Inveter Charging ?

[luvrbus]

I have stacked inverters both have charging ( SW4024) ? do I need both inverters charging or will 1 be enough

[Oonrahnjay]

I have stacked inverters both have charging ( SW4024) ? do I need both inverters charging or will 1 be enough   

     How large is your battery bank now?  What's the charge rating on the SW4024?   (You've got *TWO* SW4024's???  Whuttcha planning to do, light up Times Square?)

[bevans6]

I would just use one.  They sense the current flow vs voltage to tell how charged the battery is and using two stands a good chance of confusing that.  They have a really high charge rating, unless your battery bank is a couple of thousand AH one should be able to keep up.

[eagle19952]

try it. you can always turn the charge portion of one off..

[niles500]

My Magnums both charge although one usually does the bulk of the charging, never read the manual to find out why FWIW

[luvrbus]

The inverters are adjustable from 0-120 amps they are both set on 60 amps ea.Bruce the system is set up for 6-8D AGM as of right now I just bought some cheap 6 -12v deep cycle batteries till I get the system figured out and the way I want it lol if you want to call 800 bucks for 6 batteries cheap

[Oonrahnjay]

The inverters are adjustable from 0-120 amps they are both set on 60 amps ea.Bruce the system is set up for 6-8D AGM as of right now I just bought some cheap 6 -12v deep cycle batteries till I get the system figured out and the way I want it lol if you want to call 800 bucks for 6 batteries cheap   

     A few people have suggested just trying it but do you have problems getting a full charge in the time you have available?  The idea of having two electronic devices that could crosstalk or feed back to each other kind of scares me.  I'd contact Trace (or whoever owns/makes those inverters) and get the approval of their tech support.  At just a guess you might need to charge 300 Amp/hr (assuming your 6 batts are 100 amps each) and you have a 50% state of charge), you'd get a full charge out of one 60-amp charger in 5 hours (yeah I know it doesn't work like the calculations in real life, but that should be a good guide).  Is it often that that's not enough?

     I'd hate to see anybody cook a set of batteries - even "temporary" ones.  Good luck.

[gumpy]

Read the manual, it talks about this issue when stacking.

I'm pretty sure you only use one for charging.

The charge rate is based on your battery size and 60 amps is way too high.  There's a formula in the manual. Basically 1/5 the bank capacity.

[Seangie]

Cliff -

Id do just one system charging.  Leave the other one on your Generator battery or start batts if you dont have them tied to the house batts.

Also - if one ever fails you'll have a backup.

You can adjust the charging amperage based on wiring not based on battery bank or load.  Dont go putting 120amp charging on anything less than 2 aught wire.  Id set it at 100amps for charging.

-Sean.

[gumpy]

Cliff, be very careful with the advice you're getting in this thread. The SW series inverter bulk charge amps setting is set using AC amps, and should be set based on the capacity of your battery bank, not based on cable size or phases of the moon or anything else. Read page 66 of the owner's manual, rev B, Sept 1, 1999.

[eagle19952]

here's what page 66 says...
The battery charger
settings will automatically adjust if the temperature compensation sensor is installed. If it is not installed,
the settings should be adjusted manually to allow for the typical battery temperature. This may require
seasonal readjustment for optimum performance.


so. hook up the temp comp sensor... mine have been on a sensor for ever. i have only ever set the battery type and AC in breaker setting. and that was over the phone with xantrex.

[Jon]

It is common practice on professional conversions to have both inverters charging house batteries at the same time.

What is important is to first identify how the coach is being used. If it is used for dry camping a lot then both are going to restore the batteries to full charge quickly. The flip side to that is if the coach runs from power pole to power pole or the generator is run when not connected to shore power the batteries will likely always be fully charged so instead of a high charge setting, the inverters can be set to a relatively low value. The reason for that is if connected to 50 amp shore power and a lot of electrical loads are being used, like the ACs then a high charging current is going to trip the shore power breaker.

It is all about energy management and doing what makes sense given the various circumstances.

But whether you charge with one inverter or two is unimportant. What is important is how the charging current level is set given the circumstances. I am a power pole to power pole RVer so mine are both charging, but are set to 10 amps for charging. If I dry camped a lot I would set them at about 65 amps for charging to keep generator run time to a minumum.

[Dave5Cs]

Clifford also I found out on mine If I am at home and plugged into a 15 amp circuit I have to adjust the incoming amps to the my inverter to say  14amps or it will start feeding off the house batteries to make up the difference when the charger comes on if I forget and have it on higher from being plugged into a 50 amp pole.
Dave

[thomasinnv]

The bts only adjusts charging voltage, not amperage. Regardless if a bts is installed you still need to set the proper charge rates. Most stacked inverter setups will use only one inverter to charge the bank if one unit is capable of putting out the required capacity based on the bank size. If not, then both units will charge at half the required capacity. Some units are capable of running in master/slave configuration(the master unit controls all functions of both units)

[B_K]

Where is Sean Welsh when ya need him?
He knows all about this stuff!
  BK