inverter question

[Northern Explorer]

I'm looking at possibly getting a 2000 watt inverter for my camper. I was noticing in these pictures that there are two negative and two positive power cables.

Question: Why two power cables for both neg. and pos.




thanks

 

[lowenbrau]

A single cable to support 2000W is going to be too big to run any where. A big welding cable is gonna leave a lump under the carpet. Parallel fees lets you run somewhat smaller wire.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Could be for a couple of reasons. Parallel power reduces noise, can give you current division or redundancy. Current division allows each individual conductor to carry less of the current and still supply the total you need. It means you can use smaller wires or have lower loss (loss or voltage drop is proportional to current in the wire).

Keep in mind that you need to size and/or fuse each individual wire so that it can safely still handle the load. Say you have a 100A load on two wires that are each too small to handle 100A but the wires can take 50A. Don't run a single 100A fuses that branches to two conductors, you need to run (for example) a 50A fuse on each conductor.

 

[JIMBO]

:chowtime: Just as a PROBABLY

All inverters come prefused (internal) for protection, so just fuse any thing that feeds from it

The two leads-/+ probably (there's that word again) are probably for seperate BATTERY SOURCES or seperate output bkrs

:gunt: :safari-rig: :safari-rig: JIMBO

 

[DaveInDenver]

Just as a PROBABLY

All inverters come prefused (internal) for protection, so just fuse any thing that feeds from it

The two leads-/+ probably (there's that word again) are probably for seperate BATTERY SOURCES or seperate output bkrs

That's certainly possible, but I would not assume it to be always true. I would assume the intended source is a single battery through parallel cables, but you could source from multiple batteries if you wish. Also the upstream fusing is to protect the feed cables rather than to protect the device (although protecting the inverter could be a desirable benefit). A fuse inside the inverter won't keep your truck from catching on fire if the insulation rubs through and shorts a supply wire to the chassis.