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Energy Audit with manual load management

corn18

Village Idiot
Joined
Sep 9, 2021
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When I was doing my energy audit, I listed everything that could draw power in my RV. Makes sense. But the audit spits out a huge inverter size (>4kw). More than I think I need. Here's the issue when I list all 3 power hogs in the RV:

Microwave: 1325 watts for 15 minutes a day
Keurig: 1500W for 2 minutes a day (wow, those little things are hungry)
Coffee maker: 900W for 5 minutes a day (wife likes brewed coffee)

The audit sees that and assumes all three will need to run at the same time (3,725W). We will never use more than one of those at a time. So I put in 1500W for 30 minutes a day as a single input. That reduces the inverter required to 1972W once I have all my other stuff input. That seems more reasonable for how we use our RV.

We also have a 1200W inverter dedicated to the residential fridge. I left that out of the initial energy audit to get an idea of inverter sizing for everything but the fridge. I put the fridge back in to get an output for battery and solar size. I like that output. Says I need a bit more battery and solar capacity.
 
The audit assumes you don't alter your behavior. If you're willing to behave as you describe, your approach is viable. Consider that humans aren't always consistent. I've had to remind my wife SEVERAL times that we can't have three big things running at once. Fortunately, my inverter has a big surge allowance for about 20-30 seconds, so it's never been a big deal.

Note that Microwaves are VERY inefficient. 1325W is an odd number, so I'm guessing you're listing input vs. output, which is good. I'm guessing your Microwave is a 800-900W unit based on 1325W drain.

Personally, I would look at eliminating the 1200W inverter as a matter of routine (keep on-hand as a backup) and go with a single 3kW inverter with good surge. You could now run 2 high drain devices, and you haven't given anything up.
 
The audit assumes you don't alter your behavior. If you're willing to behave as you describe, your approach is viable. Consider that humans aren't always consistent. I've had to remind my wife SEVERAL times that we can't have three big things running at once. Fortunately, my inverter has a big surge allowance for about 20-30 seconds, so it's never been a big deal.

Note that Microwaves are VERY inefficient. 1325W is an odd number, so I'm guessing you're listing input vs. output, which is good. I'm guessing your Microwave is a 800-900W unit based on 1325W drain.

Personally, I would look at eliminating the 1200W inverter as a matter of routine (keep on-hand as a backup) and go with a single 3kW inverter with good surge. You could now run 2 high drain devices, and you haven't given anything up.
Yup, 1,325Watts is the input to the microwave. Not even sure what the output is, but RV microwaves are not big.

I am considering a single 3KW inverter charger. Any recommendations?
 
While spendy, it's very very hard to go wrong with a Multiplus.
Yeah, that's kindof where my head is at, too. I just put the 5er to bed for the winter so any changes will have to wait until next spring. I might run a season on the 2 inverters and see how that goes.
 
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