Battery and inverter should be fixed

[ournextstop]

Interesting thread. I have had 3 coaches, including the current one, with inverter/chargers and I was not aware they put inverters in RVs with the smart charger. Seems penny wise and pound foolish to me. But, I am not an accountant and they seem to control so many things today.
When 120 vac is available it passes thru the inverter so the inverter can assume the load if 120vac is lost. I only had that happen once and I was surprised by the results. The a/c compressors quit immediately but the a/c fans kept running. We turned them off, of course. But, I had been led to believe the a/c's were not wired so the inverter would affect them. Apparently that was not true at least in that coach which was the one I had previous to this one. If we had not been there it would have quickly drained the batteries, but the AGS would have started the genset and started charging all again!
I need to check this coach and see if a/c are wired like the previous one. If so when we leave it with a/c's on I will need to make sure AGS is set-up! Of course there is the possibility that with the inverter pulling that much current, batteries could be pulled down too fast to start the genset!
But, the main point of this is it seems counter productive to put in a big inverter, e.g. 1000 watts + without a smart charger for the battery bank that the inverter has to have! Just my opinion!

[Chance]

Originally Posted by ournextstop

Interesting thread. I have had 3 coaches, including the current one, with inverter/chargers and I was not aware they put inverters in RVs with the smart charger. Seems penny wise and pound foolish to me. But, I am not an accountant and they seem to control so many things today.
When 120 vac is available it passes thru the inverter so the inverter can assume the load if 120vac is lost. I only had that happen once and I was surprised by the results. The a/c compressors quit immediately but the a/c fans kept running. We turned them off, of course. But, I had been led to believe the a/c's were not wired so the inverter would affect them. Apparently that was not true at least in that coach which was the one I had previous to this one. If we had not been there it would have quickly drained the batteries, but the AGS would have started the genset and started charging all again!
I need to check this coach and see if a/c are wired like the previous one. If so when we leave it with a/c's on I will need to make sure AGS is set-up! Of course there is the possibility that with the inverter pulling that much current, batteries could be pulled down too fast to start the genset!
But, the main point of this is it seems counter productive to put in a big inverter, e.g. 1000 watts + without a smart charger for the battery bank that the inverter has to have! Just my opinion!

I agree.

Regarding your AC compressors not running while the fans would, I wonder if they installed normally-open relays for the compressors that would close with shore power (taken prior to inverter). That would be inexpensive and easy to wire and would prevent the ACs from running off the inverter. If that's not easy to install to code, there may be other switches available that detect lack of incoming voltage from utility which would then disconnect the AC compressor.

I think the AC fan was probably left on inverter because it uses much less power than the compressor.

[EA37TS]

It is especially interesting in that a battery manufacturer is telling someone they will not honor the warranty on the batteries because Thor's inverter installation is over charging the batteries when in fact the inverter is not even a charger.

Sounds like someone needs to get that battery manufacturer to put it in writing to include the responsible person's signature and then provide that to Thor for resolution.

Also in the case of enabling the AGS before departing the coach, make sure the coach has a full tank of fuel. With an inverter charger configured to all circuits that generator may accumulate some run time real fast.

I can see this as a potential problem when someone has a coach in storage and wants to get about 3 days of refrigerator cool down time before departing on a trip. That situation alone is where having limited circuitry connected to the inverter vs all 120 VAC connected to an inverter/charger is a benefit.

[Chance]

Originally Posted by Chance

Regarding your AC compressors not running while the fans would, I wonder if they installed normally-open relays for the compressors that would close with shore power (taken prior to inverter). That would be inexpensive and easy to wire and would prevent the ACs from running off the inverter. If that's not easy to install to code, there may be other switches available that detect lack of incoming voltage from utility which would then disconnect the AC compressor.

In doing some research, it seems that turning off the AC compressor upon power loss may be easier than I expected because it can be done by using the thermostat controls. That way no additional power wiring or relays are required.