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Old 02-24-2020, 08:03 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by bamaboy473 View Post
P.S. your type of coach is the next step for us

This is our situation, we seem to be limited to about 3000w, then the inverter's circuit breaker trips. Looks like I should contact the installer and ask his advice about installation, and what fix I can do if the Transfer Switch is bogus?

We absolutely cannot get close to using 5000w on a 50A SP post, even with refer and heat and HWH on LP. Sounds like you guys have no problem?
Your wiring is faulty, On shore power, inverters are bypassed and the full 12000 watts is available to the coach. Yes would go back to installer, sounds like he wired transfer switch wrong, when plugged in, inverter is out of picture. Or else as mentioned, he wired everything through inverter, not the way it should be.
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Old 02-24-2020, 08:04 PM   #16
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Nothing stopping you from turning the inverter off. When connected the automatic switch should switch you to shore power which is plenty to run all your stuff. You don't need to go through the inverter, only when shorepower is not available.
New info; I never thought that we needed to touch the On/Off switch on the inverter. While lifting the bed isn't a fun thing several times a day, it would be worth trying, even with the genset test I contemplated.

Do you turn your inverter off/on while on SP?
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Old 02-24-2020, 08:12 PM   #17
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New info; I never thought that we needed to touch the On/Off switch on the inverter. While lifting the bed isn't a fun thing several times a day, it would be worth trying, even with the genset test I contemplated.

Do you turn your inverter off/on while on SP?
You should not have to turn your inverter off, when it senses shore power, voltage should just go around the inverter and power the sockets. If you have same problem on generator, definitely a wiring problem. FYI, if on 30 amp circuit, you still have 3600 watts, enough for a microwave and a small coffee pot.
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Old 02-24-2020, 08:18 PM   #18
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Originally Posted by bamaboy473 View Post
P.S. your type of coach is the next step for us



This is our situation, we seem to be limited to about 3000w, then the inverter's circuit breaker trips. Looks like I should contact the installer and ask his advice about installation, and what fix I can do if the Transfer Switch is bogus?



We absolutely cannot get close to using 5000w on a 50A SP post, even with refer and heat and HWH on LP. Sounds like you guys have no problem?


In our motor home, the inverter is wired to shore power through a 30amp breaker in the main panel; therefore, as you state, you are limited to 120v x 30amps is 3600watts. The other breakers in the main panel supply other loads in your RV. They could be items such as: refrigerator, air conditioner(s), water heater(if there is an electrode), engine block heater and other outlets not on the inverter circuit(s). The combined load of all these could use the remaining wattage: 120v x 50amps x 2-3600w=8400watts(because there are two 50amp 120volt circuits in a 50amp shore power RV hook up).
We have to manually balance our loads. The microwave is on its own circuit, block heater on its own, water heater on its own, etc. There are 19 - 120v outlets on our inverter. But there are two outlets at the dinette on their own breaker. So we make coffee using the kitchen counter outlet and the toaster on the outlet at the dinette. All is well. Only once this winter season did we trip a breaker. Had the toaster, coffee maker and 1500w heater on the same circuit. Lesson learned.
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Old 02-24-2020, 08:22 PM   #19
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You should not have to turn your inverter off, when it senses shore power, voltage should just go around the inverter and power the sockets. If you have same problem on generator, definitely a wiring problem. FYI, if on 30 amp circuit, you still have 3600 watts, enough for a microwave and a small coffee pot.
Then tomorrow I run tests here at the house. The only reason for this OP was that we blew the inverter while at a campground last weekend, and had zero 120V, zero battery voltage (according to the legend), so zero charging ability.

Being rainy and cold just added to my bride's happy state, thinking that she had fried our coach. We had the refer and HWH on LP, had the LP range for cooking, and the SP post had a 110V outlet, so I ran extension cord into the heater we have and kept things above 59 degrees; making it an adverture instead of an emergency.

Got home and learned batteries are not fried/dead. Volts were fine. hmmm got partial volts at the TS and inverter, about 1.5V, not 12V. hmmm Was ready to send inverter off to Magnum until I disconnected the battery leads and saw no voltage to speak of, but all fuses in battery compartment "looked good". Long story short, one of the 300A fuses had given up the ghost, but still looked good. Go figure.

That said, I learned a lot more about how that system is wired, but the question of getting 5000w out of a 50A SP post became more prominent.
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Old 02-24-2020, 08:24 PM   #20
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Some of one 50 amp leg of your shore power passes thru your inverter. The inverter/charger has a 30 amp( 3600 watt ) breaker.
That's the choke point of 50 amps ( 6000 watts ) on that leg.

Not everything on that leg goes thru the inverter, its just that what your using is.

There is another 50 amps avalable ( 6000 watts ) on the other leg of your 12000 watt 50 amp incoming service.

What you need to do or have done is move some breakers around to spread the load to both legs more equally.

There is also a chance that your engine block heater is on the inverter leg and on. That will use up about 900 watts. Find the plug or switch for it and pull it or shut it off.

Turning your inverter off will do nothing for your problem. The power still goes thru its breakers.

Please read this about 50 amp service.
https://www.rvtechmag.com/electrical/chapter3.php
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Old 02-24-2020, 08:28 PM   #21
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Sounds like your "installer" wired the entire coach to the inverter output.
This will limit you to the inverter capacity. As mentioned, some circuits should be wired though inverter to be able to utilize battery power when boondocking, like the microwave, but other circuits like air conditioners, aqua hot electric elements, block heaters, etc should not be wired through the inverter, and can only operate on shore power. You do not have to buy another inverter or change to 24 volts, you only have to change it back to the original wiring.
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Old 02-24-2020, 08:31 PM   #22
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That said, I learned a lot more about how that system is wired, but the question of getting 5000w out of a 50A SP post became more prominent.
You have a lot of misconceptions about how your coaches electricity works and maybe some wiring issues in your coach.

1 - There is not 5000 watts at a 50 amp pedestal - it is 12000 watts.
2 - When connected to shore power your Inverter should not be supplying any 120 VAC in your coach - it should be coming from shore power.
3 - If your Inverter is also a charger, when on shore power it will supply over 12 VDC to your batteries to charge them - although not required, it could be turned off and you should still have 120 VAC everywhere in your coach.
4 - Your Inverter limit of 2800 watts only applies when you are NOT on shore power and NOT running your generator - this limit SHOULD NOT come into play while on shorepower and cooking IF wired correctly. Your only limit is the number of high current appliances on the same 120 VAC circuit - exceeding the circuit limit will trip the breaker for that circuit - it should not "blow" your Inverter.
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Old 02-24-2020, 08:57 PM   #23
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You have a lot of misconceptions about how your coaches electricity works and maybe some wiring issues in your coach.

1 - There is not 5000 watts at a 50 amp pedestal - it is 12000 watts.
2 - When connected to shore power your Inverter should not be supplying any 120 VAC in your coach - it should be coming from shore power.
3 - If your Inverter is also a charger, when on shore power it will supply over 12 VDC to your batteries to charge them - although not required, it could be turned off and you should still have 120 VAC everywhere in your coach.
4 - Your Inverter limit of 2800 watts only applies when you are NOT on shore power and NOT running your generator - this limit SHOULD NOT come into play while on shorepower and cooking IF wired correctly. Your only limit is the number of high current appliances on the same 120 VAC circuit - exceeding the circuit limit will trip the breaker for that circuit - it should not "blow" your Inverter.
His inverter will limit all items connected thru it to 30 amps or 3600 watts.

With inverter, on or off, that power goes thru its internal transfer or pass thru switch. That limits it.

Here is a typical flow chart.Click image for larger version

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Old 02-25-2020, 12:51 AM   #24
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The load is too great, three 1500 watt resistive loads on one circuit. He is tripping the input breaker to the inverter.
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Old 02-25-2020, 06:41 AM   #25
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OK, I think that 30A breaker Main is just below the 50A Main, and that the 30A might be the one going through the inverter.

I'm going to look at the panel and see what's what. When the inverter/charger was installed, a new box was installed containing Microwave, Portable appliances, and General Purpose breakers, so my guess is that these are all feeding the kitchen through the inverter.

There's a spare opening on the main panel and I'll move the microwave over there, since she used that appliance more than anything.

Probably the first thing to do is turn our SP off so only inverter power is supplying 120, then test each outlet to learn where that inverter power is going.

Thanks for a roadmap to get this thing more operational.
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Old 02-25-2020, 07:11 AM   #26
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I think I'm catching on to what prior posts meant when they referred to the inverter being "wired wrong". Not the input side, but where the Output went.

As I think back, the installer asked what campground I'd used while travelling to Daytona, and I told him the local airport (great place, and safe), so I bet he assumed that we dry camp and configured the output to allow the most of kitchen plugs.

Changing that might solve our restrictions, so that's a plan.
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Old 02-25-2020, 09:23 AM   #27
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Think you are catching on. If he wired input using transfer switch in inverter you are limited to inverter wattage. So a 2800 watt inverter will only handle that, whether on battery or shore power. If you want to run a electric frying pan, a microwave and and a toaster oven at the same time, you will overload that 2800 breaker. So you will have to find sockets that is not on the inverter, to use. With a 2800 watt inverter, I would have only microwave and maybe one or two other sockets on it, everything else should be on the main breaker panel fed only from sp or gen.
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Old 02-25-2020, 10:12 AM   #28
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Rick....when inverters were first used in RV's, they powered small things like an outlet and maybe a TV. As time went on, inverters and batteries got bigger and more powerful. With the bigger more powerful units, people demanded that they be able to run more items on the inverter. The biggest call for larger inverters was the change to residential refers. With every system, there are limitations. On many modern coaches, they use inverters to run almost everything within the coach, except the air conditioners and electric heaters, such as water heaters and engine block heaters. Some of your million dollar coaches can even run air conditioners.

When on batteries, your coach inverter produces 110 volts and runs it through a single 30 amp inverter circuit breaker . When you plug into 50amp shore power, you actually get 100 amps on two legs. That's why your shore power cord has four prongs. On 30 amps, one prong is power (30 amps) another is the ground and the third is a neutral. On the four prong plug, you have two prongs for power, leg 1 and leg 2.

Once you plug into shore power, your inverter basically goes to sleep, except for charging the batteries. At the same time your coach takes power from ONE of those shore power legs and routes the power THRU the inverter. Unfortunately, the inverter only has a 30 amp circuit breaker, so that 50 amps is reduced to 30 amps.

When they built your coach, the manufacturer had to decide what they would allow to run off the inverter, so that you would have certain things that work when you boondock. Typically, there are things that have to run through the inverter, like the residential refer, TV outlets, miscellaneous outlets and most builders include the microwave.

The other items that are not needed or shouldn't be used while boondocking are things like the air conditioners, block heater, and electric heaters like a fireplace. These items they placed on the other leg of the 50 amp shore power plug, which means they only operate when you have shore power or use the generator.

Unfortunately, you're using too many things that are run through the inverter. I'm guessing your wife, when cooking, is plugging in several things that use heat, like a toaster oven, into outlets powered by the inverter. You need to find outlets that are not on the inverter circuit or move one of those kitchen circuits (daisy chain of outlets) off of the inverter to circuit to another circuit breaker that is shore power only.

On many coaches and even on some surge protectors, they will tell you how many amps the two legs of power are using. As an example, if you turn on the microwave, L-1 may say 10 amps. You might make a list, by turning on various things and see which leg they're on. It will give you a good idea why you're overloading one of them. It will also let you know what not to run at the same time.
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