Installing Inverter

[Shadow Catcher]

I decided to bite the bullet and buy an inverter and after much hemming and hawing ordered a Morningstar Sursine 300 W, low self power draw and well recommended. The problem is that I want it to be able to power all of the AC outlets in Compass Rose these are handled by the Progressive Dynamics power center. If I install a transfer switch and the inverter up side of the converter it will try and power the converter.

[pmowers]

Shadow Catcher- Have you thought about a setup similar to a UPS (uninterruptable power supply). If there is AC, the batteries are trickle charged, if the AC goes off, the system switches to what is essentially an inverter running off of the batteries until the AC is back. We actually made one when I was in the military to run the blood storage refrigerators out of a 1000 W inverter, a trickle charger and 2 big deep cycle batteries. If you look around the computer recycling places, you probably could find a high wattage unit, many times they are replaced when the batteries get old, just replace the batteries with your deep cycle ones, allowing you to use it either way. Many times the power rating is based more on the capacity of the batteries, rather than the power rating of the electronics.

Just a thought.
[Edit]- well, the above doesn't make any sense in response to your original post.

[eamarquardt]

Sounds like you'll have your battery, inverter, and converter running in circles!

When we installed BigGuy's converter there was a lead inside that went from the A/C portion over to the DC portion of the converter. It would be easy to install a switch in that line to disconnect the A/C from the converter when the inverter is in use. Of course one could get really clever, tap into the inverter power switch, pull off 12 volts to run a relay that has been installed in the converter to disconnect the A/C of the converter from the D/C side of the converter.

The downside of the first option is that you have to remember to throw the switch. The downside to the second option is that it's a bit more complicated but I think either method would work.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Gus

[Shadow Catcher]

The inverter is supposed to be here here Thursday. I had thought of using a UPS and actually bought one, not the best experience with it and not enough power.

Progressive Dynamics has a transfer switch that I will probably order and this has a couple of relays and a time delay so there is no chance that AC will back feed through the inverter, reportedly sparks fly and smoke is released, and as we all know getting that smoke back in where it is supposed to be is a pain. I suppose I just have to figure out which wires to intercept in the power center.

[eamarquardt]

The inverter is supposed to be here here Thursday. I had thought of using a UPS and actually bought one, not the best experience with it and not enough power.

Progressive Dynamics has a transfer switch that I will probably order and this has a couple of relays and a time delay so there is no chance that AC will back feed through the inverter, reportedly sparks fly and smoke is released, and as we all know getting that smoke back in where it is supposed to be is a pain. I suppose I just have to figure out which wires to intercept in the power center.

Sounds like you are trying to avoid "smoke testing".

Wikipedia: In electronics and electrical engineering the term smoke test or power on test is used to refer to the first time a circuit under development is attached to power, which will sometimes produce actual smoke if a design or wiring mistake has been made. Most often this smoke comes from burning resistors, which produce a unique smell familiar to many technicians. For certain circuits, overheating and burning due to circuitry that is still not properly operating can be avoided by slowly turning up the input voltage to the unit under test by using a variable autotransformer and watching the electric current consumption[citation needed]. As a poor-man's "autotransformer", a properly-sized incandescent light bulb in series with the power feed can provide a similar benefit: if the unit under test has a short circuit or other overload, the bulb will light up and provide a high resistance, limiting or preventing further damage to the unit being tested.
Overloaded integrated circuits typically produce "blue smoke" (or magic smoke). "Blue smoke" is the subject of jokes among technicians who refer to it as if it were a genie in the circuit: It's the blue smoke that makes it work—let out the blue smoke and it won't do anything.

Cheers,

Gus

[bdosborn]

Ha, I beat you by 2 months. I installed my Suresine after Christmas (a present to my self). Its not documented in the manual but the remote on/off has 12V on it that will power a small LED. You'll like the inverter, it powers my AV stuff as well as the blender very nicely. I also have a PD transfer switch set up with shore/generator power as the preferred source and the inverter as the alternate source. Interestingly, the transfer switch is fast enough to go from utility power to inverter power and back without out resetting the Dish receiver.

Bruce

[Shadow Catcher]

OK Bruce this is a bit scary (thinking alike) so how did you wire it? If I remember correctly you also have a PD power center?

[eamarquardt]

OK Bruce this is a bit scary (thinking alike) so how did you wire it? If I remember correctly you also have a PD power center?

Yup, I really have to question the sanity of someone that agrees with me. Guy, Teardrops for Vets, questions their sanity even more!

Gus

[fromeo]

I went with the poor man's transfer switch. I moved the hot lead feeding the charge circuit to it's own breaker in the panel. I simply switch that breaker off, and then plug the shore power lead into the inverter. Yeah, it's an extra step vs. an auto transfer switch, but it only cost $3 and I can live with flipping the breaker off once per trip.

- Frank

[bdosborn]

OK Bruce this is a bit scary (thinking alike) so how did you wire it? If I remember correctly you also have a PD power center?

Nope, I have a PD charger but I use fuse blocks for 12V distribution and a separate AC circuit. I would disconnect whatever AC circuit from the power center that you want to feed from the inverter, connect the now available circuit breaker to the preferred xfer switch source, the inverter to the alternate xfer switch source and the previously disconnected circuit to the output of the xfer switch.

Bruce