2007 original inverter placement
Second row passenger-side seat with cushion removed. A perfect site for my inverter.
Inverter installed under seat. Two holes drilled on the right allow the battery cables to pass into the small storage area under the toilet. Another hole passes the two AC cables, the ground wire, the monitor panel cable and the temperature sensor cable. The inverter output cutoff switch is seen at top left. This disconnects both the hot and neutral wires so I don't have neutral bonding issues.
This shows the seat cushion and drawer reinstalled. I needed to keep the drawer functional, since the front right bed uses it as a support for the cushion. To make it work with the inverter in place, I took out the bottom and back of the drawer. Fortunately a rear top brace on the drawer keeps it solid. I also cut out an opening in the side of the drawer as well as the side of the seat enclosure (covered by brown grill) to provide ventilation for the inverter.
Another view of the open drawer. A wide notch was also cut into the front bottom floor of the seat enclosure, just in front of the inverter for additional ventilation. This allows air to flow up into the space from the bottom, even with the drawer closed.
This shows the inverter from the front with the drawer open. This location makes both the inverter on⁄off switch and output cutoff switch (located to the left of the inverter) easily accessible. You can also see where the monitor panel and temperature sensor leads plug into the inverter on the right.
Finished project. Looks good and works like a charm!
Inverter display panel mounted near other panels
ProSine 2.0 display panel close up. I also taped a piece of paper near the panel that shows what battery voltages correspond to the varying states of charge of the AGM batteries (100%=12.8V, 75%=12.6V, 50%=12.3V, 25%=12.0V, 0%=11.8V). It should be noted that these are open circuit voltages with no load (ideally for 24 hrs). A load can drop the measured voltage by about 0.2 volts or more for heavy loads or weak batteries. I set my inverter to give warning beeps when voltage drops to 12.1 volts and to automatically cut off when voltage goes down to 12.0 volts. Given the voltage drop under load, this will keep the batteries from going much below a 50% discharge.