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Inverter

letup27
Explorer
Explorer
I hookup a aimes 2500 inverter to two 6 volt batteries. Seems all was good and working fine. When I was hook up to shore power the inverter would switch and start charging. Today I was hook up to a 110 outlet and all was fine until I turned on my a/c. Started to smell wires and the positive from the battery was very hot. I turned off the ac and it cool down. Is it possible that this happened because I was hook up to 110 and if it was a 30 amp it wouldn't happen?
4 REPLIES 4

KD4UPL
Explorer
Explorer
First of all, a 30 amp outlet IS a 110 outlet. Actual, they are all 120 volts as that has been the standard for decades. For some reason the old 110 / 220 volt lingo won't die.
So no, the outlet choice didn't make the wire get hot. Are you running the AC thru the inverter's transfer switch? It's possible that due to all the voltage drop in the small wire feeding whatever outlet you were plugged into that the voltage at the inverter was below it's lower limit. Therefore it may not have actually connected to the shore power and was instead power your air conditioner from the battery. If that's what happened then plugging into a 30A RV outlet should cure the problem because of the theoretically larger wiring and thus less voltage drop.

ndrorder
Explorer
Explorer
+1 inverter was trying to power a/c. I don't know what model or inverter you have, but the generic 2500 inverter doesn't list pass through power as an option meaning it doesn't have an internal transfer switch to turn off the inverter part of the box when 120V is available. Being rated at 20 amps output, the inverter may be capable to run the a/c. But as you've learned, the battery cables seem undersized.
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Cliff
2011 Four Winds Chateau 23U

time2roll
Nomad
Nomad
Is that the wire to the inverter getting hot? Any chance the inverter is powering the air conditioner? And what size wire was getting hot?

CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Explorer III
Yes. Are the battery terminals bright shinny clean, tight and connector to cable the same same?

What is the charging amp capacity of the charger? Mine can charge 100A DC and draw 11A AC. Add a A/C to the mix and things can get hot in a big hurry on 20A.

When I'm on a 15A or 20A plug I throttle the charger down to 10% or maybe 20% and the A/Cs are OFF.

And 2x 220 Ah GCs are undersized for a 2500 W inverter.
2009 Holiday Rambler 42' Scepter with ISL 400 Cummins
750 Watts Solar Morningstar MPPT 60 Controller
2014 Grand Cherokee Overland

Bob