Bustener caravan electrics 12v

[drew12]

I have very little knowledge about the electrics in my van. I have bought a solar system with a 2000W inverter but I dont know how to set it up.

Originally I had it going through the main fuse box (in the wardrobe above heater) which I think just drains the 12v batteries because its meant for the grid.

I'm hoping with the photos I attached someone can help me! Thanks in advance

 

[otherclive]

I have very little knowledge about the electrics in my van. I have bought a solar system with a 2000W inverter but I dont know how to set it up.

Originally I had it going through the main fuse box (in the wardrobe above heater) which I think just drains the 12v batteries because its meant for the grid.

I'm hoping with the photos I attached someone can help me! Thanks in advance

Your photos haven’t come through. They need to be below around 1mb or less.

 

[IanB1485]

You should ,IMO wire the 12V inverter inputs as close to the battery terminals as possible , via a 200A fuse and suitably thick wires , also keep in a ventilated space as it's going to to get warm. Realistically what are expecting from the battery solar panels ? because a 12V 110Ahr battery will supply 2kW for about 1/2 hour maximum if fully charged and some leisure batteries may not even last that long.
2kW at nominal 12V = 166 amps ( if the inverter is 100% efficient which they aren't),
Theoretically a 100 A.hr battery will supply 100A for 1 hour , but 100A.hr batteries are normally rated as such at a discharge rate of C20 ie. 20 hours discharge rate which is only 5A When stressed at supplying such a high current the battery would only last about 20 minutes , before the inverter would sense the drop in the battery voltage and switch off. Also your solar panel , if say its 100W capacity it may only produce 5- 10W on dull days, so would take a long time to recharge the battery. taking it at 10W continuous = 100/0.833A = 120 hour= 5 days , but wait ,we only get about 9-10 hours of useful daylight per day , so it would actually take 24/9 x 5 days =13.3 days if you used 2kW of mains power for 1 hour. I hope that given you an idea of the limitations of solar panels and delivering mains power from batteries.(it why some folks take petrol generators when going off grid)

 

[Mr Plodd]

The inverter is to increase the 12v coming out of your leisure battery to power 230V appliances, such as a mains TV etc. It is nothing to do with your solar panel.

The solar panel requires a regulator/controller to control the current going into your leisure battery from your solar panel.

 

[Jcloughie]

Hi Drew12 and welcome. Your post indicates to me that you have little knowledge or experience of low and mains voltage wiring as you also admit. Therefore I would strongly suggest you get any work done by a qualified person.

John

 

[drew12]

You should ,IMO wire the 12V inverter inputs as close to the battery terminals as possible , via a 200A fuse and suitably thick wires , also keep in a ventilated space as it's going to to get warm. Realistically what are expecting from the battery solar panels ? because a 12V 110Ahr battery will supply 2kW for about 1/2 hour maximum if fully charged and some leisure batteries may not even last that long.
2kW at nominal 12V = 166 amps ( if the inverter is 100% efficient which they aren't),
Theoretically a 100 A.hr battery will supply 100A for 1 hour , but 100A.hr batteries are normally rated as such at a discharge rate of C20 ie. 20 hours discharge rate which is only 5A When stressed at supplying such a high current the battery would only last about 20 minutes , before the inverter would sense the drop in the battery voltage and switch off. Also your solar panel , if say its 100W capacity it may only produce 5- 10W on dull days, so would take a long time to recharge the battery. taking it at 10W continuous = 100/0.833A = 120 hour= 5 days , but wait ,we only get about 9-10 hours of useful daylight per day , so it would actually take 24/9 x 5 days =13.3 days if you used 2kW of mains power for 1 hour. I hope that given you an idea of the limitations of solar panels and delivering mains power from batteries.(it why some folks take petrol generators when going off grid)

Thanks to everyone that replied! I'm bad with trying to explain this so please have patience with me...

I have the solar, controller, battery and inverter all set up correctly, I made very sure of this. The inverter is on short thick cables to the battery. So I have electric but I just don't have it connected to the caravan. I bought the caravan secondhand (spain) and lost the contact of the seller to ask for his help.

I did originally have a plug that was already wired to the fuse box breaker in the caravan. When I plugged this into the inverter everything worked in the caravan, but not for long. So I figured that plug was meant for mains because it was earthed so batteries drained.

So now I'm not sure where to connect the inverter..

Next to the fuse box there's wires coming out and that are to be connected to each other with a fuse attached.

Not being able to post photos really sucks. I hope I made it clear enough

 

[Hutch]

Drew, a couple of questions,
Do you know if the battery is in good condition, if it is NOT, then it will not accept a charge from the solar panel and therefore not give power to the inverter.

What are you powering from the inverter, ie, TV, 240 v heaters, kettle etc.
That will give us a chance as to how many amps you are trying to power.
Shame you are not able to suss out the photos.

 

[otherclive]

Here’s a link that might help in posting photos. I generally sim for 1 mb or less then the Forum software works okay. I’m IOS so Android or PC may be different. If you say what system you are using then I’m sure someone can advise.

Pictures post at right angles

On occasions when I post a photo it will load sideways. Even when I go back into my phones photo album and edit it to rotate 90 degrees it still loads into my post as sideways. Other members have also had this problem which seems random in nature. Could the web team look at including a “rotate...

forums.practicalcaravan.com

 

[Woodentop]

To simplify things a bit, watts is watts plain and simple. Therefore if you try to draw 100W at mains voltage from the output of your inverter the inverter will try to draw 100W from the 12V supply feeding the inverter - indeed as most inverters are only about 90% efficient the draw from the battery will be maybe 110W. You don't need to do any ampere conversions, just work in watts, its much easier.
Having said that, 100W at mains is about 400mA whereas 100W at 12.6V (assuming a fully charged battery) is about 8A. Say your caravan battery is rated 100Ah (and most caravan batteries are quoted at a 20 hour rate whereas car batteries tend to be 10 hour rated) that means the battery in theory should be able to provide 5A for 20 hours. However the more current you pull the shorter the battery charge life, so 10A may only last 8-9 hours and 20A could be as little as 3 hours.
Hope that helps in your decision making?