Inverter plugged into battery when on shore power

yes it actually beneficial as you maintain the voltage...

lawrosa wrote:
yes it actually beneficial as you maintain the voltage...

??? Assuming we're talking inverter, and not inverter/charger here...

The inverter takes 12v DC from the batteries and provides 120 V AC which of course drains the batteries. How is that be beneficial to the batteries?

OP: As long as the inverter is off it wouldn't hurt anything, but there's really no reason to use the inverter while plugged in to shore power.

I am asking because I just did a perminant inverter install. See my solar post.
My question is when I am at a campground with hook ups do I need to disconnect the inverter cables from the battery? Or can I just keep them connected.

leave it hooked. No problem. Your converter will keep the battery charged.

Why not repost the pertinent information here?

The answer is "it depends".

I often did double conversion when I had a 2500 watt MSW Cobra inverter. My PD 40 amp converter was quite happy to work with it.

If I had only 15 amps of shore power, I would often use the dedicated inverter powered outlet in the kitchen so as not to blow a shore power breaker. That way I could use a induction cooker (on shore power), toaster (on inverter), and coffee pot (on inverter) all at the same time. The PD would replenish the battery bank after I stopped cooking.

However, when I tried the same things with my much more sophisticated Magnum 3000 Hybrid inverter, it "took out" the reverse polarity fuses on the PD more or less instantly.

Fortunately I have switches so it is rather easy for me to disconnect the Magnum from the battery bank. I also have an easy way to disconnect the PD from the 120 volt power shore power source.

So, the "safe" answer is, no need to disconnect from the battery bank, if you do NOT have the inverter active.

samhain7 wrote:
I am asking because I just did a perminant inverter install. See my solar post.
My question is when I am at a campground with hook ups do I need to disconnect the inverter cables from the battery? Or can I just keep them connected.

One thing to avoid is powering the converter via the inverter. That will deplete your batteries quickly and may cause other issues.

Assuming it's a good quality inverter, it can be used as a power conditioner. If you have lousy power coming in, the battery charger may still work OK but sensitive electronics won't like the bad power. By using the inverter, the electronics only see the nice clean power coming out of the inverter (buy a piece of junk inverter and this doesn't work so well).

As someone else mentioned, if the inverter can handle the startup load and the battery charger is big enough, you can run heavy loads like air/con off lower amp connections. It may take 25amps to get the air/con to kick over but once running it may drop back to 10-12amps. If you have a 15amp outlet, you may be able to run the air/con without popping the fuse.

One thing to be careful of is to make sure the inverter is wired so it can't supply power to the same circuit that is currently powered by shore power.

hohenwald48 wrote:
One thing to avoid is powering the converter via the inverter. That will deplete your batteries quickly and may cause other issues.

Not if you turn off the charging circuit.. It should be labeled on one of your breakers..

hohenwald48 wrote:
One thing to avoid is powering the converter via the inverter. That will deplete your batteries quickly and may cause other issues.

lawrosa wrote:
Not if you turn off the charging circuit.. It should be labeled on one of your breakers..

Is this not self evident? :R

samhain7 wrote:
Is it ok to have an inverter hooked up to your battery when plugged into shore power?

Inverter can remain connected to the battery in all conditions.