Power consumption numbers for 320S

donmontalvo · February 2025

I have a 2024 nuCamp T@b 320S Boondock Black Canyon. It came with a single 100ah Battle Born battery and no inverter.

I am planning to add a second matching battery in parallel. I an attaching my diagram draft (if I make any changes I will update the image and date it here).

I feel confident the components are ok. But I have a few questions:

1. Where can I run the new ground busbar to? There is a busbar on the opposite side of the trailer but it is wholly inadequate for this new battery design. The largest wires connected to that existing ground busbar is 10 AWG whereas I need a place to ground a 1/0 (0 AWG) ground wire for the attached design.

2. I hate to duplicate efforts, so anyone know if there is a document that lists power consumption for all the DC powered stuff that came with the 320S? This will help me calculate wire size to provide the safest AWG. Currently the diagram shows 1/0 (0 AWG) which I hoped would cover things, but I wanted a sanity check.

3. I have a new Victron Phoenix 1200W inverter standing by, so I will add that that power info to any list that may exist.

DISCLAIMER: I am collaborating on the Victron Facebook page, where many of their employees and expert installers hang out…these questions are out of scope for that forum so posting here.

TIA

donmontalvo · February 2025

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/ha/2sljpqa3i0mu.png

pthomas745 · February 2025

There have been various spreadsheets and threads that describe power usage numbers of the 12V devices across the years. Some of these are more extensive than others.

The larger items in the trailer, the power use numbers are well known from manuals, such as the Alde and the various fridges, the fan, (depending on the model of fan), the pump, etc. With the larger 400's and different lighting designs inside the trailer, there seems to be some variance on how much power the LED strings use.(Not a whole lot, in any case..

Here is a search for "power spreadsheet" that will have lots of examples of this sort of thing, so you might want to wade through and get an idea. (I haven't looked at these threads specifically...a different search term may bring back different results.

https://www.google.com/search?q=power+spreadsheet+site:tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=b7714f4a58b6a0eb&sxsrf=AHTn8zqg8HNCO99-7S9tmtUCqchTxRlHcg:1740240951868&ei=N_i5Z-fUNMm_kPIPw-fusAc&ved=0ahUKEwinzIne1teLAxXJH0QIHcOzG3YQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=power+spreadsheet+site:tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiMnBvd2VyIHNwcmVhZHNoZWV0IHNpdGU6dGFiLXJ2LnZhbmlsbGFjb21tdW5pdHkuY29tSJI-UPoIWOQ4cAF4AJABAJgBNqABoQqqAQIzM7gBA8gBAPgBAZgCAKACAJgDAIgGAZIHAKAHzQs&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

Yoshi_TAB · February 2025

Hi,

Here is a load sheet that another TAB user put together. I added the Air 8 number (compressor running) based on an experiment I conducted when I installed my inverter.

In regards to your first question, when I installed my inverter (2000W) and used 2/0 wires for the inverter/battery circuit, I did not run a 2/0 wire to the ground stub from the negative busbar. That could be wrong, but based on the research I did. I ran 8 AWG. I followed other inverter installs and do not recall seeing anyone doing that. I believe, if I remember, the rationale was because the DC loads in the trailer were not changing. But I'd be interested to hear what others with more electrical knowledge would say.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/06/ma0tnq352cwq.jpg

donmontalvo · February 2025

@pthomas745 and @Yoshi_TAB thanks for the info, the Victron Phoenix 12|1200 inverter I have will easily work with what is in the diagram. I updated the image - I added a MEGA/AMG 250A fuze between the battery switch and positive busbar.

Once I get this built out in the 320S, I'll test and monitor it over a couple days. Then I'll add the inverter.

Yoshi_TAB · February 2025

Hi, Another thing that was pointed out to me during my install was to have the larger 250A fuse for the inverter as close to the batteries as possible. You want that fuse to stop the over current issue close to the batteries and before the switch. It looks like the 150A fuse would blow before the current gets to the 250A fuse.

donmontalvo · February 2025

I will remove the 250A MEGA/AMG fuse from the diagram since as you and a couple others told me, it isn’t necessary, thanks!

I have the inverter sitting on the side, ready to go, with 1/0 wires and a 150A circuit breaker on the positive wire. Waiting for the stuff in the diagram to be completed.

I am not sure yet if I will connect the inverter’s wires to the positive and negative busbars…or the positive to one battery and the negative to the other battery…or connect to the positive on one battery and the negative to the busbar. I figure that will be part of the next phase of work.

pthomas745 · February 2025

The spreadsheet that Yoshi posted is the Jenn Grover @jkjenn sheet for her 2021 320. She also worked one up for her earlier 320, which I still have somewhere in the documents/manuals for my 2017. It helped me tremendously. The sheets can be found here. The links from her page go to a OneDrive page.

https://jenngrover.com/power-consumption/

Yoshi_TAB · February 2025

Hi, Lots of way to install an inverter circuit, here is mine for some ideas. I took the opportunity to move my batteries inside by splicing into the same wire from the WFCO that goes directly outside to the batteries. This avoids cutting any holes in the TAB to route the wire. Not sure if the batteries on a '24 are inside or out. My other lessons learned is to make sure you correctly torque the larger AWG wires and stack them (i.e no washers in between the lugs) on the inverter circuit. I found when I ran my inverter with higher wattage items, I had some heat build up in the wires. Once I checked torques, the heat build up went away.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/sn/71rvii8dro7t.jpg

donmontalvo · February 2025

pthomas745 said:

The spreadsheet that Yoshi posted is the Jenn Grover @jkjenn sheet for her 2021 320. She also worked one up for her earlier 320, which I still have somewhere in the documents/manuals for my 2017. It helped me tremendously. The sheets can be found here. The links from her page go to a OneDrive page.
https://jenngrover.com/power-consumption/

Thanks, sorted out the power draw questions. Most of the work is completed. I still need to install the positive busbar, and run a 6awg to the camper chassis (waiting for nuCamp support with recommendation on where and how to run the line). Once that's done I will attach the inverter.

I updated the layout image.

Power consumption numbers for 320S

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