozen,as well as the refer part being cold. As you can tell I'm electronicly challanged. It just suprized me when I found the refer needs 12v even for LP.
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Old 06-06-2010, 02:42 PM   #8
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Every thing is probably about normal. If you have group 24 batteries they are 70 to 85 amp/hr, if group 27, 85 to 105 amp/hr. Your inverter and 2 or 3 lights would run down one battery in about 1 hour. The generator is probably powering your converter charger at about 40 amp/hr output. Any lights or other loads would subtract from that. The output voltage of the converter/charger is probably only 13.3 volts. That would not charge the batteries very fast. You would need a 3 stage converter/charger that puts out a higher voltage for a bulk charge to get the batteries charged faster.
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Old 06-07-2010, 01:51 AM   #9
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Every thing is probably about normal. If you have group 24 batteries they are 70 to 85 amp/hr, if group 27, 85 to 105 amp/hr. Your inverter and 2 or 3 lights would run down one battery in about 1 hour. The generator is probably powering your converter charger at about 40 amp/hr output. Any lights or other loads would subtract from that. The output voltage of the converter/charger is probably only 13.3 volts. That would not charge the batteries very fast. You would need a 3 stage converter/charger that puts out a higher voltage for a bulk charge to get the batteries charged faster.
i find that by idling my 8.1L engine i get 14+ volts at 145 amps to charge my house batteries faster than using my onan genny with my 45 amp converter.
per my scangauge 2, my engine uses .5 gallon of gas per hour at idle, about 600 rpm.
my onan 5.5 genny, depending on load, uses between .6 and .9 gallons per hour.
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Old 06-07-2010, 01:56 AM   #10
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You mention a "normal hiss" when +12V is returned? There is nothing "normal" about a hiss. Where is this coming from?
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