by daveesl77 » Sat Oct 15, 2016 11:59 am
If possible, mount the inverter as close to the battery as you can. 12v DC requires much larger wiring to compensate for voltage drop than does 120v AC. Thus, put the inverter close to the battery and use large cable to connect the two. Then the 120V side can drop down to extension cord size wiring. Be aware that an inverter might be 80%+/- efficient, meaning that for something requiring 800 watts to continually operate, it can take perhaps 1000 watts of input power to develop that. 1,000 watts at 120 v is essentially 8 amps, but at 12v is 80 amp. For my 2,000 watt inverter I ran #00 battery cable 3 feet from the battery (tongue box) to the inverter (inside front wall). I have nothing that fully taxes that inverter.
That is actually why Edison lost out to Tesla/Stanley/Westinghouse in having the U.S. being a DC or AC country. It was called the "War of the Currents". Edison wanted lots of little generators all over the place (he held the patents), while with the alternator and transformer (Tesla/Stanley/Westinghouse) for AC you could go with only a few high voltage power stations and thus much smaller wiring and far more distant transmission areas. Edison did a major PR campaign to try to terrify people into not using the high voltage system, but it backfired on him.
dave