I-3 24RW Keeping Inverter Cool - Ideas?

[tewasch]

The 2KW Inverter in our 2021 Isata-3 24RW model is mounted to the ceiling inside the water/air tight passenger-side storage bay. It doesn't take too hot a day for a moderate continuous load (say 1.4KW) to push the temperature up to the point that the Inverter starts beeping a warning. If I open the door, it goes away.

The fans come on for the Inverter, but there is no air exchange inside the storage area (and the inverter is mounted to the ceiling).

I'm wondering if others have come up against this and figured out a durable way to overcome this? Perhaps venting, more fans, etc.???

Just looking for ideas.... Tom

[Judge64]

I have an Isata 3 Freedom Edition with a larger 3000W Inverter / Charger and 620Ah of Lithium batteries and it generates high temps.

You may want to look at my post for one idea.....

https://www.forestriverforums.com/fo...ml#post2972622

[tewasch]

Thanks for the pointer to the post. Very interesting and gave me a number of ideas. I, too, have 620Ah of LiPO4 batteries but they are not co-located with the inverter (they are under the step in traditional spot in the stairwell). I don't have a temperature problem with the batteries--only the inverter (I do get some warmth from my DC-DC converter and my Solar MPPT controller, but these are under the sink and its quite manageable).

My concern about ports for a blower and vent mostly involve water ingress when I drive in the rain. I'm just not sure what that's like under the chassis. I suppose, with enough elbows I could mitigate that one.

It does appear that Dynamax goes through some hoops to keep water out of the storage bays.

Again, thanks. Tom.

[Judge64]

The location and way i installed my vent will prevent any water intrusion..... unless I back the coach down a boat ramp and into water.... which is highly unlikely.

It is at the back of the compartment... which is also far from the rear wheels and protected from rain or water coming up from the road. I already drive in one rain storm and had no water in my battery / Inverter compartment.

[maifimd]

Originally Posted by tewasch

Thanks for the pointer to the post. Very interesting and gave me a number of ideas. I, too, have 620Ah of LiPO4 batteries but they are not co-located with the inverter (they are under the step in traditional spot in the stairwell). I don't have a temperature problem with the batteries--only the inverter (I do get some warmth from my DC-DC converter and my Solar MPPT controller, but these are under the sink and its quite manageable).

My concern about ports for a blower and vent mostly involve water ingress when I drive in the rain. I'm just not sure what that's like under the chassis. I suppose, with enough elbows I could mitigate that one.

It does appear that Dynamax goes through some hoops to keep water out of the storage bays.

Again, thanks. Tom.

Tom,
Our '22 model has the same 2k inverter and we've not experienced the alarm. We also are still using the original gel batteries and may not put as much demand on the inverter.
I'd love to know details on the LiFePo4 batteries you were able to fit in the step well and the other parts you changed.
Thanks
Mike

[tewasch]

To be fair, it goes warm when I use the inverter to run the microwave or AC. This was not intended by the Dynamax team, but when I changed the batteries, I also re-wired so I could run either the AC or the microwave off of battery to avoid generator noise. The Inverter is 2KW and neither the AC or the microwave draw 2KW (more like 1.4-1.6 Kw). I really never use my generator. Between chassis charging (DC-DC converter) and solar, I can charge at 1.6 KW per hour. I did have to add a "soft-start" to the AC unit to reduce the start-up surge to fit within the 2KW inverter.

I chose to build my own 12V battery pack from 8 LiPO4 cells (using a 250A battery management system) from Amazon as a drop-in replacement for the two group 27 lead acid batteries that were under the step. This give me high and low temperature cut-off and a nice bluetooth app that tells the the battery status. I'll put a picture below. Today there might be a commercial solution here (see Epoch batteries), but the physical volume requirement was the driving factor.

The other thing I had to do was throw the switch on the already-installed charge controller under the stovetop to designate Lithium batteries instead of lead acid.

The way we RV, this works out great as we have hours of use of AC to cool-down the coach in the evening before we turn-in and the sun/next day's drive charges everything up by noon. We also have the flexibility to use electricity for the Fridge instead of burning the propane.

Of course, there's a lot more detail to the switch-over and, if you want, I could walk you through it. Send me a private message and we can connect. Tom.


ps. The second picture shows the wiring I added inside the cabinet above the sink to allow configuring the AC just like the factory did _OR_ to allow powering the AC and/or Microwave off the inverter. We typically just always leave both devices plugged into the inverter.