Quote:
Originally Posted by GaryandEllen
Jon can you help me understand how the solar calculation works. I'm picking up my 21 in a couple of months and it will be my first time with solar. How do you get 45 amps draw when you only cooked for 20 min? It sounded like you were using 3 amp hours from the batteries and 1 amp hour from the solar panels for a total rate of 4 amp hours for only 20 minutes. If you cooked for 30 min wouldn't that be 2 amps total?
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The 45 amps was the estimated 12V instantaneous input current to the inverter when the Instant Pot was drawing current, 35 amps coming from the batteries & 10 amps from the solar panels (480 watts worth of panels in late afternoon sun).
Since it switched off & on while cooking, the amp hour used is not based on 45 amps at 20 minutes, but what was actually measured by my battery monitor. I checked the solar panel output, and it was running at about 10 amps, while the battery monitor showed 35 amps coming out of the batteries when the cooking element was on.
While the Instant Pot rated at 700 watts @ 120V, my inverter only produces around 109 volts, which lowers the actual wattage. Doing a rough calculation, when running on the inverter the Instant Pot is drawing around 578 watts.
The total of 4 amp hours is a rough estimate since the solar panels were putting 10 amps back into the batteries when ever the heating element was off, but 4 amp hours is a pretty close estimate.
As to brand, it is an Instant Pot Lux Mini, 3 quart rated at 700 watts (the smallest I could find since I travel solo).