Quote:
Originally Posted by MudDog
As mentioned earlier in the thread, Point Mugu is literally right down the canyon from my house...so may come down and say hi, or who knows, you may see a TM with a similar looking solar setup pull in for a day or two 
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I may have mentioned this, but on the inverter install be sure to get enough 1/0 guage cables. I started off with just two (one for the + and one for the - connection) and was getting low volatge warnings when running high-load things like the microwave. Wayne helped diagnose it as the small guage cable between the two 6 volt batteries. Replaced that cable and it's a bit better now, but still get the warning if the microwave is on for 30+ seconds.
I realized I have at least one more weak link....because of the Linklite I wired the 1/0 guage negative to the shunt, but still have the smaller wire from the shunt to the battery negative. I think when I replace that segment with a 1/0 guage wire I should be OK. |
It would be great meeting you and thanking you in person for designing my panel configuration.
Here is what I did or am in the process of doing....
I will be using 4/0 cabling between the batteries and the inverter. This includes the jumper between the two batteries. The inverter is supposed to be delivered Tuesday evening. It is an open question whether I will manage to get that pig installed between then and Friday morning when we leave for Pt. Mugu.
I did do a lot of prep work for the inverter install as part of my solar array install yesterday. The first thing I did was reverse my battery wiring. My trailer came from the factory with the opposite battery terminals jumpered rather than the adjacent terminals. (Why???) I did not like this approach because I am going to be using 4/0 cables and they are already out of hand. This reduces the 4/0 cable run by a foot or more and any reduction in those cable runs is welcome.
My stroke of genius over the weekend was to mount the 250A fuse directly to the positive battery terminal. (So there is no short jumper between the positive terminal and the 250A fuse.) I did a similar thing with the LinkLite shunt. I actually removed the shunt from its holder and cut the shunt holder in half. One half of the shunt holder is now used as the "other" terminal on the 250 A fuse and the other half of the shunt holder is for the shunt's "other" terminal. Cosmetically, it appears as if a third terminal has been added to each battery and these third terminals are the ones that all of the loads to/from the battery pass through. This had the added advantage of eliminating more headaches routing the 4/0 cable.
I should take a picture because it sounds more confusing than it really is. It is actually a pretty clean looking arrangement despite the amount of wiring going on underneath the battery covers. I will wait until I get the 4/0 in there before taking the picture.
As for how I will wire in the inverter's AC side, my plan is to route 12/2 wire from the breaker panel AND from the inverter itself to the panel under the sink. There I will mount a 20A DPDT switch that will dictate which source (shore power or inverter power) is heating up all of the outlets in the TM. This switch will preclude having both sources hot at the same time and eliminate the hazard of a hot male plug being pulled out of the inverter when the TM is on shore power. I will also mount the remote power switch for the inverter under the sink and connect its ACC switch to the bathroom wall switch. This will prevent any potential parasitic load from the inverter when the bathroom wall folds down. This solution appears pretty simple from a wiring perspective and should be very simple for wife/kids.
I would have preferred something slightly more elegant wherein a relay would automatically do the DPDT throw to shore power whenever shore power is present (and maybe even a second relay to open the ACC switch to depower the inverter) but I have never worked with relays so not sure where to begin. It seems simple in concept but I don't have experience with them so I am keeping it simple. If any of your electrical geniuses out there want to explain how to work with relays I am all ears.
I might not get all of this inverter work done by the Pt Mugu trip but I am pretty sure I will have it done by my Montana de Oro two weeks later.
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