Converter/charger/inverter

[iamnewbie]

OK. I'm a newbie to all this. Recently purchased a 2001 Mountain Aire. So far I've learned that to go rving you really need to be a mechanic, electrician, plumber. carpenter,and that's just to get started. Thought I was retiring, but working was easy compared to this. Anyway, on to my current problem. Thought I was doing a good thing by placing 2 small space heaters in the coach because of the extreme cold weather. After a couple days in storage I went to check it. The heaters had stopped. Guess I overloaded the system. I have a Heart Combi 458 inverter/charger. Now the remote doesn't even recognize incoming shore power. Would beat on the ATS if I could find it. Any ideas????

[JohnRR]

Good luck with your search.

[Tom-NC]

Hi,

Are you saying you used 2 heaters off of the inverter? Mlost heaters draw at least 1800 watts and I don't think an inverter will handle that load.

It would be ok if you were plugged into shore power and had 50 amps supplied to your coach. I have run 3 ceramic cubes with no problems while plugged into shore power with no problems, however to be on the safe side I used 2 different circuit receptacles.

Another point would be to drain the water from the coach and winterize it and then you would not to worry about heaters.

[vsheetz]

I hope you were on shore power when running the two heaters. If not, even if the inverters would handled the loads the batteries would not last long. If not on shore power and the inverter does not have a low battery voltage cutoff, the batteries are very depleted. Check battery water if applicable and try to recharge them.

[iamnewbie]

I was on shore power, but not 50 amp. Haven't put a meter on it, but guessing it's may be 15-20 amps. Checked circuit breakers and fuses--found nothing. Now when I connect/disconnect shore power I don't even hear solenoids/switches doing anything. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[iamnewbie]

Was on shore power, but sure it wasn't enough. The coach batteries are new. Can't help but think there is an ATS or something that's not swiching. Will run on ginny this weekend and see if the remote panel shows incoming AC.

["007"]

Welcome to the forum and irv2.
Here is a Brochure and Owners Guide for you.

Your ATS would be in the power bay where your shore line runs into and the 50 amp cord would be terminated in it along with the GEN and load center.
If you run your Gen you maybe OK as long as heaters are not off inverter outlets.

The amperage you were drawing with heaters maybe caused yourself a wiring problem in the ATS and wiring will melt if connections for cable ends were loose under the screws.

Running heaters will not help your tank areas or plumbing in bays because they need to be heated by your furnace. Your coach is well insulated and can stand very cold temps we have camped in extended 1* temps as long as your furnace is running.

If your wiring is OK than you may have popped some circuit breakers on your inverter/converter and heaters should not be plugged into inverter outlets because of current draw. The heaters need to be plugged into outlets directly out of your load center, like Micro outlet your washer dryer outlet etc,etc.

In my signature below are three links with inverter/converter info # 3 and also your 12v battery system and 12v wiring system for reference purposes'.
Reading your last post are you sure you have power from the outlet you were connected to with you power cord and if its only 15-20 amp circuit that's not enough for two heaters plus the coach converter.

[iamnewbie]

First let say a big thanks to you guys. May not be out of the woods yet, did make a step in the right direction. Found the ATS. Just like someone posted, tapped on it and it switched back over. Guess it was stuck after I had run the ginny.Didn't have time to do more, bet at least some things are humming. The remote control panel read 11 volts and had AC fault light on. Think I should disconnect the coach batteries and start over with the setup process?

[camper33]

I think you have a reset for the fault on your ATS. Try to clear the fault then see what you have working from there.

["007"]

If your running the Gen and plug in your shore power the Gen will still be supplying the power it has precedent over shore power through the ATS, its designed that way.
If your plugged into shore power now leave it and the converter will charge all your batteries both house and when they are fully charged than your chassis batteries, thanks to your Bird system.
The batteries have a way to go to be fully charged and you should be able to read a higher charge rate.
A stand alone 12v battery charger will charge batteries faster.

[iamnewbie]

Thanks again. Will see what it's doing over the weekend. Somewhat concerned about the AC Fault Led being lit.

[iamnewbie]

OK… I really lucked out on this one. Thought I'd give it one more try before calling a specialist. So I went around and shut off every circuit breaker, killed incoming shore power, and left it for maybe 20 minutes. In the meantime I used an ohm meter to check out every fuse, relay, everything I could think of.
Then I tried it on ginny power. Everything worked fine. Let the ginny run maybe 15 mins. Turned it off and went back to shore power. AC IN light on, charger on and working…everything normal. Lesson learned…. No more space heaters….EVER. Charging at 12.5 volts when I left (up from 11). Since I probably won't be using it for a while, should I put the panel in STORE mode when it is charged back up?

[GaryKD]

Hi iamnewbie,
The short answer is no. If the coach will remain connected to shore power, leave the coach in the "use" position. Let the converter and BIRD systems do their thing.

As to space heaters, I use them all the time, when connected to shore power (50 AMP). One must determine if one has an inverter. Next leave the inverter on and disconnect shore power. Generator is off. Determine which outlets have 120 VAC. These outlets are powered by the inverter. Do not operate any high wattage appliances (like heaters) from these outlets. The outlets that have no power are fed directly from the shore power cord. One can run the heaters from these outlets assuming the shore power is sufficient for the heaters.

[JohnRR]

Thank you for the update.