Rate My Electrical Plan

[busplusplus]

Hello All,

I'm in the first few phases of my conversion (flooring should go in tomorrow!) and I've drawn out a few sketches of what I want the electrical system to look like, but I'm not quite an electrician. I've calculated my load and think I'll probably use somewhere around 1500-2500 watts of 120v AC power and 400 watts of 12v DC power when parked, and something like 445 watts of 120v AC and 250 watts of 12v DC when on the go. I have a 950 watt AC unit for the summer and an 850 watt engine block heater for the winter, which obviously wouldn't have to run concurrently. I also have a 1000 watt instant pot (which I would highly recommend to anyone with the electrical capacity for one) which I would like to run on generator or shore power for an hour or less once in a while. My water heater is all propane, battery-ignition, and my range is match-lit propane. I'm planning on getting 4, 6v Trojan T105 batteries (or something very similar), which hopefully would let me run all my essentials for 2 or 3 days with a 3000 watt inverter, or, in an emergency, let me run the AC or block heater (depending on the season) for long enough to get me through the night/get me out of wherever I am. I've planned for 30 amp service and a 3600 watt generator, which will be a Westinghouse gasoline powered from Home Depot, if anyone is interested. If I properly linked to the photo, there should be a schematic that I drew of the system below. If anyone has any questions/comments/suggestions/insults, I'd love to hear them!
(Okay, maybe not the insults)



Thanks!

[roach711]

What type of switch will you use between the inverter and the AC breaker box? You'll want a transfer switch there so there's no possibility of powering the breaker box with both shore power and inverter power at the same time. Make it fool proof.

The switch between the AC breaker box and the converter/charger is optional.

I don't see a heater but our Atwood RV furnace draws about 45 watts when running.

For good battery life the house bank should only be discharged 50% before recharging. That means that of 5280 total watts only 2640 would be available. The inverter will claim some of those watts for its DC/AC conversion too so air conditioner run time would only be about 2 hours assuming that 950 watts are running watts as opposed to starting watts.

Some of your DC wattage estimates look high. Our Shurflo 12v water pump draws 45 watts and our 12v LED lights draw about 3 watts each. My laptop draws around 45 watts.

[Whatthefak]

My plans are along the same lines power consumption wise. I love my instapot btw. A friend of a friend is a solar tech I just got a chance to run some questions by him, his opinion is ac should be run on a generator, the battery set up for ac would be cost preventitive. I asked him about the cheaper deka batteries he said was long as you treat you bank right those are about as good as Trojans, but the warranty is nowhere near as good on the deka. I am leaning more towards a propane generator just to have less kinda of fuels.

[busplusplus]

Originally Posted by roach711

What type of switch will you use between the inverter and the AC breaker box? You'll want a transfer switch there so there's no possibility of powering the breaker box with both shore power and inverter power at the same time. Make it fool proof.

The switch between the AC breaker box and the converter/charger is optional.

I don't see a heater but our Atwood RV furnace draws about 45 watts when running.

For good battery life the house bank should only be discharged 50% before recharging. That means that of 5280 total watts only 2640 would be available. The inverter will claim some of those watts for its DC/AC conversion too so air conditioner run time would only be about 2 hours assuming that 950 watts are running watts as opposed to starting watts.

Some of your DC wattage estimates look high. Our Shurflo 12v water pump draws 45 watts and our 12v LED lights draw about 3 watts each. My laptop draws around 45 watts.

My heater is propane and the fan is super efficient, so I didn't even mention it. I've looked at the life cycle curves for discharge percentages, and I'm personally okay with 80% discharge, but that's because I don't plan on using the system as often as some other people. I'm planning on getting a Shurflo pump, and the amazon description says it draws 7.5 amps, so I was just estimating. My laptop charger has 130 watts written on the side - I used a kill-a-watt on my charger during normal use and it was more like 90 watts, but I'd like to be able to power it at full capacity, and not just when I'm surfing the 'net. I have a fairly powerful computer and I have to run some beefy software sometimes. I haven't bought my LED lights yet, but the description of the lights in my amazon cart say that they're 24 watts for each 5 m (16.4 foot) strand, so with my 12 m (40 foot) bus, I estimated about 200 watts for lights all the way down the bus, plus a light for the driver, a light or two in the shower, two reading lights in the bedroom, and a light in the glove box, give or take a light or two. It may be that the LEDs are actually more efficient than they say they are, but I just wanted to play it safe. I'm planning on using a relay/transfer switch at the inlet of the system. Anything else?