AGM sealed batteries OK inside house?

[Sunking]

Gotta be a typo......what manual?

This one that came with your inverter. You do realize it is made for RV's and only has 120 VAC output and that it cannot run your central air conditioner or any other 240 volt equipment right?

[Calgirl]

Sunking

No, I didn't realize that fact, but as I re-read the manual, it does make sense. It should have come to mind when I saw that it only accepts 12V input. What a dummy I am! Since the draw for the HVAC is so large, I had already ruled out using sunpower.
What inverter do you recommend that I can use for both 120/240 should I decide to go that route? My clothes dryer and water pump are 240 too. The water pump is on the gas generater emergency circuit tho.
We newbies are lucky to have knowledgeable people like you on this site...thanks.

[Mike90250]

The Xantrex XW inverters handle 240V/120 split phase out of the box.

Outback and other brands, you need 2 inverters "stacked" with a comm cable, or a 120-240 transformer (which has it's own 5% of loss 24/7)

There may be others, but that's what I know currently.

[Sunking]

Calgorl you do not want to run your clothes dryer, air conditioning, or any other high wattage items on solar battery, you cannot afford it

If you use a measly 20 Kwh per day, you are talking around $70,000 in just equipment alone, and $20,000 to 30,000 of that in batteries that have to be replaced every 5 years. Take that same $70K and invest it, and it will pay your electric bills and vacations for the rest of your life, When you pass on your benefactors will have over $100K in cash to play with.

[Calgirl]

The Xantrex XW inverters handle 240V/120 split phase out of the box..

Thanks Mike....I'll check 'em out.....As Sunking says, powering the big stuff with solar is not economical, however, I do want some 240 V available for a thru the wall AC in an outbuilding, some hobby machinery, etc. My main ordinary daily usage of electricity is somewhat limited...TV, a couple of CFL's, plus kitchen appliances and computer. Down the road, my friend and I are going to get a pop-up Apache to go gold prospecting. My Sunforce inverter will be great for that usage, and I can use it temporarily for my home. My HVAC unit has two fuses, one for the heater 60 amp. and the other for the AC...30 amp. Would it be feasible to split them and run the AC portion off the new inverter? You've been a great help...thanks.

[Mike90250]

You are going to have to research the loads and inverter capacity for yourself, I settled on the XW6048, because I needed to start a 1/2 hp 240 well pump. It does do it with ease, and on the product webpage they state the starting surge it can supply for motors.
My batteries won't run the system for long with the pump, but while the sun is out, the PV array is feeding the inverter, and doing a little bit of charging too.

[totfcboatski]

hmmmm

Wow I would never use more than a 1000 watt inverter on a 12 volt system, even 1000 watts is pushing it.. Do you understand the the current involved, size of wiring and breaker requirementsand voltage drop problems for that? Your two 12 volt 100 amp batteries are no where near enough capacity to operate that inverter to full power.

I never siad you cannot use 4 12 volt batteries in parallel. I said it was not a good idea because it will just be about impossible to keep them properly equalized. You want to design so only 1 single string of batteries is required.

Isnt 4 batteries in parrallel considered a "string"?

[Sunking]

Isnt 4 batteries in parrallel considered a "string"?

No that would be 4 strings.