Unique Solar Question

CA - no worries. Batteries will last many years, if used for low-current loads only (preferably to exclude microwave as well).

Provided, they are treated "right" - bringing them to +95-99% SOC daily and keeping the lowest SOC above 60%. With +500W solar this shouldn't be a problem in all but exceptionally rainy climate zones. But they would have to avoid shade.

I agree that if (IF) you are already staying in the camp with shore power AND they don't charge by the meter, using solar doesn't make financial sense.

I had to look at this a couple of times. My converter and solar controller play well together and I do not isolate them. The only time. I do have a DPDT switch that switches from shore power to Inverter, Bypassing the converter.

Install a second shore cord for just the AC as suggested above to accomplish what you want.

rynophiliac wrote:
My reasoning for setting it up this way is:

1)Don't get charged for electricity power when hooked up to shore power to run tv, lights, stereo, etc. You'll be paying for the A/C usage which is the most significant usage. You'll also be paying with shorter battery life. Plus the initial cost of solar.

In the end over a period of time you might save some $ but your reasoning is questionable to me.

And many CGs don't charge extra for electricty, although it's more common for full timers.

2) eliminate the need for a automatic transfer switch to sense when plugged into shore power and switch from solar to shore power automatically and vice versa. This makes no sense at all. An ATS is baically used to switch your AC between shore power and gen. It has absolutely nothing to do with DC including the charger and solar.

Hi Almot,

No.

Almot wrote:
Is your auxiliary shore cord hard-wired to this new female outlet through A/C breaker?

You can skip part of this if you aren't really concerned about best practices for wiring AC devices.

What I would do if I wanted to accomplish the OP's circuit configuration is similar to what others have said, break out the AC supply to the air conditioner using a male plug and a 20 amp receptacle. One half of the receptacle would be powered by the original breaker in the RV's load center. The other half of the receptacle would be powered by a separate shore power cord, power to the receptacle interrupted by a disconnect switch with either another 20 amp circuit breaker or a fuse. Disconnect switches are cheap enough that placing circuit protection inside the RV in addition to the power source (pedestal, generator, home receptacle) would be a no-brainer for me. The OP may choose to install a breakout box with two receptacles so that an auxiliary heater or other device can be used without unplugging the air conditioner's male plug.

Sorry Don, it must be weather affecting me.
Is your auxiliary shore cord hard-wired to this new female outlet through A/C breaker?

Hi Almot,

My power center is under the bed which lifts up. That allows easy access to the breaker panel from behind.

I was often in situations where I wished to use double conversion, where I would plug in only the converter and power the rest of the RV from the inverter.

Here is what I did

Device to be powered--disconnect from breaker panel and put on a heavy duty male plug on the Romex wire.

OEM breaker add some Romex to a female outlet.

Auxiliary shore power cord goes to a female outlet.

This allows me to switch back and forth from OEM powering to Auxiliary powering in ten seconds.

There was room to add female outlets to the wooden back wall of the power center.

I do use a short 18" #12 cord to prevent flexing of the Romex when moving from OEM power to Auxiliary power source.

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Because of solar and the Magnum inverter, my default for the converter is unplugged.

Almot wrote:

Don, you got me interested.
Is this it?
A/C Romex male plug -> Female outlet (where? near breaker panel?) -> breaker disconnected from OEM shore wiring -> Aux shore cord.

And if so, why connecting A/C to its dedicated breaker through the female outlet rather than just leaving this part intact? As long as the A/C breaker is powered by separate cord, and OEM shore wiring is not connected to anything, it looks good to me.

pianotuna wrote:

Find the Romex for the air conditioner.

Disconnect it from the breaker.

Put a male plug on the Romex

Add a female outlet on the breaker for the air conditioner.

Plug the male plug into a female outlet that is powered by the auxiliary shore power cord.

Don, you got me interested.
Is this it?
A/C Romex male plug -> Female outlet (where? near breaker panel?) -> breaker disconnected from OEM shore wiring -> Aux shore cord.

And if so, why connecting A/C to its dedicated breaker through the female outlet rather than just leaving this part intact? As long as the A/C breaker is powered by separate cord, and OEM shore wiring is not connected to anything, it looks good to me.

Lots of other ideas above, but.

To do what you want! Just have the feed to the A/C disconnected from your circuit breaker panel, and wired directly to a #12 cable with a 20 amp plug.

Doug

you can add a separate circuit aka (break it out) for the a/c and use a separate 20amp shore cord for it

keep the Rv and converter on the OEM shore cord

there will be times when you want that converter power charging batteries and powering the MW
mother nature doesn't always give you all the sunny weather needed for battery charging from solar
and i can guarantee that the A/C uses a lot more power than top off battery charging
IF its sunny and hot and you want A/C the tiny bit added by charging use will be miniscule compared to the charges for running the a/c
and since the converter works at night off shore power..you will be able give your batteries a rest and let them top up to full SG
BTW i don't normally camp where the a/c is metered so when i pay to camp, i want to get my batteries charge and get out my portable charges and put them on equalize

we full time mostly off grid dry camp 505w solar, residential fridge, generator etc.
believe me..when you pay to camp , you want to maximize your battery charging not just use the A/C..i heat with propane..but i cook with the MW
i know about power use
break out the a/c circuit IF you want to
but don't rob Peter to Pay Paul
when you have shore power, use it to desulfate, equalize, revitalize those batteries..DON'T short change your self over the few cents , of electric for the batteries, and thats only where there is long term parking with metered sites
any over night or weekend you will be charge a flat rate for the campsite, no matter how little or how much power you are using

now if you spend the winter in Quartzite or RGV Texas at one of the places that offer seasonal parking with metered electric
then you might save a little, by charging off solar during the day and powering lights and TV at night, but then you won't need the A/C in the winter, and electric heat costs as much or more as A/C
but yeah maybe you could reduce the electric bill
but you can do the same thing by turning off the main breaker in your panel and only using the electric when using the A/C or MW or Coffee pot, and not have to worry about the re-wire