wiring an Ramsond inverter into a sub-panel

slyttle
slyttle Registered Users Posts: 9
Hi There,

I've already written to Ramsond about this, but haven't heard back and thought I would pose the question here.

I have a Ramsond 3000W pure sine wave inverter. This inverter has four 120V outlets and two sets of terminals (GRN, N, Hot) X 2 for hard wiring in loads.

What I am wondering is whether I can take these two sets of terminals and use them to power a sub-panel for emergency power. The two hot wires would be analogous to the two hot wires coming in from the city service and I would combine the two ground wires to form one ground, and the same for the two neutral wires.

My only concern is that (I think) both the hot outputs are going to be in the same phase, so that wont be a 240 volt service ... but as long as I don't try and put any 240 circuits into the panel I should be fine. Correct?

Am I on the right track here? Any code issues here?

thx

-Sheldon

Comments

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,613 admin
    Re: wiring an Ramsond inverter into a sub-panel

    According to the website.
    Hard Wire Terminal Block (AC115V 60 Hz, 30 Amp)

    You should be able to wire up L-N-G in 10 AWG wire from the inverter to a sub panel.

    Which makes the 15 amp outlets appear to be powered directly by the 30 amp bus--Not safe.

    The manual link was broken, perhaps there are some sort of breakers/fuses internal/elsewhere on the unit to protect the 15 amp outlets.

    You need to get the manual for your unit to understand how the terminal block is wired--I would guess that it is 30 amps @ 120 VAC--And you can verify the voltage across the terminals are really 120 VAC.

    Of course, you need an AC transfer switch to ensure that you do not drive AC Mains power backwards into the your AC inverter. Neither you or your inverter will be happy with the results.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset