Inverter Help

Help...I'm so confused !!

I bought a Xantrex 1000W inverter and i'm trying to figure out how big of a fuse or circuit breaker i need to put between the battery bank and the inverter itself. I have done many searches and found many different answers. I don't really want to spend more on the fuse/circuit breaker than the inverter.

The answers a have found so far:
Instruction Book...Max. 150A...That's all it says, so if that's the max, what's the min. ?
RV.net post...If you do it right you really don't need a fuse or circiut breaker.
Camping world installer...We just put a 40a breaker in.
Many other postings...anywhere from 80A to 120A

I'm about ready to go mad !!!

Can someone please help ?
I currently have 2 group 24 Deep Cycle Batteries.

Thanks

jacandjan wrote:Help...I'm so confused !!

I bought a Xantrex 1000W inverter and i'm trying to figure out how big of a fuse or circuit breaker i need to put between the battery bank and the inverter itself. I have done many searches and found many different answers. I don't really want to spend more on the fuse/circuit breaker than the inverter.

The answers a have found so far:
Instruction Book...Max. 150A...That's all it says, so if that's the max, what's the min. ?
RV.net post...If you do it right you really don't need a fuse or circiut breaker.
Camping world installer...We just put a 40a breaker in.
Many other postings...anywhere from 80A to 120A

I'm about ready to go mad !!!

Can someone please help ?
I currently have 2 group 24 Deep Cycle Batteries.

Thanks

I have a 200A breaker for my 2000W inverter. Figure it this way, in a perfect world (no loss), 1000W from 12V requires 85amps. Your 1000W inverter is probably good for 1500W surge, so that is 123A. Go with what the Xantrex manual says; a 150A breaker is not overkill. Don't forget you need really big cables; probably 3.0 or 2.0. Your Xantrex manual should spec this out for you. If you can find welding cable it is much easier to work with.

Check this out. Price sounds too good to be true so check it out carefully. I probably paid ten times that for mine.

Guess the prices have really come down. here is another one for $15.

An added advantage to using a circuit breaker is that you can totally kill the power to your inverter when it is not in use. I checked mine and it draws a little current even when it is off; not real desirable when you are running on batteries.

Scottz
Thanks for the links, i hadn't even thought of checking the local car stereo places. I think as soon as you put RV in a product descripton it doubles the price.

This inverter has a 2000w surge .
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/23/p/69/pt/29/product.asp

jacandjan wrote:Scottz
Thanks for the links, i hadn't even thought of checking the local car stereo places. I think as soon as you put RV in a product descripton it doubles the price.

This inverter has a 2000w surge .
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/23/p/69/pt/29/product.asp

Yeah, I forgot to mention that you can pick these up locally at car stereo shops, but I seem to remember it being really expensive; check it out. The stereo guys (you know, the ones that make your truck bounce around at stop lights) use a lot of power and you can find big circuit breakers at their shops.

Scottz

I went to my local stereo store and they had the same breaker that your 2nd link showed but instead of $15 it was $49.

I'm always looking for a good deal but sometimes buying from the internet can be hit or miss. Have you bought from that site before ?

Thanks for your input

No I have not. I have bought a lot stuff on line, seldom have any problems, but I can't comment on that site. My breaker is a different brand (can't remember what it is), but it looks exactly like that. For $15, I'd give it a shot. Of course it depends on how much they want for S & H; sometimes that doubles the price and makes the local shop look a lot better.

I use the same type of breaker to control the inverter power on my company truck.

Alright, I'm going to try this one,

http://cgi.ebay.com/Car-Stereo-150-Amp-12-Volt-Circuit-Breaker_W0QQitemZ190253668183QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item190253668183&_trkparms=72:1205|39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0m14

Same brand as the local store and a total of $15

Another Question:
Clamped to the top of the slideout hydraulic pump motor is a power distribution block. It would guess that everyone has the same thing. It has positive and negitive posts with cable coming from the batteries. Would this be an OK place to connect the inverter wires or should I go directly to the battery ?

I'm not sure, I'll have to go look. I took power directly from the batteries via the battery disconnect switch. I used the disconnect switch as a terminal block. If you follow the link in my signature, you can see some photos. They are in the "Wildcat Power" folder.