A few weeks ago I had the RS3000 Xanbus inverter/charger (
http://www.rvlifestyles.net/ItemPage.as ... 8157&GUID=) installed on my coach. I also had 2 more 12v batteries installed with watering systems.
Last weekend we dry camped at my SIL house for 3 nights. We tried to plug into a 15amp source but there was to much load on the circuit to give us any power. It kept triping. Later I realized that the electric to the hot water heater was on and that the charger on the inverter was drawing to much power. Thats ok we got a few days to test the new 12v system.
It was chilly and the furnace was run at night every night we were there. The fridge was on propane all weekend. We turned the hot water heater on gas a few times before we used the showers. We did not cook in the motorhome this weekend but ate with the family in the house or BBQ'd.
We started out with a full charge after driving there a time of 3 hours. We watched a little tv and played/checked to see if the Xbox was hooked up right. The electric hot water heater cycled once on the inverter. Friday morning we made coffee.
We ran the generator for 30 minutes on Saturday because the batteries were at 2/3 power and we wanted to vacume the motorhome and exercise the genny for the month. This charge the batteries up again and when we left Sunday night we had 2/3 power in the batteries. Saturday morning we had the tv running for a hour or two.
Saturday night we ran the furnace again and Sunday morning we made coffee. Sunday the furnace was off and we did not watch tv. All weekend when not running AC equipment we turned off the inverter to save power.
When the inverter was installed I had mostly everything run thru the inverter except air conditioning. I was thinking I could then run the fridge on the inverter while I drive. This may come in handy when going thru tunnels and places that gas should be turned off.
I maybe should not have run the washer/dryer or the electric hot water ac thru it. But it is wired and I am in no hurry to change it unless I have problems. Other than the electric switch being bumped on for the hot water heater I have not had any problems with it wired like this.
The battery watering system is very nice because the wires had to be run around the cables had to made to go around the filling area and now I do not have to remove cables to fill. With 4 batteries this would have been a pain in the butt. I have 670ah with the 4 12v batteries. I know if I went with 4 6v batteries I could have obtained something like 880ah. I went the cheap rout because the two batteries that came with the coach were new and adding two new batteries was cheaper than buying 4 6v batteries. Maybe when they all die I will switch over to 6v batteries but for me this was a better way to go.
I love having 3000w of power available from the inverter. I know if I use it at its capacity I will drain the battery bank in short time. But I like the idea of a bigger inverter because I don't need to worry as much about over drawing on it. This was a personal choice and is probable overkill. I also wanted to avoid the "I wish I would have gotten..." statements that might have come with buying a smaller inverter.
This information is offered up so those that are interested in getting an inverter may gain an idea of what they may like.
Thanks for reading. I will try and answer any questions you all have if you care to ask. Happy Camping.