Need Help Wiring Inverter.

An idea i did in my 5th wheel was I just removed the black wire from the breaker and ran it thru a standard light switch then back to the breaker. When running on inverter I just shut the switch off. The only issue i ever had was forgetting to turn it on ! I had planned to change the switch to a lighted one so i knew it was on, but since replaced the camper...well moved out of it so to speak.

Installed my ATS just after the twist lock in the side of the camper. This allowed all circuits to be live. I was worried about the microwave and coffee maker but my inverter has a shutdown for over current so if she accidentally thinks she can use it it shuts down.

MrWizard wrote:
yes common nuetral is a problem, and wired against code

you have too switch both HOT and Neutral, with the ATS for ALL power sources

that means switch both wires from generator, both wires from shore power

AND both hot and neutral from inverter

its the law , because its a Safety issue

I thought that might have been the problem. Isolated the neutral and everything is working as it should! Taking it out next week!

Thanks for everyone's help. I might add a second ATS later (one of those small ones) if I end up with too much load on all the outlets.

yes common nuetral is a problem, and wired against code

you have too switch both HOT and Neutral, with the ATS for ALL power sources

that means switch both wires from generator, both wires from shore power

AND both hot and neutral from inverter

its the law , because its a Safety issue

smkettner wrote:
I crammed two relays in one box. If doing this today I would have the smaller TS by KISAE.

http://www.donrowe.com/KISAE-TS15A-Automatic-Transfer-Switch-p/ts15a.htm

Looks nice I guess if I have to buy another one I will get one of those. For now I'm just going to run all of the outlets off a single 15 amp breaker. The Hot wire from the output side of thbe breaker is wired into the ATS.

Anyways I got everything hooked up and I'm still having some issues. I found every time I plugged in shore power (from the house) my GFCI would trip on the outlet it was plugged into.

As it is now, I have the ground buss in the ATS connected to the ground buss in the Main panel (via the ground wire in the romex). I found removing the ground wire coming out of the inverter plug solved the problem with tripping the house gfci.

I also have all the neutrals connected together. So when when the inverter is on and the ATS is running off inverter power, but the rest of the trailer is running on shore/generator power (I have the breaker turned off that powers the ATS), then the neutral would be shared for the inverter and shore power since they end up connected together. Is this a problem? I'm thinking this is what is actually causing the issue, maybe isolating the neutrals would solve the problem and allow me to plug back in the ground wire? I'm thinking the issue is due to the inverter potentially tying neutral to ground internally?


Also, I have not grounded the inverter to the trailer via the extra ground terminal.

I crammed two relays in one box. If doing this today I would have the smaller TS by KISAE.

http://www.donrowe.com/KISAE-TS15A-Automatic-Transfer-Switch-p/ts15a.htm

smkettner wrote:
I ended up with two transfer switches to avoid the subpanel that would be hard to access.
If your loads are light you could just attach both to the one TS direct.

That would work too, but I don't have the space, I could install the other switch elsewhere I guess though, it would just involve snaking some wires under the trailer.

I ended up with two transfer switches to avoid the subpanel that would be hard to access.
If your loads are light you could just attach both to the one TS direct.

smkettner wrote:
So you are going to cut the hot bus bar in the panel?

I was thinking about it. Otherwise it will require tools to get to a seperate breaker.

A separate breaker box is sounding like the only alternative though. Where can I find one? What term do I need to google?

Too bad I can't just mount a new breaker into the ats box, there's plenty of room in there.

Alternarivly I guess I could also put all of the outlets behind one breaker right? It just would limit all the outlets to 15 amps instead of a combined 30, although a combined 30 would trip the main anyways.

I might just do that instead. at least it wood not require tools to get to the beaker if I trip it.

So you are going to cut the hot bus bar in the panel?

Not possible...to isolate that breaker from the panel
You can remove those two wires hots and neutrals
And connect then to the output of an ats
Run new wires from the breakers to one of the ats inputs
And wires from the inverter to the other ats input
Since you have two circuits you really do need a breaker box between the ats output and the two circuits/breakers

Those breakers are physically and electrically connected to the hot buss of the panel, can't be electrically isolated while physically plugged into the panel
Your drawing is a mess, as far as electrical design
You need to redo it using the info you have been given here

Switch only the a/c do not switch inverter dc our converter dc
You cannot feed those breakers from the inverter, it's not possible
You have to use them to feed one input of the ats take the ats output to the actual circuit wires