Using inverter to power house outlets?

K1ngN0thing

My Roadtrek has a house battery, which powers the 12v lighting, pumps, fans, etc. I also have another battery, which I've connected to solar, and will serve my 120v functions. I want to run my shore cable inside and connect it to this inverter to power only the AC outlets. I don't want the converter to take this AC power and convert it back to DC to power the DC outlets. I want to power the DC outlets with the first battery. I want to be able to use DC off of the first battery and AC off of the second battery simultaneously. Is this possible?

dropkick

Yes it's certainly possible to power AC outlets from an inverter. I'd assume you'll also want to use shore power when available. What's needed is a automatic transfer switch (ATS). It allows the outlets to 'select' between the battery fed inverter or shore power. The automatic variety lets you prioritize the inputs, generally shore power is preferred. There are also manual ones. There are also several inverters with built-in transfer switches (Samlex comes to mind).
It sounds like you'd want to keep the two batteries completely seperate. The converter would be wired to the shore input side of the ATS, thus allowing it to charge only whilst on shore power, and charge whichever battery you desire.

K1ngN0thing

So there's no way to prevent my inverter output from charging the other battery without an ATS?

dcast99

It should be very easy to do what you want. In your 120v braker panel should be a breaker label for you inverter. Turn it off. On some units other things maybe sharing that breaker. If so, isolate the inverter with it's own breaker.

waynefromnscanada

K1ngN0thing wrote: »

So there's no way to prevent my inverter output from charging the other battery without an ATS?

It would be really great if you could supply us with the make and model of your inverter, so we'd know what you're dealing with and could more properly help with out a lot of vague guesswork. Also what you have for solar panels, battery for your solar, and what you have for a charge controller.
Failing any of that, we can definitely warn that if the output of the inverter is ever fed with mains power, you'll get instant smoke from the inverter.

BB.

Transfer switches (automatic or manual) are highly recommended. Yes, you can simply use two circuit breakers (or switches) to select either the AC inverter or AC mains as the power source for your loads--But if both switches are ever turned on at the same time--Lots of smoke and possible fire/injury will result.

There are manual transfer switches that use circuit breakers and an interlock--And those will work fine too:

http://www.solar-electric.com/midnite-solar-30-amp-240-volt-dual-ac-manual-transfer-switch.html

But that can cost more than an ATS (relay).

Also--you have the option of switching 1 (hot), 2 (hot and neutral), or 3 (hot, neutral, safety ground)--Depending on the model/brand of AC inverter (internal neutral/ground bonding setup, TSW vs MSW inverter, etc.).

MSW inverters (in general) are very particular on how they are grounded (AC, DC return grounding). Usually the AC output leads must be floated. If you ground bond a "neutral/return" on the MSW inverter and ground the DC return / - battery bus, it will short out the MSW inverter and let out the magic smoke.

-Bill

OntheWay

I am using a 1-0-2 switch for source selection either grid or inverter. With this, there is no way of accidentally meeting two AC sources.