New Off Grid Inverter Charger

[niel]

cdog,
from my way of thinking, they do exist, also with thoughts of an m&m commercial coming to mind. take a look at the magnum ms4024pae or the magnum ms4448pae. although they have a built in charger, you should know it really didn't add too much in costs to put in it as it pretty much is the inverter in reverse. the other bells and whistles usually come with the remotes or add ons which are an extra expense not included with the inverter itself.

my situation is one that i don't need 4kw right now and have a magnum mms1012 which is a 12v 1kw inverter. i have about 400ah in agm batteries paralleled  to run it and really wished i had more battery capacity and wanted to put more in, but i had to restrain myself as 4 12v batteries in parallel is pushing things a bit. now if these were for use in a 1kw-1.5kw inverter with a 24v or 48v input, this gives better flexibility with the batteries and anybody who runs anywhere near the capacity of the inverter i have for long knows it will suck it out of the battery bank. having a full days worth of battery capacity is not realistic in my case, but i am stuck in not being able to expand too much with the batteries i have without scrapping the whole thing and getting bigger batteries and all else that encompass that change. i figure that with the type i have i could've gone with 2 more batteries to fit inside the battery box, but 6 in parallel is asking for trouble. at 24v this would be feasible as then i'd have 3 strings of 2 in series and i'd have still upped my capacity by 50%. now i can't expand due to the batteries being at about 2yrs old now and i don't want to mix old and new batteries.

my point is that at the time an inverter at 24v, or better yet 48v for a single series string of batteries, when i was first going with this at 1kw it would've worked better for more as i could've expanded upon my battery bank much more readily. the series arranged batteries are best over the paralleled and would accommodate the battery capacity expansion very well with a minimum of paralleling. in my case i really wouldn't have much need beyond around 1kw very often, but in my case it is trying to go for any real autonomy, which isn't as easy to come by as you think with a modest budget ability. with midnite's proposed modular design the inverter capacity would've been possible in addition to a battery capacity expansion as i need for our loads can increase or sometimes one miscalculates their loads as peaks can sometimes be worse than figured upon. that would save from buying another whole inverter and having that one that's now under rated just laying around.

babbling here, but i wanted to give a perspective that lower wattage higher voltage inverters are a good thing as there is a real need there and expandability on inverter capacity could save on total replacement costs involved with a sudden need to draw more power than the inverter is initially capable of down the road.

[cdog]

Thanks...
Is something like the exeltech rack system with the individual modules along the lines of what this may turn out to be?
Or stand alone inveters that could be stacked later?
Sorry for the newbie questions!

[niel]

that i can't answer as i'm not a midnite employee and i don't know if it would be fair to ask them to answer that question as it is still in development.

[dgd]

Because this is just a suggestion thread....is there anyone other than me that would have a use for....
4kw
120/240
That's it....no charger...no options....no talking to the mother ship....no gen start etc etc...
Just a plane Jane one button bare bones box that will last forever and not cost a fortune...
Am I alone here?

No you are not alone.  I also want the plain Jane having no interest whatsoever in battery charger, or any 'features' or stacking capability . Just clean sine wave, goes forever and is a 'black box'.

dgd

[cpm]

Because this is just a suggestion thread....is there anyone other than me that would have a use for....
4kw
120/240
That's it....no charger...no options....no talking to the mother ship....no gen start etc etc...
Just a plane Jane one button bare bones box that will last forever and not cost a fortune...
Am I alone here?

No you are not alone.  I also want the plain Jane having no interest whatsoever in battery charger, or any 'features' or stacking capability . Just clean sine wave, goes forever and is a 'black box'.

dgd

Works for me,

Shall I make a motion?

[dgd]

Motion good but I'm not sure anyone would take notice 

dgd

[Halfcrazy]

Oh trust me Robin and crew are keeping an eye on this as well as other input we get. This will for sure help them mold the product in the best possible way to satisfy the most people.

Ryan

[cdog]

That's great news.....a "lite" version perhaps?

[Westbranch]

good idea to have the capability built in but it's not necessary to use it

[dgd]

good idea to have the capability built in but it's not necessary to use it

good except that you are still paying for something you don't want.

dgd

[Westbranch]

I was thinking along the lines of the "Lite" where a part (MNGP) is not included yielding a lower selling price but can be added later to get the 'full meal deal', benefit is a lower entry cost, but more 'core' product is sold >>> lower production costs for both models .  Just  like cars, it is the added bling that really costs you dearly..

or like an I-phone, basic model but look at all 70,000 or ?? Apps not all of which are free.

[dgd]

yes  makes sense..
I was thinking of a real basic almost featureless sine wave inverter, 120/240v 60Hz, 230v 50Hz.  4Kw 24v/48V DC in (so thats 4 different models?), on/off soft switch, leds for power,DC too low/high and not much else (LITE).  External add on options for any bells or whistles needed. Stackable, AC in, battery charger, bypass relays, gen start, fancy lcd displays, internet access etc.. in another model (FEATURED).
I'm not really a fan of 'modular' devices where additional features mean inserting additional bits. Often this capability adds significantly to the cost of the basic device.

dgd

[Westbranch]

Its the Off  grid that is the problem...ever since you went OG you started getting those tickets,   obviously has nothing to do with having a RED sports car...http://ca.autoblog.com/2010/10/19/road-myths-do-red-cars-attract-more-tickets/

I haven't looked inside any of my inverters but is it possible to build them like PC motherboards? with lots of empty slots so we can add on features we want when we need it.  Seems like most RE goods have a 8 year or longer model-run-life, I know my venerable MX is still being sold

[dgd]

..yes true again.  Going OG was a goal for years, so was driving a 911 250K+, now if the Classic was  Red instead of just black (also white,cream,yellow green blue options)...  it would be faster too 

IMO an inverter with plugin slots for modules is just somethng else to work loose short out corrode go high resistance heat up  burn out and PO me. Give me monster copper conductors, massive soldered wires and connectors, wide pcb tracks with soldered on wire to beef them up and 5/16inch bolt down lugs and not a plugin module within 100metres of the inverter   

dgd

[niel]

i'm not following why some of you are so against the built in charger. it really isn't a big savings to eliminate it and those off grid can still have need to hook a generator up to add to the charge of the battery bank. you act like this will be a $200 thing to have it in the inverter. it really is the inverter. you are thinking of separate chargers and that would add that kind of cost in that case, but not this case as nearly all the same components are involved. maybe one of the guys at midnite can fine tune for you guys what the real bottom line difference would roughly be.