new thought on electrical system

[dovaka]

i have been working on designing my electrical system so that it automatically switches from shore power to the inverter as well as doing a few other things and then i thought about putting a ups battery backup in line with everything to take out that half second gap of no power when it switches between the two then i realized that the ups is basically what i was trying to do with all the other stuff it runs off of 12v battery's automatically switches instantly from shore power over to the 12v and when shore power comes back it will recharge the battery's most of them also have com ports on them so if you have a laptop in the tear like we will you can look at what the UPS is doing in much more detail then a volt meter can do and i happen to have a ton of them laying around up to 6000w

im just wondering if anyone has done this before and had any luck with it or if the whole thing went horribly wrong for them

[Tear Les]

i have been working on designing my electrical system so that it automatically switches from shore power to the inverter as well as doing a few other things and then i thought about putting a ups battery backup in line with everything to take out that half second gap of no power when it switches between the two then i realized that the ups is basically what i was trying to do with all the other stuff it runs off of 12v battery's automatically switches instantly from shore power over to the 12v and when shore power comes back it will recharge the battery's most of them also have com ports on them so if you have a laptop in the tear like we will you can look at what the UPS is doing in much more detail then a volt meter can do and i happen to have a ton of them laying around up to 6000w

im just wondering if anyone has done this before and had any luck with it or if the whole thing went horribly wrong for them

There are quite a few ways to do this. The UPS will work but most (probably) won't have the reserve capacity (amp-hours) you want. But if so I don't know why it wouldn't work.

If you want to chose your own battery then the simplest installation is using an inverter with an internal transfer switch. When you go from shore power to inverter or back again it will not drop your loads. These can be had in a great variety of wattages and transfer switch amperages.

With this setup the shorepower feeds directly to the inverter and all loads go though the inverter; if the shorepower cable (cord) is unplugged the inverter instantly picks up the load. There are also several with built-in chargers so when shorepower is connected the batteries are charged (usually with a multi-stage charger designed to charge deep cycle batteries).

[asianflava]

Automatic is nice but, I like things like that under manual control. When I work on it, I want to be absolutely positive that the power is OFF and will not automatically turn on.

I wired up a DPDT switch for my power, Up is battery power, Center is off, Down is for shore power. Since I have to go thru off to switch sources, both are never connected at the same time.

[dovaka]

Automatic is nice but, I like things like that under manual control. When I work on it, I want to be absolutely positive that the power is OFF and will not automatically turn on.

I wired up a DPDT switch for my power, Up is battery power, Center is off, Down is for shore power. Since I have to go thru off to switch sources, both are never connected at the same time.

the main reason i want automatic is because we quite often camp with a friend who has a RV and he lugs along a generator and when we were tenting we use to bring a standard house fan with us to keep air circulating during the night but it never seems to fail for someone to remember to wake up in the middle of the night to put gas in the generator and it ends up running out and no one realizes until its been off long enough for it to become stiflingly hot and you end up waking up because of that so if i had the automatic switch for the down time then it wouldn't affect me

its also rather annoying when were at a camp site and someone blows the breaker after the 5th person T's into the 1 plug at the pole that doesn't happen as often but i once lost a good game of halo i had going and didn't get to save because someone else popped the breaker

[Tear Les]

Automatic is nice but, I like things like that under manual control. When I work on it, I want to be absolutely positive that the power is OFF and will not automatically turn on.

I wired up a DPDT switch for my power, Up is battery power, Center is off, Down is for shore power. Since I have to go thru off to switch sources, both are never connected at the same time.

They are under manual control; they just operate automatically once you manually tell them to. It's like turn signals on a car; you have to manually move the turn signal lever but once you do the bulb blinks on it's own. It would be a real pain to have to flip the lever back and forth to make the signals work (BTDT!).

It would also be a pain if the refrigerator in the house didn't maintain it's own temperature, or the air conditioner, or the furnance, or...

[madjack]

D, what you are wanting, sounds just like one of these... http://www.bestconverter.com/Centurion- ... _c_63.html
madjack

[dovaka]

yep thats exactly what i was looking for

[Sonetpro]

D, what you are wanting, sounds just like one of these... http://www.bestconverter.com/Centurion- ... _c_63.html
madjack

Thats what I was thinking. I have one like that too.
Everthing in my tear runs on 12V or an inverter including the TV. The only exception is the AC and the coffee pot.

[madjack]

yep thats exactly what i was looking for

D, another option is to use this, http://www.batterymart.com/p-battery-te ... arger.html
...hardwired to battery and 120vac, it will act as an automatic switching powersupply...it will cover your DCV needs(along with a battery) but wont do much for your ACV or A/C(read the tech pdf)...
madjack