Newbie loads of questions (1 Viewer)

[lisa mcmahon]

I have just bought a Motorhome which came with an inverter and wondered what are the benefits of these and do they run off your battery or are they charged by your battery also i have Trauma heating which works fine on the gas but when i turn it on to electric it works for 5mins then cuts off and the fault light comes on should i put water in the tank for it to work on the electric and is it safe to run the gas over night ? Sorry if these seem like stupid questions !

 

[rosalan]

An inverter can allow some use of 'mains' power but from your battery. If you also have a solar panel of more than 100 w then, given enough bright sunlight, you can refill the battery that your inverter is draining. In reality. the sun in the UK is not the best at doing this very quickly.

 

[MikeD]

Welcome to the forum and I don't think there is any such thing as a silly question. We all started at the beginning.

An inverter takes 12v from your leisure battery and turns it into 240v.

Not sure why your boiler cuts out after five minutes but it should run on heating only with no water in the boiler. The selector switch is sometimes a bit confusing.

And yes it is ok to run the gas overnight.

The forum is a subscription one and you are only allowed to post around five I think. So I would recommend you subscribe - it will be the best £15 you will ever spend.

Merry christmas, have a happy new year

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[davejen]

Welcome to the "club", be careful using the inverter, it will drain your battery very quickly. Use hookup when on sites so you are on "mains" electric and you can use all the services on the van. As far as the electric heating, it shouldn't cut out , did you get van from a dealer? if so take it back and get them to fix it, if a private buy, ask the seller if they knew about it, if not you will have to go to a garage/auto-electrician to sort it.
hope this helps,
Cheers, Dave

 

[irnbru]

Hi Lisa, Welcome to Fun.

I second what Mike D has said about subscription. When Ifirst started out and had lots of Qs I quickly found that paying the subscription and having unlimited amount of Q&As a godsend.

 

[pappajohn]

Inverters use a lot of power compared to mains supply.
If an appliance (fan heater etc) uses 10 amps on mains power the same appliance will use 200 amps on an inverter...and that come out of the battery.
200amps will allow around 12 minutes use before a 110ah battery is technically flat.

Ideally you need 2 or 3 batteries connected as one big battery and a large solar panel to recharge them.

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[lisa mcmahon]

Thanks for your help so the inverter doesn't work interdependently when charged ?

 

[MikeD]

Thanks for your help so the inverter doesn't work interdependently when charged ?

It works by taking 12v from your leisure battery and turning it into 240v.

It does not "charge" it just converts the voltage. If your leisure battery is charged it would work

 

[irnbru]

Where in Scotland are you based @lisa mcmahon ?

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[Riverbankannie]

Hi Lisa
All good advise posted above. It is a very steep learning curve having your first MH. Don't worry about posting your questions.
The Truma controls are not straightforward so do post a photo if you need some help understanding them.
As for the inverter, your next move is to find out how many batteries you have and their capacity and also to check whether you have a solar panel on the roof. Gathering information about your systems will greatly help you and will enable you to post or search for information.

 

[Ambilkate]

Hi Lisa welcome to Fun

 

[lisa mcmahon]

great i get it now. So you would only use it if you were using a tv or hairdryer etc when you have no hook up and it woudnt last long. We did buy the motorhome privately but it did have a habitation check done the heating works fine on the gas then works for so long on the electric then cuts out and the red light goes on. its all a bit of a mine field. its the trumatic c system.

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[davidbaldam]

Hi and welcome to FUN.

 

[Jo662]

 

[Mickey1]

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[Riverbankannie]

When you put your heater on electric mode did you have your MH on electric hook up?

 

[Puddleduck]

Hello Lisa. As Sandra @irnbru asked where are you based (just nearest town or even county would be fine - this is a public forum as you don't want to give too many personal details away)? If there is anyone near perhaps they could drop by and talk things through with you.

Also the sub is the best money you will EVER spend

 

[MikeD]

Hi Lisa

You need to check on the inverter what wattage it is. Some inverters would not run a 240v hair dryer.

As a 240v hair dryer are around 2000w plus. It would also be drawing a lot of amps from your leisure battery.

Your motorhome TV would probably be better run on 12v anyway. They usually have the option of 12v.

If you run the tv on 12v it would be discharging your leisure battery at around 2 amps/hour.

If you run it on 240v through the inverter it would be discharging your leisure battery at around 60 amps/hour.

Its complicated and I am no electrician and if I have the maths wrong - someone will be along soon to correct me.

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[Duck Truck]

Hi guys
Welcome to the fantastic world on motorhomeing

How many leisure batteries do you have?

As mentioned when you switch on the inverter it takes 12v electricity from the leisure battery/s
and changes the voltage to 220v. (however in doing so the process wastes some electrical power)

Depending on how large the inverter is depends on what it will run. Most decent ones will run 220v tvs
etc. However ours wont run our microwave lights go on turn table spins but nothing heats up.

Enjoy asking questions and enjoy up and down ride of a new van it's all mega exciting

 

[WynandJean]

Hello and welcome from West Midlands.



Wyn

 

[EX51SSS]

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[wigster]