What type of inverter for a 1500 watt draw for 8 hours

[chrisski]

What type of inverter would you use for 1500 watts constant draw for 8 hours?

I find myself on my RV once this build is complete to enough battery power and solar production to do Level 1 EV charging. Probably not for 8 hours, but more like 4 hours.

Never put much thought into an inverter for large constant AC draws.

 

[Dzl]

This would be a supplemental inverter dedicated to just this purpose, or powering the whole RV AC electrical system?

 

[time2roll]

I would not hesitate to use my 2000 watt GoPower sine wave inverter at 1500 watts for 8+ hours.
And yes I have used it to charge my EV for maybe an hour for testing. Runs cool.

 

[sunshine]

Never put much thought into an inverter for large constant AC draws.

No doubt this issue, charging EVs to get them home, will have already been on the minds of many road service organisations.
There was a post a few months ago of 10kw/12v inverters. Will edit in a link when it turns up.

 

[chrisski]

This would be a supplemental inverter dedicated to just this purpose, or powering the whole RV AC electrical system

It would power the whole RV, but no large loads would be on at the same time. I would not turn on the Microwave and LEVEL 1 charge an EV, but I would have other loads totaling 300 watts like a stereo and TV.

Intent would be to do 13 amp level 1.

 

[Dzl]

Seems like for this application (high power for extended amounts of time) high efficiency would be of greater value than usual.

At 85% efficiency over 8 hours a constant 1500W draw would waste 2120Wh
At 90% efficiency over 8 hours a constant 1500W draw would waste 1336Wh
At 95% efficiency over 8 hours a constant 1500W draw would waste 632Wh

Not sure what the most efficient 12V 2000W+ inverter is. Maybe the Victron Multiplus-II (93% peak) which has the side benefit of being designed specifically with the North American RV market in mind. Spec sheet here. Continuous output is rated at 2400W @ 25*C and 2200W @ 40*C, good surge capability.

 

[chrisski]

I am upgrading to a 24 volt on this RV conversion. If I'm to believe my inverter spec sheet, a 3000 watt 24 volt inverter would have no issues with a level 1 charger 8 hours a day, for days on end.

The inverter I am installing is a 3000 watt Samlex 24-PST. If I'm to read the spec'd power off the sheet, it is good for 3000 watts continuous, which would more than cover the 1500 watt 13 amp 120 VAC current.



As far as Overheating when its in use, I have not started that upgrade yet. As far as overheating temp, when it gets to 90° C, the inverter shuts down, although not in the specs I suspect it will start to cut back production at some temp below cutoff.

 

[Ceberha]

I have been using a Samlex PST 1500-12 to power a level 1 charger for the last few weeks with no problems. I have gone an hour or so charging at 12 amps AC, which heats it up a bit, but generally set the charger at 8 amps. At the.low level the fans rarely ever turn on, and I have charged.for several hours.

I plan to switch to a 24 volt system soon, but the Samlex worked much better than I expected for this.

 

[chrisski]

I have been using a Samlex PST 1500-12 to power a level 1 charger for the last few weeks with no problems. I have gone an hour or so charging at 12 amps AC, which heats it up a bit, but generally set the charger at 8 amps. At the.low level the fans rarely ever turn on, and I have charged.for several hours.

I plan to switch to a 24 volt system soon, but the Samlex worked much better than I expected for this.

I appreciate this. It would be nice to have the RV set up on the lake and then plug a level 1 charger in an EV is we get one. At the non-summer time of year there's a lot of extra energy that the system can produce. The one drive from the house is between 25 and 40 miles, so if that EV s there for a couple of days, the RV could help charge it back up.

 

[Dzl]

The inverter I am installing is a 3000 watt Samlex 24-PST....

I thought this thread was about you choosing an inverter? It sounds like you've already chosen and/or purchased your inverter. Did I misinterpret?

 

[chrisski]

I thought this thread was about you choosing an inverter? It sounds like you've already chosen and/or purchased your inverter. Did I misinterpret?

I apologize I am all over the place here. I really would like to know what non-grid tied inverters people have found successful for a Level 1 Charger on a solar build.

Even though I have chosen an inverter for the RV build, in the back of my mind I'm coming up with an idea for a non-grid tied solar build good for 7kwh of power a day, mostly to charge a level 1 charging station I would like to build at my house. For the inverter, I'd like something that would be good day after day, week after week, month after month for 4 - 8 hours a day at 13 amps 120 VAC, 1500 watts.

 

[Ceberha]

I understand. Now that I have a plug in hybrid Rav4 to charge I have an excuse to expand the off grid system!

 

[chrisski]

I think that I ought to look at inverters that are used on grid tied systems. Those things are running all day long, day in day out for years. Also those are used for much higher wattages than I want.

 

[MichaelK]

A lot of attention is being focused on the inverter, but nothing is being mentioned about the solar input itself. It's not being realistic to discuss how long an inverter can feed 1500W if you aren't going to discuss how you are going to be able to feed the inverter 1500+W.

My usual rule of thumb that I've found is that having 2X the number of panels as your load is a good starting point. So, that would be 3000W of panels to feed 1500W. But, are these panels going to be oriented flat on the RV roof? If yes, you need to include a substantial fudgefactor to compensate for the lower production of the panels while laying flat, as compared to oriented directly at the sun. I'd say that 75% is a good fudgefactor. 3000W/0.75 = 4000W of panels. Is it realistic that you can fit 4000W of panels on your RV roof?

For my cabin system, I have 4500W of panels, and I KNOW that I can support a 1500W load from about 7:30am till about 4:30pm. That is with rotating mounts that can be positioned facing SE in the morning, and SW in the afternoon. Fixed would be far shorter.

 

[NameBrand]

I've been using Exeltech 24/7/365 to power technology loads off a 48vDC bank for over 10 years...

 

[chrisski]

I used the SAMLEX 3000 watt 24 volt inverter with 2550 watts of panels to run Air Conditioning at 1700+ watts for six hours straight. Outside temps got to 90s. The inverter reached 100° F as measured by an IR measuring device. I'm happy with that.