I want to install a remote for my Inverter!

[Larry and Heidi Lee]

I want to install a remote for my Xantrex Model 2012 inverter. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience in regards to getting a signal cable up thru the floor and over to the bedroom? My inverter is located in the basement pass thru bay. I would like to mount the remote switch somewhere near my bed so I don't have to get up and walk all the way to the front to turn off the inverter.

05 Beaver Monterey 34

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Can you route it back to the engine bay, then up into the bed pedestal?

[Larry and Heidi Lee]

Finally installed the remote inverter switch back in the rear bedroom. In the past my wife had to stand on her tippy toes to read the dimly lit inverter display and I would always have to reach for my reading glasses. Talk about convenient! I ran the control wire from the inverter bay to the water tank bay and up into the bathroom -along the wall with the hydrohot /AC wiring hidden under the carpeted wall shroud-into the bedroom and inside the base of the dresser-up inside the TV cabinet is a removable panel.

[Richard Cooper]

Why would you need to turn your inverter off in the first place?  

I never touch mine.  Or should I be concerned about it?  I've never run out of juice, but then I never boondock.

[Gerald Farris]

Richard,
If you never spend the night without hook-ups, there is no reason to turn off the inverter. However, if you ever dry camp overnight, the inverter will unnecessarily deplete the batteries if it is left on overnight. Therefore most but not all coach owners, turn their inverter off overnight or when it is not being used if they are dry camped.

Gerald    

[Stan Simpson]

Gerald,

When we boondock at Wally World, or anywhere else, we leave the inverter on overnight because I have to have my CPAP machine running. It has never run out of juice so far. That's even after watching a little TV, or plugging in the laptops before bed.

Stan

[Gerald Farris]

Stan,
If you need the inverter on overnight when dry camped for a CPAP or residential refrigerator, you should leave it on. But if you do not have any of those needs, you should turn it off because it requires about 40 amp/hours to leave the inverter on overnight that will have to be replaced by added generator time for recharging the next morning.

Gerald

[Stan Simpson]

Thank you Gerald.

We never turn the inverter on unless we are dry camping. Our unit is a charger/inverter. We usually have the inverter part disabled.

[Keith Oliver]

My Inverter is 1998 technology.  It doesn't give me a read on the amperage it takes just to keep it turned on.  On my boat, I have a Xantrex MS2000, about 2005 technology.  I assume things are improving in inverter efficiency, as I have head of newer units using very little power to stay turned on.  My MS2000 does give a readout that shows it uses up to 8 amps of continuous draw, just to keep the inverter turned on.  Overnight, (8amps x 8 hours) 64 Amp/hours, all of which needs to be generated and put back in, which will add about 45 minutes generating time just to keep the batteries at the same level.  

So I leave mine off unless using a 115v appliance.