Question on inverter/charger AC backfeed
Hi all. New member here about to pickup a Grand Design this weekend and I'm already planning out upgrades to make the rig 100% usable off grid. I'm versed in electrical but the whole inverter/charger...
Forum Discussion
Which is it? An inverter or an inverter/charger?
An inverter/charger has the charger built in so no back feed issue.
An inverter could be "whole house" where everything 120v in the RV will run off the inverter. In that case you must shut off the converter (various ways to do that) One way to do whole house is just stick the shore power cord into one of the inverter's output receptacles via adapters.
OR, you can do a sub-panel off the inverter so it only runs the 120v things you want it to where the converter is not on that sub-panel.
Yet another way is to give the inverter its own battery bank and run the rest of the 12v things off another battery bank. Now there is no back feed because the converter only charges the battery bank the inverter is not on. But now you need another charger to recharge the bank the inverter is on. This charger is powered straight from the generator or shore power.
You can set things up all sorts of ways and change things around later as you discover new ways to do things. ( So don't nail anything down in case you want to move it on your next reno. :) )
An inverter/charger has the charger built in so no back feed issue.
An inverter could be "whole house" where everything 120v in the RV will run off the inverter. In that case you must shut off the converter (various ways to do that) One way to do whole house is just stick the shore power cord into one of the inverter's output receptacles via adapters.
OR, you can do a sub-panel off the inverter so it only runs the 120v things you want it to where the converter is not on that sub-panel.
Yet another way is to give the inverter its own battery bank and run the rest of the 12v things off another battery bank. Now there is no back feed because the converter only charges the battery bank the inverter is not on. But now you need another charger to recharge the bank the inverter is on. This charger is powered straight from the generator or shore power.
You can set things up all sorts of ways and change things around later as you discover new ways to do things. ( So don't nail anything down in case you want to move it on your next reno. :) )
