Adding 2nd battery.... But it's not on a pioneer :P

[Robobrainiac]

I don't have alot of friends. I have even less intelligent ones. I view you group of guys as a smart bunch of great people and at the lack of my willingness to want to use the internet to find a different forum to post on I would like the permission to post a question here.

Long story short my wife owns a cleaning company and we are expanding. I am retrofitting a GM 16 passenger van into a sweet commercial cleaning capable machine. My plan is to have shelving in the back, a water holding tank with pump, a station to charge all cordless tools, an air compressor, and lastly a power bank to power all this fun stuff. The items listed would most likely be used rarely with the vehicle not running. So the power source will mainly be supplied by the van while in travel. When parked overnight at the office I plan to have it plugged in to a battery maintainer. So my main question is verifying I have the correct items chosen to make all this happen. I have never done any auxillary battery installs prior to my pioneer and I see there are alot of talented and intelligent people on here so I would love to get some input.

The water holding tank pump is nothing special. It will be a standard 12v siphon type pump.

The cordless tools will consist of 2 ryobi 18v chargers, 1 Milwaukee M12 charger, 1 56v worx charger, and 1 40v Hoover charger. I am not sure of all the power demands of each charger at the moment. I would have to go down to the shed and check them all out to know for sure.

The air compressors I am stuck between are these 2

5 Gallon , 225 PSI High Performance Wheeled Jobsite Air Compressor

Amazing deals on this 5G 225Psi Oilfree Air Compressor at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

27 Gallon , 200 PSI High-Performance Vertical Shop/Auto Air Compressor

Amazing deals on this 27Gal 200Psi Hp Shop/Auto Air Compressor at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

The main function of the air compressor is to blow out vacuum filters and potentially a hose ran into a building to clean screens. I like the thought of the higher SCFM and they both seem decent. I am considering the smaller one only to save space. I do not know a lot about air compressors so I am not sure if the bigger one is better or would last longer between motor cycles.

Lastly a Karcher cordless floor scrubber would be charging on this system as well.


I assume I need an isolator for the van itself.

The power source I have picked out is a 2000 watt pure sine inverter and a 200AH deep cycle battery.

 

[Admin]

 

[Robobrainiac]

I am not sure why but the original post would not allow me to add anymore info.

This is the inverter and battery I have picked out.

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Inverter-Battery-Converter-Saving/dp/B07H9SXV61/?tag=sxsweb24-20

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Battery-Marine-Off-Grid-Applications/dp/B075RGX1WR/?tag=sxsweb24-20

Renogy also has a hybrid gel battery for $30 more. I am not sure of the benefit of that.

So after all of that info :
Do I have a large enough inverter?
Do I have a sufficient battery picked out?
Which battery isolator should I choose?

I plan on using a 0 or 2 gauge wire for all the power lines. I am going to make a custom box under the van body for the auxillary battery. Any and all thoughts would be much appreciated! Thank you!

 

[bumperm]

Hate to torpedo you plans, but you'll need to rethink your compressor. A 1.6 hp electric motor is going to need 14 or so amps while running, and as much as 4 to 5 times as much for several seconds while starting. A big battery bank and inverter is probably not the most economical approach, and running your vehicle engine is probably not the most efficient way to power things. Probably better to get a decent size generator (>5 KW) and power the heavy duty stuff off that. For the smaller things, like your charging stations, you could go with a battery bank and inverter, but you also might consider solar panels on the roof to power things or as an adjunct to your battery bank, so you'll often be able to charge things without having to run an engine.

I have 400 watts of solar on my RV with about 450 amp hours of battery bank (rule of thumb is 1 watt solar for 1 AH battery. There's a 2000 watt sign wave inverter that'll run the microwave. This works well as on a sunny day, the batteries are charged by 10 or 11 AM. Cloudy days take longer.

 

[Robobrainiac]

Hate to torpedo you plans, but you'll need to rethink your compressor. A 1.6 hp electric motor is going to need 14 or so amps while running, and as much as 4 to 5 times as much for several seconds while starting. A big battery bank and inverter is probably not the most economical approach, and running your vehicle engine is probably not the most efficient way to power things. Probably better to get a decent size generator (>5 KW) and power the heavy duty stuff off that. For the smaller things, like your charging stations, you could go with a battery bank and inverter, but you also might consider solar panels on the roof to power things or as an adjunct to your battery bank, so you'll often be able to charge things without having to run an engine.

I have 400 watts of solar on my RV with about 450 amp hours of battery bank (rule of thumb is 1 watt solar for 1 AH battery. There's a 2000 watt sign wave inverter that'll run the microwave. This works well as on a sunny day, the batteries are charged by 10 or 11 AM. Cloudy days take longer.

Could I use a 3000 watt inverter instead? The air compressor would only be used for maybe 5 minutes between each job to clean out vacuum filters. The van would not be running during jobs. It will only be running while traveling. The battery would be there to power the items when the van is off. Charging items are the only things that would be used while the van is off. Do I need to step up to a 300AH batter?

 

[bumperm]

If you are just blowing off filters, you might consider going with an air tank and a smaller compressor - run it longer to build up pressure. Problem is, even a 3000 watt inverter will not start that 1.6 hp motor . . . it will require a short surge (starting) current that will take 4000 to 5000 watts. That will near instantly trip whatever protection is on a 3000 watt inverter.

If you are using a lead-acid battery, best practice for long life is to only discharge to 80%, that's not practical in your situation. For reasonable battery life, the discharge limit is 50%. A 300 AH battery (or bank) would only power that compressor, assuming you have a big enough inverter to supply the higher starting current, for 1 hour max before the battery would be down to 50%.

Another option might be to use a gasoline powered air compressor, or perhaps just use an air tank and fill it from a compressor at home.