How To Determine Battery Bank Size Needed To Power An RV With An Inverter

Published 10/23/2023

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Go Power Industrial Pure Sine Wave Inverter - 3,000 Watt - 12V

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$1131.99

4,500-Watt Portable RV Generator - 3,600 Running Watts - Propane or Gas - Electric Start

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Question:

I have purchased a 3000 watt invertor for my camper van, how many 12v leisure 130ah batteries are needed to run it, and are the batteries connected in parallel or series?

asked by: Brian P

Expert Reply:

The size of your battery bank isn't going to depend on the inverter and is instead dependent on what you're going to be powering and for how long that you want to power it. You'll need to add up the amp draw per hour for every item you'll power with the inverter in and figure out how many hours you'd use that item for in order to calculate the battery bank size needed. You'll also need to remember that each item would only be running off of a 3000 watt inverter # 34278157 so you might not be able to power everything at the same time and will have to choose what you power carefully.

Wiring batteries in parallel will increase the amp hours available while leaving the voltage the same (two 12 volt 100 amp hour batteries wired in parallel would equal one 12v 200 amp hour battery). Wiring batteries in series will increase the voltage and leave the amp hours the same (two 12v 100 amp hour batteries wired in series would equal one 24v 100 amp hour battery). Running the batteries in parallel would be the correct choice to increase the amount of time you can sustain your electronics.

If you plan on running an air conditioner then you would need to just get a generator like part # 333-0005 since an AC would need a truckload of batteries in order to power it for any substantial amount of time.

expert reply by: Kevin C