House Battery placement

[ski43]

I have a 1980 MCI 9, I have removed the A\C and plan to put the batteries for house power in the condensor bay to have air flow.  Is it ok to place the inverter in the same place as the batteries or is this too dangerous, also how about a convertor.


Thanks for any suggestions

[H3Jim]

If you do need to put the inverter near the batteries, there are several things you can do to minimize the risk.  first is get AGM batteries, expensive, but they will almost never vent.  Second you can put a mini partition and vents to create an airflow that will take any potnetial gases away fromt eh inverter.

[kyle4501]

The most popular batteries vent corrosive gasses. Take a look at the stock start battery location in your bus. Do you notice anything unusual compared to other areas of the bus? All that rust & corrosion is a result of the batteries working & gassing.

How well do electrical connections work when they are corroded?

Now, do you want that expensive electronic device (that is chock full of sensitive electrical connections) in that environment?

Oh sure, you can get the pricy AGM's to minimize the corrosive gases. You can add forced ventilation too. But why not avoid the problem rather than chase symptoms?

If you properly locate the inverter away from the battery environment, you will lessen the ventilation requirement for the battery compartment (could possibly go with convection rather than fan forced).

Personally, I'd opt for the Trojan deep cycle lead-acid batteries & use a fraction of the money saved to enclose/ ventilate the inverter & batteries seperately.

But that is just my opinion 

Oh, about the converter, I'd pass on that & invest in a really good inverter & battery bank to eliminate the need for the converter.

[jjrbus]

I agree with Kyle, It is eaiser to put the inverter in another area. But many inverters require no more than 5 feet of wire between inverter and batteries. Also when planning battery area, line walls with non conductive material. It is not a pretty sight when you contact metal wall with wrench when working with batteries.

[TomC]

When I bought my inverter (Trace marine 2500 watt modified sine) the owner of the shop said to treat the inverter as you would an expensive stereo system.  So personally, I wouldn't mount a stereo next to batteries.  My inverter is inside, even though it hums sometimes-it stays clean and can watch the lights for float easily on it.  Good Luck, TomC