Reply from Magnum in response to basically this post (read from bottom to top)
Mary:
Yes that is correct.
In all reality, your inverter shouldn't even be showing you power on the remote display, nor passing thru; you are experiencing that phenomenon I mentioned earlier.
Me:
I am still confused as to why everything seems normal with the charger on and starved without it. But you are saying turn it all off and bypass if possible. And by bypass you mean remove the AC in from the inverter.
Mary:
> As I mentioned, the inverter really shouldn't even be passing thru
> with the batteries disconnected. It would be best to bypass the
> inverter altogether if you're wanting to power your loads from shore power.
>
Me:
> Thanks. I have the battery switch off if that metters. Why do you
> think I am low on power with the charger off?
Mary:
>
>> You will want to turn it to charger standby to help prevent excessive
>> voltage from accidentally reaching those DC terminals.
Me:
Thanks.
>> Should the charger be on or on standby? As noted below everything is
>> very dim on standby which I don't understand.
Mary:
>> Leaving the shore power connected to the inverter and leaving it
>> energized can leave you open for the possibility of energizing the DC
>> terminals accidentally. This isn't too much of an issue as long as
>> nothing is near those terminals and they aren't accessible for
>> something to accidentally touch. Another phenomenon that I've seen is
>> that the inverter will sometimes still allow for Shore power to pass
>> thru in this situation, and an end user has come to expect that
>> phenomenon... however, the inverter was designed to shut down and not
>> allow for pass thru at all in the event batteries are disconnected.
>>
>> In short, no, you won't damage the inverter leaving it the way it is,
>> but there's also not much point in doing so either.
Me:
>> Thanks Mary.
>>
>> Will it hurt anything to leave it connected and the inverter turned off?
>> This is a short term problem, hope to have the batteries back in next week.
>>
>> Should I have the charger on standby or "on". The lights were really
>> dim when it was on standby. Thanks again!
Mary:
>> Dear Shaun,
>>
>> If you still had shore power connected when you disconnected the
>> batteries, you can still keep the internal circuitry powered in the
>> inverter and it will read on the remote what it thinks it should be
>> doing. The capacitors still have a charge in them, so the inverter
>> thinks this is the battery voltage. In short, you're getting
>> erroneous readings and it would be recommended to disconnect your AC
>> input going to the inverter if you're going to disconnect the batteries.
>>
>> As for you battery size, with 4x6V batteries (assuming you've wired
>> them into 12V), you would have 2 paralleled strings of batteries. To
>> figure out your Amp-Hour capacity, you take the 20-hour rating and
>> multiply that number by the amount of paralleled strings you have. So
>> in your case, 232 x
>> 2 - 464. Having your AH set to 400 is close enough and I would say is
>> set properly.
