Awesome, I’d love to build another one. The Victron stuff is really good, I can’t compare it to other brands but its all really good, everything is connected to the app so I can see everything, set all the parameters and control the inverter off my phone. I would definitely use Victron again 👍
Hey mate thanx for the vid,check your earth cable size as it needs to be able to carry the ful load of the inverter if there is an internal short,other wise it will melt that small cable and the inverter will burn to the ground if a very rare internal short should happen...
Good video. I could be wrong but the invertor looks like it is mounted upside down. I thought the internal fan direction is to the top of the unit, to work with hot air rising.
The inverter is intentionally upside down, but only because when i put it in having it the right way up would've been annoying to fit as the cables were at the top. I never even thought of there being a fan direction or anything, there is a grill at the top for ventilation and we also don't use it anywhere near capacity so it should never overheat. Our batteries actually can't handle it on full power so in hindsight I should've got a smaller inverter and smaller cables and saved a few quid, I think that's the only thing I overlooked when building the van and would change it I do another one.
@@LivingTheTinyLife if you are running Lith batteries 3 k should be OK if AGM max draw is 20amps continuous in my boat 3 AGM max draw 60amps * 12 volts =720 watts, Lith batteries make a big difference. IMO
Haha, I might run the engine though to keep the voltage up that’s a good idea 👍 we’ve bought more batteries too so hopefully that helps. I’ve used the inverter since and it’s fine if I only do one pan at a time on 3/4 power.
Hi.when you say little bit scared to power up inverder.it make me laugh. Nervous laugh.i was bit worred for you its electricity.....😬 .good work keep it up.pramila
Hi! I've been living in my caravan a couple of years now. I have used a Vanson charger for my Lenovo laptops with no problems. I discarded the original cigarette plug and made a proper connection to the caravan 12 volt system. Saves a lot of battery current as the laptop is almost always on.
It makes sense not going through an inverter as it wastes energy. My laptop won’t charge off the 12v sockets I installed though and I don’t know why so I have to use the inverter. It’s quite efficient though and isn’t too bad.
Hi there, thanks for the video. Just wondering , did you have to pre-charge the capacitors in the inverter in any way? Some people use resistors for this, but it seemed like you didn't get any kind of spark when you flicked your breaker on? I have the same 12v 3000W inverter, so thought I'd ask. Cheers.
I literally just wired it in and fired it up, I didn't even know pre-charging capacitors was a thing. 2 1/2 years in now and everything works great still.
I would like to fit a 12v 1200w Victron Inverter but it doesn't come with any fittings at all. Could you advise what cables I would need and if I need to wire a fuse to the positive cable going to the battery?
The manual should have a diagram of some sort of how to wire it with recommended cable sizes. Essentially though you’ll need to connect it to the battery with a fuse on the positive cable. You’ll probably need to ground the inverter to the chassis of the vehicle too, my engine battery has a ground to the chassis so I connected the earth to the negative side of the engine battery and then it grounds to chassis that way. From the inverter I wired in a consumer unit to supply all the sockets in the van via a changeover switch which was a bit fiddly. It’s was fun to do though I enjoyed doing the electrics and learnt a lot 😊
I am curious why did you choose to mount this upside down? Although it’s technically okay the fans are forcing air down when it cries the flow up to cooling will not be great and it could be noisier also I would suggest putting cable glands on
The inverter is powered by the leisure batteries only. The only connection to the engine battery is the dc-dc charger that uses the engine alternator to charge the leisure batteries when the engine is running and I also connected the mains battery charger to the engine battery so when we are hooked up to shore power the engine battery gets charged too. This is really handy as you don’t have to worry about a flat battery and you can play the radio or run the fans in the cab for as long as you want which is actually really useful for air drying some laundry.
I have a Brand New Victron 12/1200/500 inverter, As soon as I power on I get solid red light on Alarm, I have now load on the AC side. I have checked batts output and it's at 12volts ok I have also disconnected the ac input and tried a few times But still get red alarm light. Checked wiring cant figure out what the problem is, any ideas Thanks
Have you set up the battery information on the app? You need to tell the inverter what batteries you're using and how many amp hours there are so it knows what the voltages should be etc. Failing that I'm not sure as I haven't come across that issue, if there's any problems such as low voltage it usually alerts me on the app.
So initially I thought it would be fine by having the inverter and mains connected to the same consumer unit but everything kept tripping so I had to install a manual changeover switch. It basically switches the direction of the power to the sockets so the inverter and the mains hookup operate separately and have 2 separate consumer units. You can probably get an automatic one but the manual one was about £5 and it works great.
@@LivingTheTinyLife yes that’s what I thought buddy. I was going to fit a pure sine inverter to a auto mains transfer switch . But wanted to look at the Victron 👍 just found out it’s the multiplus that as the auto switch built in thanks
I don’t think they work on MacBooks, I bought usb power delivery sockets which go up to 45watts and they work on everything apart from my laptop it just comes up with an error message and I have to charge it through the plug. It’s alright though the inverter doesn’t use a great deal of power to run.
Hi David. Ed here again. I hope you don't mind. I was forgotten you to ask if you're still happy with the inverter. I still haven't had the time to built it in and test it. Do you still use one battery and are you still satisfied by the power you get from your Inverter? I am asking you this, because today I heard from some Dutch boat users that I will not be able to power the inverter enough with my batteries to get it work for some hours. Can you tell me if your still happy with it? THANKS again and have a nice evening
Hi Ed, yeah the inverter is great, I haven’t tested other brands and I know Victron is expensive but I think it’s worth the price. Everything works as it should and it’s really quite efficient so doesn’t waste much power on idle. It also has an eco mode so you can leave it on a kind of trickle where it uses next to no power to stay on but kicks in when a current is drawn. It also connects to an app on my phone so I can turn it on or off and change all the settings and parameters on my phone which is really useful. The only issue I have had is if I pull a large amount of power (induction hob) the battery voltage drops too much and the inverter cuts out with a warning saying ‘low battery voltage’ I think it’s a safety mechanism to protect either the inverter or the batteries from getting damaged and I think there’s a way to tweak it so it doesn’t cut out or maybe I’m just expecting too much from the system. The inverter itself is great though👍
I also have 300ah worth of batteries now, the less battery capacity you have the faster the voltage will drop and I think that below 12 volts the inverter won’t really work. It also depends on what batteries you get, lithium is the best but also the most expensive. A lithium battery can run the inverter to 10% charge where it drops to 12 volts, an AGM battery however will drop to 12 volts at about 35% charge so the inverter won’t work on less than 35% on an AGM. A lithium battery at 35% charge is still on 13 volts though so you can use the whole battery really so they’re definitely superior but also very expensive, they do last longer though so I suppose the cost per use is probably better, we have over £2,000 just in batteries but they perform really well and should last a long time.
Thanks for your reply again! I have bought 3 new batteries not long ago. They were not very expensive but they work nice. Each of them are 105AH. I use 2 of them for starting the engines and one is for service, like 12V lights and equipment in the compartment. For now the inverter is ready to reship to the company where I bought it. Wish you and your family all the best and have some nice Xmas days. Regards, Ed
Well I confess that I didn't know what an inverter was, until now. Interesting video.
Brilliant- all looks very tidy and you sound like you have mastered the skills.
I wouldn’t say mastered but everything seems to be working which is good 😊
Nice vid, I am building my second van and using all victron stuff so this vid was helpful.
Awesome, I’d love to build another one. The Victron stuff is really good, I can’t compare it to other brands but its all really good, everything is connected to the app so I can see everything, set all the parameters and control the inverter off my phone. I would definitely use Victron again 👍
Hey mate thanx for the vid,check your earth cable size as it needs to be able to carry the ful load of the inverter if there is an internal short,other wise it will melt that small cable and the inverter will burn to the ground if a very rare internal short should happen...
@@shameelali2549 Hey! I think the earth cable just needs to carry the 230v current which isn’t very high and 6mm cable is loads.
Not true if the transformer shorts the earth cable needs to carry full inverter current,it also states this in the instruction manual..
Good video.
I could be wrong but the invertor looks like it is mounted upside down.
I thought the internal fan direction is to the top of the unit, to work with hot air rising.
The inverter is intentionally upside down, but only because when i put it in having it the right way up would've been annoying to fit as the cables were at the top. I never even thought of there being a fan direction or anything, there is a grill at the top for ventilation and we also don't use it anywhere near capacity so it should never overheat. Our batteries actually can't handle it on full power so in hindsight I should've got a smaller inverter and smaller cables and saved a few quid, I think that's the only thing I overlooked when building the van and would change it I do another one.
@@LivingTheTinyLife if you are running Lith batteries 3 k should be OK if AGM max draw is 20amps continuous in my boat 3 AGM max draw 60amps * 12 volts =720 watts, Lith batteries make a big difference. IMO
What a nice setup really awesome man 😁👍
Thanks, it’s come out pretty well, I just want it to be finished now though lol
That's a really nice inverter and the 12v cables certainly look beefy enough. I should have watched this video before your new upload really :)
Haha, I might run the engine though to keep the voltage up that’s a good idea 👍 we’ve bought more batteries too so hopefully that helps. I’ve used the inverter since and it’s fine if I only do one pan at a time on 3/4 power.
Hi.when you say little bit scared to power up inverder.it make me laugh. Nervous laugh.i was bit worred for you its electricity.....😬 .good work keep it up.pramila
Hi! I've been living in my caravan a couple of years now. I have used a Vanson charger for my Lenovo laptops with no problems. I discarded the original cigarette plug and made a proper connection to the caravan 12 volt system. Saves a lot of battery current as the laptop is almost always on.
It makes sense not going through an inverter as it wastes energy. My laptop won’t charge off the 12v sockets I installed though and I don’t know why so I have to use the inverter. It’s quite efficient though and isn’t too bad.
@@LivingTheTinyLife Yes, efficiency 92% and no load draw 8 watts only for the 12/2000, that's not bad at all.
Hi there, thanks for the video. Just wondering , did you have to pre-charge the capacitors in the inverter in any way? Some people use resistors for this, but it seemed like you didn't get any kind of spark when you flicked your breaker on? I have the same 12v 3000W inverter, so thought I'd ask. Cheers.
I literally just wired it in and fired it up, I didn't even know pre-charging capacitors was a thing. 2 1/2 years in now and everything works great still.
I would like to fit a 12v 1200w Victron Inverter but it doesn't come with any fittings at all. Could you advise what cables I would need and if I need to wire a fuse to the positive cable going to the battery?
The manual should have a diagram of some sort of how to wire it with recommended cable sizes. Essentially though you’ll need to connect it to the battery with a fuse on the positive cable. You’ll probably need to ground the inverter to the chassis of the vehicle too, my engine battery has a ground to the chassis so I connected the earth to the negative side of the engine battery and then it grounds to chassis that way. From the inverter I wired in a consumer unit to supply all the sockets in the van via a changeover switch which was a bit fiddly. It’s was fun to do though I enjoyed doing the electrics and learnt a lot 😊
@@LivingTheTinyLife My Wife's work apparantly fit inverters all the time so hopefully they know what they are doing! Now I can check! Thanks!
@@LivingTheTinyLife speaking a lot of these calculations are made based on regulation not the instructions
I am curious why did you choose to mount this upside down? Although it’s technically okay the fans are forcing air down when it cries the flow up to cooling will not be great and it could be noisier also I would suggest putting cable glands on
The only reason I mounted it upside down is that all the wiring is at the bottom of the inverter and my cables weren't long enough to reach that far.
in this video are you using the battery that is for the van or a seperate battery thanks in advance
The inverter is powered by the leisure batteries only. The only connection to the engine battery is the dc-dc charger that uses the engine alternator to charge the leisure batteries when the engine is running and I also connected the mains battery charger to the engine battery so when we are hooked up to shore power the engine battery gets charged too. This is really handy as you don’t have to worry about a flat battery and you can play the radio or run the fans in the cab for as long as you want which is actually really useful for air drying some laundry.
I have a Brand New Victron 12/1200/500 inverter, As soon as I power on I get solid red light on Alarm, I have now load on the AC side.
I have checked batts output and it's at 12volts ok
I have also disconnected the ac input and tried a few times But still get red alarm light.
Checked wiring cant figure out what the problem is, any ideas
Thanks
Have you set up the battery information on the app? You need to tell the inverter what batteries you're using and how many amp hours there are so it knows what the voltages should be etc. Failing that I'm not sure as I haven't come across that issue, if there's any problems such as low voltage it usually alerts me on the app.
No just ordered the unit to do so, thanks for the reply
@@LivingTheTinyLife
If you went on grid power would this auto switch to mains power from the inverter to and from buddy each time you wanted to use the inverter
So initially I thought it would be fine by having the inverter and mains connected to the same consumer unit but everything kept tripping so I had to install a manual changeover switch. It basically switches the direction of the power to the sockets so the inverter and the mains hookup operate separately and have 2 separate consumer units. You can probably get an automatic one but the manual one was about £5 and it works great.
@@LivingTheTinyLife yes that’s what I thought buddy. I was going to fit a pure sine inverter to a auto mains transfer switch . But wanted to look at the Victron 👍 just found out it’s the multiplus that as the auto switch built in thanks
On amazon there is a brand of 12v charger for computer.
I don’t think they work on MacBooks, I bought usb power delivery sockets which go up to 45watts and they work on everything apart from my laptop it just comes up with an error message and I have to charge it through the plug. It’s alright though the inverter doesn’t use a great deal of power to run.
Hi David. Ed here again. I hope you don't mind. I was forgotten you to ask if you're still happy with the inverter. I still haven't had the time to built it in and test it. Do you still use one battery and are you still satisfied by the power you get from your Inverter? I am asking you this, because today I heard from some Dutch boat users that I will not be able to power the inverter enough with my batteries to get it work for some hours. Can you tell me if your still happy with it? THANKS again and have a nice evening
Hi Ed, yeah the inverter is great, I haven’t tested other brands and I know Victron is expensive but I think it’s worth the price. Everything works as it should and it’s really quite efficient so doesn’t waste much power on idle. It also has an eco mode so you can leave it on a kind of trickle where it uses next to no power to stay on but kicks in when a current is drawn. It also connects to an app on my phone so I can turn it on or off and change all the settings and parameters on my phone which is really useful. The only issue I have had is if I pull a large amount of power (induction hob) the battery voltage drops too much and the inverter cuts out with a warning saying ‘low battery voltage’ I think it’s a safety mechanism to protect either the inverter or the batteries from getting damaged and I think there’s a way to tweak it so it doesn’t cut out or maybe I’m just expecting too much from the system. The inverter itself is great though👍
I also have 300ah worth of batteries now, the less battery capacity you have the faster the voltage will drop and I think that below 12 volts the inverter won’t really work. It also depends on what batteries you get, lithium is the best but also the most expensive. A lithium battery can run the inverter to 10% charge where it drops to 12 volts, an AGM battery however will drop to 12 volts at about 35% charge so the inverter won’t work on less than 35% on an AGM. A lithium battery at 35% charge is still on 13 volts though so you can use the whole battery really so they’re definitely superior but also very expensive, they do last longer though so I suppose the cost per use is probably better, we have over £2,000 just in batteries but they perform really well and should last a long time.
Thanks for your reply again! I have bought 3 new batteries not long ago. They were not very expensive but they work nice. Each of them are 105AH. I use 2 of them for starting the engines and one is for service, like 12V lights and equipment in the compartment. For now the inverter is ready to reship to the company where I bought it. Wish you and your family all the best and have some nice Xmas days. Regards, Ed
Can you please provide the link to the inverter?
www.12voltplanet.co.uk/victron-energy-phoenix-pure-sine-wave-inverter-12v-2000w-smart.html
You should choose a Victron dealer based on your situation