WHole House inverter

[afterburn 549]

I am truly trying to come up to speed without making monumental monetary mistakes!
(making my own battery backup pack)

Is this inverter anything like I need to run the whole house from a lithium lead acid battery pack?
prolly 48 volts I do presume?
If not will you recommend a proper inverter to do so?
Prices vary all over the place and for the novice quite confusing.
thanx/.

https://www.amazon.com/WZRELB-Inverter-Outlets-Hardwire-Terminal/dp/B0BNPSV3WX/ref=sxin_17_pa_sp_search_thematic_sspa?content-id=amzn1.sym.f1ae5671-a572-4614-89aa-2c9d534241e0%3Aamzn1.sym.f1ae5671-a572-4614-89aa-2c9d534241e0&cv_ct_cx=240%2Bvolt%2Bpower%2Binverter&keywords=240%2Bvolt%2Bpower%2Binverter&pd_rd_i=B0BNPSV3WX&pd_rd_r=ea8fe06d-3ddc-4b2c-bd37-75f4ac36766f&pd_rd_w=rOKKk&pd_rd_wg=8bUm5&pf_rd_p=f1ae5671-a572-4614-89aa-2c9d534241e0&pf_rd_r=G3AC80S1P3TMM9PR40AB&qid=1700599396&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sr=1-1-ac07dfd7-5f37-4797-bcf7-0f4905c82761-spons&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.18630bbb-fcbb-42f8-9767-857e17e03685&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1

[MBAtarga]

You need Redbeard's opinion.

[1990C4S]

The big one is 3,500 Watts. That's 15 Amps at 240 Volts. Not nearly enough for a whole house.

You need double that, maybe more if you have AC.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

The big one is 3,500 Watts. That's 15 Amps at 240 Volts. Not nearly enough for a whole house.

You need double that, maybe more if you have AC.

I never got into 'lectricity and especially the conversion when changing voltage (ie, 240 to 110) but the numbers sound like about enough to run a couple of 110v circuits - aren't they usually 15 or 20amp rated?

Fairly sure my 220 devices (well pump, dryer, stove, maybe waterheater?) are on dedicated 15 or 20 amp circuits as well, unsure if by need or by what I'd call thinking ahead and good design...

If you look around and prioritize what has to run when the power is out - bedroom stuff for CPAP or whatnot, fridge, lights, TV/satellite/maybe internet (our DSL stays up if we can power our modem etc until power company gensets run out of fuel 3 or 4 days into hurricane outages). Some fans for cooling. If you need heat power on an old AMD dual CPU desktop machine or use a fireplace, etc. You should be able to figure out a few "core service" circuits you can power with that set up, just don't plan on doing any baking or laundry.

If you are on a well w/ a pump or need a pump for sewage etc. or whatnot, then you'll need to plan on alternative water sources or powering the pump, which can have a pretty big draw depending on how deep your well is.

[afterburn 549]

I think it would work as the only two big power hogs are the electric cook stove and the H20 heater.
In the event of a power outage, they could be micro-managed.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by id10t

I never got into 'lectricity and especially the conversion when changing voltage (ie, 240 to 110) but the numbers sound like about enough to run a couple of 110v circuits - aren't they usually 15 or 20amp rated?

He asked to 'run the whole house', that thing is 'get by in a pinch power'.

If you want to heat water and be 'off-grid' get propane or NG, or use very little hot water...same for the stove, but less so.

When people buy a 'whole house' generator, they don't buy 3,500 Watts, they buy double that.

But it goes back to, what are you trying to do? Get off the grid? Live normally through a power outage? Or get by with the bare minimum for a day or two without power?

[afterburn 549]

Try to get by for about 10 days at a time up here..
Thanks for the clarification as to what i need.
It looks like I need at least 5K watts to be a minimalist.?

[1990C4S]

You can get by on 3,500 Watts as a minimalist. The challenge will be hot water, and building a battery that can provide ten days of energy.

At 3,500 Watts a cheap generator is the answer. You could buy a diesel generator and keep a drum of fuel on hand.

I would suggest that you drop the battery idea, unless you can get free battery packs from GM, or Tesla. But if you're looking for a challenge, keep going.

[afterburn 549]

I have generators here by the dozen, but that's not the point ,I want to make a battery pack and run like a minimalist of sorts, with my little honda 2200 chargeing the batts at off times when needed.

[1990C4S]

I'm not sure what that concept gains you, but it can definitely work.

You should use a generator with autostart, let the system fire it up when the battery is below X volts.

[908/930]

Where is Readbeard? I think you will need to look at how much current at 120v you really need, modern fridge will run at about 5A or less same as freezer but does require upwards of 20A for starting, most larger inverters can supply this for a second, but likely will need to start one and then start the other. Do you need heat and how much power do you need for that? My gas furnaces only require about 5 A to run but uses small DC blower motor.

A 3500w inverter actually producing 3500w, about 29 Amps at 120v will require about 80 amps at 48v, so a 100AH battery will run this for just over 1 hr at full output. Hopefully somebody can verify this.

[afterburn 549]

I try hard to cogulate all this, and it is not my wheelhouse at all.
I was thinking about an EcoFlo Delta Pro, but then got started thinking- i could make a system better and cheaper.
One might think 4 big Batteries, a proper inverter, and maybe a solar panel or two latter might be the thing to do.
To do or not is what it is all coming down to, as i know there are some big stoppages coming in the mail.

[GH85Carrera]

Why would you want to turn your whole house upside down?

[afterburn 549]

Nothing upside dwn.....just want some power when the grid is dwn.

[1990C4S]

A typical EV battery is about 100 kWHrs. At 2kW continuous consumption, 50 hours.

You might be able to average 2kW if you're frugal with the power.

Ecoflow rates their units in Watts. Watts are Joules/second, so that's a rate of supplying energy. They appear to use one hour as the baseline, so the 3,600 W unit, will supply 3,600 W for an hour, so 3.6 kWhrs.

Their biggest unit is about one quarter of a Tesla battery.

At this time, absent free batteries, your proposed path is not financially practical. It's possible to do it, but that doesn't mean it's the right solution.

[Tobra]

Why on Earth do you have an electric water heater a stove?

[afterburn 549]

Maybe I am not presenting this incorrectly.
I see plenty of people whom have done this on YouTube using two delta Eco flows.
These units produce 240 volts paired together.
I could just buy those, and be done .

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Delta+pro&crid=YTZN5NOSJJAI&sprefix=delta+pro%2Caps%2C111&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

So doing this is not the problem I dont think,-it is using the proper inverter.
That is, to make a home system.
I dont need 240 volts often maybe once a day to bring the hot water up to snuff and a little if the electric stove is used.
But in truth that could be skipped.
So....
To spend the cash on the correct inverter, and they are spendy from 500.00 upwards and way over that.
Thanx

[911_Dude]

Check out Victron's inverters. You can daisy chain their inverters together to get the output you need. And their products are second to none.

[afterburn 549]

Will do !

[Willem Fick]

I do inverter installs. The most popular solution around these parts is a 8kVA/6kW 48V to 230V inverter with 10kW (200A) battery, typically this is tied to 10 or so solar panels.

Additional solar panels and batteries are usually the first point of focus when there is a requirement to scale, though all my installs are based on inverters that can be linked together (3 max) for greater output, so as to provide a further element of scalability.

Customers mostly choose to go all gas on their cooking appliances and hot water system, though a fair number opt for solar water heaters instead.

Through the smart use of load monitors and intelligent switches, one can get away with everything running off the inverter, but it takes awareness and planning - I can for anstance not run more than 3 "heavy" electrical appliances at once, so have to plan cooking washing etc. to not happen at the same time.

As someone mentioned Victron is the market leader, but many of the cheaper options (even Chinese) are more than capable if your budget is constrained.