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DJZAJB
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# Posted: 31 Dec 2014 10:55am
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We have just built an off grid cabin and have an inverter question. We bought a 3000 watt inverter and 2 car batteries that are fully charged. Of course we plan to switch to L.E.D. lightbulbs, but for right now, we running 700 watts worth of light bulbs and the inverter beeps overload. My question is why? There are two inputs on inverter, even if they only ran 1500 each, there is only 700 watt demand...confused.
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cabinbiscuits
Member
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# Posted: 31 Dec 2014 11:16am
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Just a shot in the dark but is it possible that you have your batteries hooked up in series instead of parallel?
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Just
Member
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# Posted: 31 Dec 2014 11:17am
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The inverter is using 300 watts or more . the batteries my be too small to produce 1000 or more watts without dropping below 12 volts [kicking in the alarm.]
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DJZAJB
Member
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# Posted: 31 Dec 2014 11:30am
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Batteries are set up parallel, and have 1250 cranking amps each. I will get out my testers and see how many amp are coming out of the battery....thanks for the suggestions.
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MtnDon
Member
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# Posted: 31 Dec 2014 03:55pm
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What Just said, plus the cables from batteries to inverter may be too small causing vo!tage drop whichcauses the alarmto sound.
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razmichael
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# Posted: 31 Dec 2014 04:21pm
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Quoting: DJZAJB 1250 cranking amps each
In addition to what has already been said, remember that cranking amps means very little when it comes to off grid use - this is why true deep cycle batteries do not provide this specific specification. Car batteries are not made for this type of setup and will have a very limited life span pulling that much power out of them. As an example (the closest I can find not knowing your actual battery types, I looked up a Marine battery (which is really a compromise between starting and "deep cycle") with cranking amps of over 1100 but an amp hour rating of 88 (and not clear if this is the more standard 20 hour rate). This just gives you a gut feeling that a high cranking capacity has little to do with your application.
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DJZAJB
Member
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# Posted: 2 Jan 2015 08:31pm
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Thank you so much for all the advice....certainly lots to look into.
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Chris121277
Member
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# Posted: 6 Mar 2015 08:28pm
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As all ready stated.
My first thoughts are wire size and the wrong kind of batteries.
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