Inverter question

[Danny]

What configuration has been done in hooking up the inverter and the main electrical panel - separated subpanel for things that will be ran off of inverter?

Thanks,
Danny

[H3Jim]

I just hooked the inverter up to one leg of my distribution panel.  Since the inverter also will  pass through, I hooked up the shore and generator power one leg through the inverter, the other leg straight to my panel.  Shore and generator are on a transfer switch.  Works very well.

[Buffalo SpaceShip]

My inverter was hooked up where everything runs through the inverter and its internal transfer switch (30A). On our last trip last month, this became a problem when we needed more "juice" to charge the house batts, run the block heater, coffee pot, etc. It kept tripping the inverter's transfer switch breaker and I had to shed loads that I shouldn't have had to if it was hooked up differently.

This Spring, I'll install 50A, 4 wire service and hook it up the way Jim describes. Certain things like the block heater and water heater would never be run from the inverter... either genset or shore-powered. So one leg powers the inverter and its loads (or internally switches them), the other leg all of the other stuff we only use when plugged in or running the genset. My inverter is even "two-leg friendly"... allowing one leg for loads and another leg for batt. charging, preventing shore-power trips when the batts are really discharged.

You could also use a subpanel... but seems like it would be more work and more $... unless it allows more flexibility in your layout, or you want to only have 30A, 3 wire service.

HTH,
Brian B.

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Danny,

I have setup my inverter to supply both legs in the Panel. This way I can choose what I want to run off the inverter, or Not.

My RS3000 has a 50 amp internal transfer switch built into it.  And, it passes two true legs of 50 amps. when plugged into shore power.

Another plus with the RS3000 is the power monitoring capability  of all the voltages, charging stages, state of battery banks, Volts, hertz,

and draw of the banks. Forget all the little guages you might have to buy with other systems.. It's all in one here.

Good Luck
Nick-

[Ross]

I also have the RS3000 and I think it's set up just like Nicks.  The inverter powers two legs of 120V in the main panel.  Loads are distributed evenly across the two legs.  The inverter powers the whole bus.  When it's plugged in it passes 50A straight through.  The switch from shore power to inverter happens so fast the satellite reciever doesn't even go off line.  With my old inverter I had UPS backups on the receivers to keep them online the shore to inverter switch.  That's not nessessary with the RS3000.

I think it depends on which inverter you go with.  The less expensive ones are better wired to a subpanel.  The smarter sine wave inverters work better powering the entire panel...and the larger ones have the capacity to run just about anything on the inverter. 

Ross