Electrical Thinking of installing an inverter

[Trader- Jo]

I just came across this thread and registered to reply.

Did you know that espresso machines and milk steamers were gas and fire driven? The basis of the machines is to produced steam under pressure. The machines heat up to produce steam to extract coffee under pressure. While you appear to be determined to spend $4000 to get a $4 coffee there are many economical and effective solutions out there.

A simple stovetop espresso machine will cost less than $50 and they make great coffee. For your steamed milk there are several options. Hot milk and a battery powered frother, a tabletop steamer, a plain old whisk. OR if you are really determined to have a gadget...a Bellman Stovetop steamer.

Everyone here would agree that every little bit of weight counts, everything has to have dual purpose and everything has to take up as little space as possible. While its nice to have a fancy espresso machine, a grossly over powered inverter and house batteries to run it, it isnt necessary when there are much better options. I carry a stove top espresso and a french press, for the most part we use instant, its just not that important.

 

[Crusty181]

I just came across this thread and registered to reply.

Did you know that espresso machines and milk steamers were gas and fire driven? The basis of the machines is to produced steam under pressure. The machines heat up to produce steam to extract coffee under pressure. While you appear to be determined to spend $4000 to get a $4 coffee there are many economical and effective solutions out there.

A simple stovetop espresso machine will cost less than $50 and they make great coffee. For your steamed milk there are several options. Hot milk and a battery powered frother, a tabletop steamer, a plain old whisk. OR if you are really determined to have a gadget...a Bellman Stovetop steamer.

Everyone here would agree that every little bit of weight counts, everything has to have dual purpose and everything has to take up as little space as possible. While its nice to have a fancy espresso machine, a grossly over powered inverter and house batteries to run it, it isnt necessary when there are much better options. I carry a stove top espresso and a french press, for the most part we use instant, its just not that important.

Camping, I prefer a well made freshly ground coffee. Most people are not going to jerk around creating a coffee masterpieces from scratch, i on the other hand enjoy it. Most will either drink instant dishwater and floor sweepings, or opt for a pod machine. Although i dont have one, pod machines can produce reasonable coffee without the Barista degree, or the jerking about. Most pid folk i presume would take their home pod machine, so that only leaves an inverter for a few $100 to power it.

 

[Macca_75]

We bought a Pod machine to live in the van. With a cash back offer and the price (it was on special because it is "hot pink" colour it ended up costing <$40 from memory. It doesn't have the attached milk frother so doesn't consume much cupboard space either. I am comfortable with the weight and space used so I can have my morning cuppa.

 

[Drover]

Bourbon, less stuffing around except for keeping the ice machine loaded........

So long as the coffee is hot, strong and no flaming milk watering it down and isn't stewed......I will indulge.

 

[Johnanbev]

Bourbon, less stuffing around except for keeping the ice machine loaded........

So long as the coffee is hot, strong and no flaming milk watering it down and isn't stewed......I will indulge.

Unpolluted coffee is great, but why pollute the bourbon?

 

[Drover]

Unpolluted coffee is great, but why pollute the bourbon?

Only with ice, no need when down south but truly an enhancement in QLD.....lol.

 

[pjulian]

How did you go identifying the different power circuits to allow isolation of the HWS, A/C and Charger ?
I love the idea !

 

[Base23]

How did you go identifying the different power circuits to allow isolation of the HWS, A/C and Charger ?
I love the idea !

Lots of testing and unplugging and pulling cupboards apart. Was not easy but makes the inverter system fool proof and very easy to use for everyone.

 

[pjulian]

I bet, I love the idea though, it would be so worth it to have it done right like that.
Thanks for the info.

 

[millers]

Due to your own priorities, the solutions that best fit you will be different. The advantage of the forum is to see what some of the solutions are.
I am not that into to coffee that I would have one in the caravan (I do not even have one at home). So this option would be mute with me. We do however like to use the microwave and the laptop may not have a 12V option along with the camera. But this would have a simpler option.

Sometimes the initial outlay may be expensive, but if you only spend it once then it may be worth it. That is as long as the ongoing costs are not an issue. Batteries etc. have used this with the Clearview Mirrors. The initial cost is gone, and no ongoing costs.

 

[Daniel has no idea]

I have a Projecta 2000w inverter with a built in auto change over relay and safety switch and is wired to run the every power point the Van (excluding battery charger, hot water service power points and Air con )

Works seamlessly with how it changes over from 240v and inverter power with no input from the user and runs coffee machine, milk frother, microwave and toaster with out a problem.

Having the auto change over means that any family member can use what they want when they want with out me having to stuff around.

I have 2 x 100 amp batteries and 2 x 120w roof mounted solar panels and seem to have plenty of battery storage. The longest I have free camped at any one time is 7 nights and I did not flatten the batteries. That was making about 4 coffees a day, microwave most nights and charging a laptop every now and then. We had a good week and the days were full sun so that would have helped.

To rewire the van so it could work like it does was not an easy task but I feel it was worth it.


inverter mounted in pantry
View attachment 63077

inverter remote control
View attachment 63079

Basic Wiring diagram
View attachment 63080


Cheers

Hey mate I’m new to all this and have the same inverter and similar battery solar set up I’m going to put into my van

I’m trying to figure out what components I need to go from inverter to my mains power GPO instead of just running a power lead from the inverter to the 15a inlet which I don’t want to do as I want it all internal

do I need a junction or something to convert over so I can use all my power points that I would use if plugged into mains ?

I’m missing something from your mud map it’s just not sinking in and wondering if you could help so I can direct my electrician

 

[Base23]

Hey mate I’m new to all this and have the same inverter and similar battery solar set up I’m going to put into my van

I’m trying to figure out what components I need to go from inverter to my mains power GPO instead of just running a power lead from the inverter to the 15a inlet which I don’t want to do as I want it all internal

do I need a junction or something to convert over so I can use all my power points that I would use if plugged into mains ?

I’m missing something from your mud map it’s just not sinking in and wondering if you could help so I can direct my electrician

Hello Daniel,

It has been a few years since I fitted and rewired the inverter in my van, From memory it was a difficult fiddly job with a lot of tracing of the factory 240V wiring to figure out what connected to what.. My Basestation is fitted with the CMS quick connect power cables as I think most Jaycos are. So I purchased 2 of the cables and cut 2 off the ends off and hard wired them to the inverter and then basically connected the inverter in between the incoming 15 amp wiring and the rest of the van. This is a very basic explanation of what i did to get the inverter to power the complete van and it worked but since then I have rewired a bit more of the van so the inverter does not power the A/C, hot water service and battery charger.


Updated wiring layout




CMS cables and adaptors


Please have a look at the below extracts from My Basestaion thread and it is all explained in more detail.

wired up the inverter last night,
Started of with 2 CMS 240v Interconnecting cables and cut 1 in half striped the lead and prepared it to wire up to the inverter.


I then connected the DC cables that came with the inverter and the cable glands on the 240v cables.


I then fed the cable into the cupboard and passed around under the club lounge to where the battery is located.
The inverter is attached to the wall of the cupboard with 4 screws ( not easy to squeeze my arm in to put the screws in)


I then had to rewire the power point the the Setec battery charger plugs in to.
This is going to be hard to explain but I will give it a go.
First I disconnected the main power inlet cable from the rear of the 240volt Van power inlet socket
and connected this cable to the 240v outlet cable of the inverter


I then ran a new CMS 240v Interconnecting cable from the rear of the Van power inlet socket to the power point for the battery charger and also connect the 240v inverter power inlet cable to the same power point


Last to connect were the 12v DC cables to the battery.
I have just connected directly to the battery at the moment but I have on order a 250amp ANL fuse and holder for the positive connection and have also ordered a 200amp shunt from Setec for the negative connection so the drifter control panel can see what is being drawn through the inverter.
Setec have advised me that the drifter control panel is only calibrated to read up to 100amp load so when my inverter is drawing more than that I will not know about it but at least the bigger shunt will handle the load.

So when mains power is connected to the van, The batter charger will power up and start charging the battery and the inverter will pass mains power straight through it
When mains power is unplugged the charger will power off and the inverter will automatically switch across to inverter power


While we were away up in Uluru and Kings canyon we had a few power outages in the parks and because I have wired my inverter to power the complete van it caused a few problems. We were using the A/C during the times the power went out and the inverter would just kick in and we would not even know the power had gone out until about 10 minutes later when the van battery was flat and alarms would sound. This also was a problem with the hot water heating and using inverter power.

So I am rewiring the van so that the A/C and hot water service and not connected to the inverter.
To do that I have had to pull apart the pantry cupboard to get to the 240v wiring and add a few extra cables.

This is how it was wired

This is how it will be


This is the mess



Picked up 3 CMS cables and some double adaptors so I could rewired the van last night. Now the hot water and A/C only work when connected to mains power.


Basically I split the power in to 2 circuits after the factory circuit breaker, One run feeds HWS, A/C and battery charger and the other feeds goes through the inverter to supply all other power points.

Hot water service and setec battery charger power points had to be rewired on a separate run with the A/C


Had to pull a lot apart to change what power point was feed with what power but now I should have no problems when free camping or during power outages.


Cheers Brad