In an effort to increase my fridge run time I'm adding a 12v panel in the van. I have the Edgestar Fridge that is normally run through the inverter. I tested a couple of weeks ago and I got roughly a 30 hour run time with my current set up. This has always been fine for our use because at the most in the past we've only run the inverter 12 hours or so and everything's been fine. Realizing we may have some extended power issues (not being able to plug in, not having solar) I was trying to come up with a solution for extended battery run times for the fridge. Talking with another friend about my set up I realized the fridge was AC/DC and if I added a DC plug for the fridge I could possibly extend my fridge run time without having to use the inverter.
Couple of questions:
1. Can I ground the new 12v fuse panel directly to the inverter without harming anything so that they would share a ground. For clarity the panel would be grounded directly to the inverter. I'm asking because that's the only ground that I have inside of the cabinet where I'm mounting the 12v panel. I could ground the panel separately with a little extra work but I'm running out of time before our trip. Here is the fuse panel:
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Systems- ... s=blue+sea
2. Both house batteries have 100amp fuses before the inverter. They are wired to a power bar before reaching the inverter
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-PowerBar ... s=blue+sea. I have room to come directly off of the power bar to the fuse panel. That would mean that the inverter and the fuse panel would share a common positive. The individual circuits coming out of the new panel would be fused but between the inverter and the fuse panel would not be. Is this a problem?
3. Wire size. I was planning on 8 or 10 gauge for powering the new fuse panel and also the ground. Comments?
I basically have this week to get the new fuse panel and the new 12v socket installed so I can at least test before leaving. Thanks in advance for the help!