Author: Rae

by

Getting Closer to the Final Battery Bank Modifications

It’s amazing how much research one can do about a subject and still completely miss the most obviously solution to a problem. My battery bank project has taught me an important lesson. Yes, it’s nice to offer a ‘tah-dah!’ post to readers with no build up, but the build up posts provide the opportunity for discussion that could change the outcome.

Reader Carl left an interesting comment on my last post. Boiling the comment down to its essence, he asked me, “Why don’t you just plug your RV into your inverter? This way, all your outlets will be live off shore power and you won’t have to run that 120V wiring to a single outlet.”

I can do that?!

As it turns out, I can! I did some research and the end result is that you can plug an RV power cable into an inverter just like you plug it into a generator or a shore power outlet. The caveat is wattage of the inverter and the size of the battery bank determine what can be left on when you’re running off the inverter.

Generally, when you plug your RV into an inverter, you want to turn off the converter, the microwave, the AC, the fridge, and the water heater if is electric.

My fridge’s default mode is propane and my water heater runs on propane, so that leaves the other three.

Now, I know there are transfer switches and all manner of mods to automatically transfer over to the inverter, but I don’t have the electrical gumption to dig into my established power grid, never mind the financial outlay. So I’ll be using the ‘shut off the breakers’ method of electrical management to power my RV from my inverter.

So instead of running 120V wiring from the front to the back of the rig in a straight line, I’ll be running it diagonally to the shore power cord storage compartment. I think I may have a route that will let me do this through the underbelly rather than under the rig. In theory, it would be easiest to bring my shore power cord to the inverter, but the stupid location of my battery bank precludes that option.

There is another thorn in this project because of my battery bank’s stupid location. Since there is no compartment next to it, I have to put the inverter up in the living room. So 12V wiring has to go up into the living room and then the 120V wiring has to come back down into the compartment to be taken to the back of the rig.

That said, the compartment where my batteries are located is huge and the batteries are well vented. I am considering putting the inverter in some sort of housing that would be sealed from the rest of the compartment but still ventable to the outside. The batteries themselves are vented to the outside, too.

I think that this would be sufficient to reduce the risk of the hydrogen emitted from the batteries from eating the inside of my inverter or, worse, meeting a spark that would cause a catastrophic boom. I really can’t see how this option is any more dangerous than having the inverter above the battery banks since hydrogen travels upwards.

If there’s still time after these issues are resolved, my mother and I will pass the cabling for the monitor and the remote inverter starter to the study from under the rig. Otherwise, they will go into the living room.

A reader emailed this evening to say that the monitor should be as close to the batteries as possible, but the Xantrex connection kit has 20′ of cabling and the customer service tech confirmed that this distance is acceptable. I’d like the starter and monitor in the study for convenience’s sake, but, really, it wouldn’t kill me to get up a couple of times a day and walk less than 40′ round trip to go check out the state of my batteries. 🙂

Before I get any concerned comments about whether or not I have enough battery capacity to run my rig off my inverter, I’m in the market for new batteries! The next few months will be a great trial run to determine just how much battery capacity I really need.

Sunday’s task list is gigantic and I hope we can get everything done!

by

Where Do Main Fuses Fit Into a Xantrex Battery Monitor Wiring Diagram?

As I started to put together my Xantrex LinkPRO battery monitor yesterday, I needed clarification as to where to fit my main 150A fuse into their wiring diagram. They had the battery monitor fuses tied directly to the positive battery terminal, while my battery bank wiring diagram has only the main 150A fuse tied to the battery and all other positive connections attached to the fuse.

I also wanted to know if my battery monitor cabling could follow the same route to the study as would the 120V wiring from the inverter.

I fired off an email to Andy Baird. His memory was fuzzy as to where I should locate the fuses, but he said that the frequency emitted from the 120V wiring would interfere with the battery monitor. Darn! Since finding one route from the battery bank to the study was difficult, finding two is out of the question. So it looks like the battery monitor will be installed in the living room. 🙁

That said, my mother had originally found a way to route wiring fairly neatly from the living room to the study, so I may be able to convince her to help me route the battery monitor cable under the rig and the 120V wiring through the rig. We are running short on time, but it never hurts to ask. 🙂

Since my guru left me at an impasse, I decide to try emailing Xantrex directly late Sunday, making sure to include my monitor’s serial number so it would be clear that I had purchased one of their products. Can you believe I just received an answer (noon Monday) from them?!

My question:

I would like clarification on two steps of the battery monitor connection kit instructions. This is in reference to an RV battery bank that includes a 1,000W inverter and a 150W solar panel. So all the positive connections are made from a 150A fuse.

Step three (3) of the instructions states:

“Connect the single inline fuse holder to the main battery + terminal.”

Should I be adding the inline fuse holders to the battery terminal (before the 150A fuse) or to the fuse 150A itself?

(Incidentally, the wiring diagram shows that that should actually be fuse holders, plural.)

Additionally, my battery bank is located below the living room of my RV, but I want to install the monitor in my home office, a distance of about 25 feet.

The instructions state in note one (1) below the diagram: “When routing the cable from the battery monitor to the battery system, avoid running it along with mains cables over long distances or in the neighbourhood of large relays or generators/motors.”

The connection kit comes with more than enough cabling to do this, so I know the distance is not an issue. But would there be a problem with running the monitor cables along with 120V wiring that provides a hard wired connection between the inverter and an outlet in the office?

Reply from Xantrex:

The fused power lead can connect to either side of the 150A fuse, however, if the 150A fuse blows, you will also lose meter power if connected to the inverter side of the fuse. The link wires should not be run with AC wires, as this can induce noise that may corrupt readings.

So not only does Xantrex answer its emails quicky, it actually reads them and provides clear and pertinent answers. I am very impressed!

I just may get a battery monitor installed in this lifetime!

by

The Importance of Cleaning RV Battery Terminals

Today, I began my battery upgrade project by cleaning all my battery posts and existing wire connections.

I started by making a paste of three tablespoons of baking soda and about one tablespoon of water. This was too much for my project, so next time I’ll halve the amount.

Before I touched anything, I cut off 12V power to the rig using The Infamous Yellow Button.

The terminals on one of my batteries were pristine while the other battery was in terrible shape!

I used a tooth brush to apply the paste to the terminals and scrub everything clean, then I wiped away the residue with a soft cloth.

Then, I used some electrical tape to clearly identify my positive and negative wires, red for positive, white for negative:

This will come in handy when I go to reassemble everything!

I bought a multipack with several colours of electrical tape and I will be colour coding everything as I put my battery bank back together. Solar will be yellow (a self-explanatory choice), inverter wiring will be green (because it’ll feed my study, which is green!), and the battery monitor will be blue (because I’ll turn blue (and feel blue) in bad weather if my batteries are running low).

The cable running between my batteries to connect them in series was the shock of the day. The positive end had essentially dissolved and fused to the battery terminal.

The negative end was in perfect condition:

I was able to completely remove the residue from the battery terminal, but the cable obviously had to be replaced. I thought to use one of my new 12″ cables, but discovered that the clamp-type connector wouldn’t work with my setup.

So I hopped in the truck and drove all the way to Canadian Tire and back to exchange the cables and get an extra one. The closest match to my old cable that they have now has a shortest length of 18″, which will be good for going from the terminals to the shunt and fuse, but is a bit long to go between the batteries.

Now that my terminal cables are clean, I can starting thinking about bringing in the new wiring. I don’t want to start something I can’t finish, so first, I need to decide just where I’ll be placing my battery monitor. If it’s going in the living room, the wiring will have to come through the floor above the battery bank and I can start getting it connect. But if it’s going to the study, the wiring will have to be run under the rig and for that, I’ll need a helper and might as well not start yet. Decisions, decisions!

by

Waiting on the Apocalypse

I was awoken by heavy rain this morning that let up by the time I got up. But the wind has been roaring ferociously and there’s a severe thunderstorm and high wind warning for the region. So bummer, no working on the battery bank today.

That said, I did pull out the battery monitor connection kit instructions and schematics and, *gasp*, they all made perfect sense! Finally!

After lunch, I decided to brave the mighty winds and the threatening clouds and walk to the grocery store since I was out of pita and tomatoes. On the way there, I decided that I wanted to make fettuccine Alfredo with steamed broccoli for dinner, so one of the first things I did was grab a head of broccoli on the way in. I also snagged a mini ciabatta baguette for lunch tomorrow.

Quebec grocery stores being, generally speaking, more refined than other grocery stores in Canada, you often can’t pick up a block of shrink wrapped Parmigiano Reggiano, but rather must order it by weight at the deli counter, the way you would at a fine cheese store or Italian deli. Needless to say, the taste is much better!

The line at the deli was long, so I had a lot of time to look at the offerings. The lady ahead of me got some Polish sausage that looked absolutely divine, so my dinner plans changed. I’ll have the fettuccine tomorrow and will be dining on baguette, cheese, sausage, salad, and white wine tonight. Thank goodness you can buy wine at the grocery store here! I don’t have wine glasses or a cork screw, but I can run into the house and get some. 🙂

I always like to get a treat for the walk home from the grocery store and try make it a fruit I’ve never had before. Today, I noticed something called a pluot, which I’ve since learned is a cross between a plum and an apricot. Looking at the Wikipedia page, I am certain that the variety I had was a ‘Dapple Dandy.’ I wish I had bought more! It was so sweet and juicy, merging the best attributes of the plum and the apricot.

I’ll send the rest of the afternoon firming up my plans for the electrical upgrade. One of the things I need to decide on once and for all is where I want to locate the charging station for the small electronics, like the cell phone.

Part of me really wants it in the study, but my original idea of the living room makes more sense. I want to add a 120V outlet to the passenger side of the rig. If I’m going to do that, I might as well create a charging strip using a power bar that I can plug into the new 120V outlet or the inverter. My mother has a couple of ideas that sound good, so I will definitely listen to her input.

Whatever I do, I am bringing 120V power from the inverter to the study via a hardwired connection. We’ve traced the best path for the wiring under the rig and I’ll be putting under my desk a 120V outlet powered by the inverter.

So when I am off shore power, I’ll be able to unplug my power bar from the 120V outlet fed by shore power and plug it into the one fed by the inverter. End result, no more extension cord running from the inverter in the living room to the study. A whole house inverter continues to be an enticing idea, but this plan is less expensive. 🙂

by

All the Pieces Needed For Adding a 1,000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter and 12V Battery Monitor to my RV Battery System

The battery makeover project is going to start this weekend! There are a couple of phases to it.

I have just completed the ‘research what I need and get all the pieces’ phase. At first, I was completely overwhelmed by the whole thing. But with a solid knowledge base about 12V systems, I was able to keep reading until things made sense.

Now, no laughing at my lack of graphic design skills, but this sketch should give a general idea of how my 12V battery bank is going to be wired once I’ve added all the new items:

Here are are all the electrical components I need just at the battery bank to make this happen and get my inverter hooked up:

Going left to right, starting with the blue (now black) cables at the top. These are 12″-long 1-gauge cables from Canadian Tire, part #011-1091-0. They have round terminal ends for fitting between a nut and a bolt. These blue cables were replaced by part #11-1088-0, which has round terminal ends at both ends, with the shortest size being 18″. These will go between the shunt and the negative terminal on the inverter and between the fuse and the positive terminal on the inverter.

Next are the black cables, which are 3′-long 1-gauge cables, Canadian Tire part #011-1032-2. They have heavy lug at one end that goes around the battery post and a smaller looped terminal end to go between a nut and a bolt. One will go from the negative terminal of my battery bank to the shunt and the other will go from the positive terminal of the battery bank to the fuse.

(I already have the cable that creates the series connection between my two batteries.)

So between the two cable lengths, I have four feet to get from my battery bank to my inverter, which will limit where I can put it, but will mean very little resistance and therefore less of a voltage drop. The inverter manufacturer recommends 4-gauge cable with a maximum length of 6′, so I am well above the recommended specs.

I did a lot of research and consulting as to where to find battery cables and the end resulting was very overwhelming, complicated, and expensive. The Canadian Tire cables are well made and I paid $75 plus tax total for all four.

Next, the long silver thing is a 150 amp fuse and holder from Northern Arizona Sun & Electric. These folks have great service and competitive prices, but I won’t be ordering from them again from Canada because they ship through UPS, meaning I have to add a nearly $50 brokerage fee to my order on top of the more expensive shipping price than if they used USPS. I will be getting a back up fuse from them when I am in the States this winter, however!

Sizing the fuse was a little counter-intuitive, but once I thought about it, it makes perfect sense. Basically, you want a fuse that can handle your maximum load and not blow early, but it can’t have so much capacity as to allow a damaging load to pass through.

Having a 1,000 watt inverter with a surge capacity of 2,000 watts, that means I could have as much as 167 amps (2,000/12) going through my system at one time. That said, I know I will not be running anything with that kind of load in the foreseeable future, so the 150 amp fuse is sufficient. It’s not that expensive of a part, so I always have the option of replacing it with a higher rating later if need be.

Note that the solar panel has its own fuse. I vaguely understand why, but you can check out this discussion for more details.

The short silver item and round thing next to the fuse are the shunt and the battery monitor. They come together. I bought a Xantrex LinkPRO battery monitor simply because I had sufficient Amazon gift certificates to cover the cost. The PRO’s main additional feature over the LITE model is that it gives you the amount of time left at your current rate of consumption instead of just the amount of battery life as a percentage. That information would have been worth the $40 price difference even if I had been paying out of pocket.

The shunt is connected to the negative side of the battery bank and monitors all the energy into and out of your battery bank to determine your consumption.

The coiled wire is the Xantrex Connection Kit. Electrically savvy RVers with a source for parts would find it much cheaper to make their own connection kit. But for a newbie, this kit apparently makes the installation fool proof. There is some assembly required, but everything is colour-coded. I am going to start the assembly this weekend. Since I essentially got the monitor free, the trouble of researching, finding the parts, and making my own connection kit just didn’t seem worth my time.

Finally, at the bottom, is my new 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter.

This weekend, I will enter the ‘assemble the battery monitor’ phase and start on the ‘put it all together’ phase.

Next nice weekend that my mother is available, we’ll move into the ‘finishing putting it all together, set up the inverter in the living room, and bring 120V power from the inverter from the living room to the study via the rig belly and then finish all the trim along the floor in the rig’ phase.

Finally, sometime this fall or winter, when I am in the US, will finish up this project with the ‘install two new Trojan 6V batteries and a battery watering system’ phase.

I sure have come a long way in my electrical knowledge in the last four years and I am starting to apply this knowledge to the 120V world, too. One thing I love about RVing is that it gives you the chance to learn so many new skills if you want to. Now, I like paying someone to do work as much as the next person, but it’s nice to know that you could have done them.

Well, it’s going to rain again, so I won’t be starting today.