Enclosed trailer AC DC wiring questions

[whitefish]

Currently have the obvious 12v going to the lights from a battery. Also have a 120v circuit thru a breaker to a switched set of 4 fluorescents and an outlet. Adding an inverter now. What's the best way to wire it in so it doesn't create problems when hooked up to shore power or vice-versa. Was thinking about the shore power and inverter coming into a 3 way wall switch before the breaker. Thus switching to the prefered source of power at the time. Thoughts and ideas from the pro's out there?

 

[Good to Go]

Long time.... tell me you've been riding plenty???!!

My shore power runs my charger to the 12v, which the fluorescents run on. So I don't switch from one to the other, but anytime it's plugged in, the charger is on, hence, they don't run low.

I've got other items that run only while on shore power (separate halogen light, chargers for flashlights, radios, elec heater) and I suppose I could put some of them on an inverter but haven't found the need.

So, that pretty much doesn't answer your question, does it..?

 

[whitefish]

Riding some.... being towed the rest.

You helped answer some of it but my goal it to have 120 power when not hooked to shore power. Mainly able to run all the fluorescents at the sno park.

 

[Good to Go]

Kinda figured that.... I don't know how much tubes pull, 80 per set perhaps?? I would wonder how fast they would draw down the battery using the inverter. Seems doable, two sets of 4' lights, 160 watts. Curious too.

 

[H20SKE]

Whitefish---they should just be wired as two seperate systems. I have this set up in a demo trailer for my equipment. I run 2 big 6 volts with a 3000 watt inverter. I power 4 double tube 4' flourescent lights, a brake lathe and a aligner. Just wire as 2 systems and it does not matter about the 2 systems--you can run them both at the same time. You will want a seperate battery bank for your inverter then your 12 volt system.
Any questions just let me know.
I wired my trailer, and my 33' boat and motorhome as well with inverter set ups.

H20SKE...

 

[BigRed118]

Is there 12V flourescent lights? I would like to add a few to my Charmac and was wondering how to go about that...

 

[whitefish]

Is there 12V flourescent lights? I would like to add a few to my Charmac and was wondering how to go about that...

Yes. Go to an RV joint and expect to pay big time. They have them though.

 

[artic007]

what iv seen is two breakers same as house hold breakers one for shore power and one for the inverter you dont want to feed power into your shore power it can damege the inverter the best way is like h2oske mentioned is two seperate battery banks and 6 volt batteries hooked up in series making 12 volts thay make deep cycles in 6 volt batteries thay last allot longer but the down side is thay are not cheap as for how long thay last batteries are meauserd by amp hours for example this may get confusing if your battery is rated at 220 amp hours and your light is drawing 160 watts an hour your battery in a perfect world would last around 17 hours ( 160 watts divided by 12 volts is 13 amps an hour) hope this helps

 

[BigRed118]

Is there a better way to get flourescent lights?