Goal
Live out of our campervan for 5-6 months. We just bought a 2001 Sprinter campervan in New Zealand. We fly into NZ in November from Canada.
Currently Campercan System:
- 100ah agm battery
- 500w modified wave inverter
- 90A Voltage-sensitive relay module (13.7 cut in, 12.8v cut out)
- 2 panels of unknown watts (the past owner said when the van sat for many days not driving the battery tops up each day with the fridge running)
- Mppt charge controller of unknown size
- I plan to replace the alternator to a 150A, maybe 200A. (Vin says it’s 90A stock)
Why a 1500-watt inverter
I read I should change the inverter since a modified sine wave inverter could damage our MacBook work laptops. So if I have to upgrade it anyways I was hoping to get at a 1500-watt inverter. Since 1500w (3000 Peak) can run most household electronics. I also would like the ability to run a blender for about 30 seconds a day lol. 60 max. 60 seconds doesn't seem long until you run a blender for that long lol.
My plan to run 1500 watt inverter. Do you think it’ll work?
I’m guessing 1500w would really damage a 100ah agm house battery; So my plan is to run it off the house battery, starter battery, and alternator. This way the power will be divided among the 3 sources of power. A blender doesn’t run for long so I’ll be able to top off the starter battery before shutting off the vehicle. Were talking about starting the van for about 1-2 mins, once a day. The alternator will be at least a 150A which is 60amps bigger than stock. I know you don’t get the full amps at idle but I think it should still give a fair amount of power.
My electrical wire plan
My electrical plan is fairly simple. Change the wire that goes from the starter battery to the house battery to instestead run from the starter battery to the inverter positive post. Than run another wire from the house batter to the positive post of the inverter. This way the inverter will pull power from both wires coming from different sources. The wire that goes to the inverter to the starter battery will have a smart isolator switch with a manual override button. If I want to use the blender I’ll just have to push the manual override button to connect everything together.
Plan to stop inverter pulling 1500w when vehicle is off
I know breakers/fuses normally protect the wire, but in this case I could size the breaker going from the inverter to the house battery to limit the power that is pulled from the house battery. I’m thinking maybe a 50amp breaker??? idk, idk because I don’t know what a normal pull people accept from AGM batteries.
Where I’m stuck
I don’t have enough experience to guess if this system will work because:
- I don’t know what is a normally acceptable constant power draw from an AGM battery to find a good fuse size from the house battery to the inverter.
- I don’t know how to even guess the amount an alternator will provide to the Pure sine wave inverter with the other two batteries connected.
My Canadian campervan test may help someone answer my questions
With my canadian campervan I did Is I disconnected my Lithium house batteries and connected the house system to my starter battery. Then I ran my big household Vitamix blender off the van’s 3000w inverter. I have a dedicated battery monitor on my starter battery and watched to see how many watts it pulled with the vehicle running. It was draining 450 watts from the battery at start and slowly pulling less and less. I reconnected the house lithium batteries and ran the blender to check how many watts the blender was pulling in total. The blender was pulling 1.3kw so around 1350watts.
This test made me think the 1500watt inverter might work for a blender in my NZ campervan because even though it has a 150amp alternator it would have the house battery also providing power to the inverter, Unlike my Canadian campervan test.
I have almost the same van in Canada. They’re both model sprinters but my Canadian one is slightly newer with a bigger motor. 2.7L vs 2.1L. I don’t think the motors should matter since the idle speed is the same and the alternators are interchangeable. Also, my Canadian one is running a 200A alternator.
Sidenote: I’m not keeping the New Zealand Campervan
After our 5-6 months in New Zealand I plan to sell the campervan. So I don’t want to invest too much money in the power system. I also don’t want to spend too much time working on the power system and not experience the beauty of NZ. I think it will be the last time in my life that I go there so I want to experience the country. I also want to leave a Safe good system for the next owner of the vehicle. I’m happy with the upgrade cost of a 1500 pure inverter some breakers and possibly some bigger wires. The alternator needs to be changed regardless. It’s never been changed and the pulley is seized.
Any advice would be awesome.
Live out of our campervan for 5-6 months. We just bought a 2001 Sprinter campervan in New Zealand. We fly into NZ in November from Canada.
Currently Campercan System:
- 100ah agm battery
- 500w modified wave inverter
- 90A Voltage-sensitive relay module (13.7 cut in, 12.8v cut out)
- 2 panels of unknown watts (the past owner said when the van sat for many days not driving the battery tops up each day with the fridge running)
- Mppt charge controller of unknown size
- I plan to replace the alternator to a 150A, maybe 200A. (Vin says it’s 90A stock)
Why a 1500-watt inverter
I read I should change the inverter since a modified sine wave inverter could damage our MacBook work laptops. So if I have to upgrade it anyways I was hoping to get at a 1500-watt inverter. Since 1500w (3000 Peak) can run most household electronics. I also would like the ability to run a blender for about 30 seconds a day lol. 60 max. 60 seconds doesn't seem long until you run a blender for that long lol.
My plan to run 1500 watt inverter. Do you think it’ll work?
I’m guessing 1500w would really damage a 100ah agm house battery; So my plan is to run it off the house battery, starter battery, and alternator. This way the power will be divided among the 3 sources of power. A blender doesn’t run for long so I’ll be able to top off the starter battery before shutting off the vehicle. Were talking about starting the van for about 1-2 mins, once a day. The alternator will be at least a 150A which is 60amps bigger than stock. I know you don’t get the full amps at idle but I think it should still give a fair amount of power.
My electrical wire plan
My electrical plan is fairly simple. Change the wire that goes from the starter battery to the house battery to instestead run from the starter battery to the inverter positive post. Than run another wire from the house batter to the positive post of the inverter. This way the inverter will pull power from both wires coming from different sources. The wire that goes to the inverter to the starter battery will have a smart isolator switch with a manual override button. If I want to use the blender I’ll just have to push the manual override button to connect everything together.
Plan to stop inverter pulling 1500w when vehicle is off
I know breakers/fuses normally protect the wire, but in this case I could size the breaker going from the inverter to the house battery to limit the power that is pulled from the house battery. I’m thinking maybe a 50amp breaker??? idk, idk because I don’t know what a normal pull people accept from AGM batteries.
Where I’m stuck
I don’t have enough experience to guess if this system will work because:
- I don’t know what is a normally acceptable constant power draw from an AGM battery to find a good fuse size from the house battery to the inverter.
- I don’t know how to even guess the amount an alternator will provide to the Pure sine wave inverter with the other two batteries connected.
My Canadian campervan test may help someone answer my questions
With my canadian campervan I did Is I disconnected my Lithium house batteries and connected the house system to my starter battery. Then I ran my big household Vitamix blender off the van’s 3000w inverter. I have a dedicated battery monitor on my starter battery and watched to see how many watts it pulled with the vehicle running. It was draining 450 watts from the battery at start and slowly pulling less and less. I reconnected the house lithium batteries and ran the blender to check how many watts the blender was pulling in total. The blender was pulling 1.3kw so around 1350watts.
This test made me think the 1500watt inverter might work for a blender in my NZ campervan because even though it has a 150amp alternator it would have the house battery also providing power to the inverter, Unlike my Canadian campervan test.
I have almost the same van in Canada. They’re both model sprinters but my Canadian one is slightly newer with a bigger motor. 2.7L vs 2.1L. I don’t think the motors should matter since the idle speed is the same and the alternators are interchangeable. Also, my Canadian one is running a 200A alternator.
Sidenote: I’m not keeping the New Zealand Campervan
After our 5-6 months in New Zealand I plan to sell the campervan. So I don’t want to invest too much money in the power system. I also don’t want to spend too much time working on the power system and not experience the beauty of NZ. I think it will be the last time in my life that I go there so I want to experience the country. I also want to leave a Safe good system for the next owner of the vehicle. I’m happy with the upgrade cost of a 1500 pure inverter some breakers and possibly some bigger wires. The alternator needs to be changed regardless. It’s never been changed and the pulley is seized.
Any advice would be awesome.
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