Beeping inverter even on shore power (camping now)

[uphoto]

Originally Posted by CHICKDOE

so it sounds as if the inverter is not receiving incoming shore power. there should be a 120 volt hot lead (black wire) that goes from the circuit breaker in the distribution box to the 120 volt input side of the inverter. i am assuming that all the other 120 volt circuits work ok.

go to the breaker in the distribution panel that runs to the inverter and flip the breaker on and then back off. hopefully it will reset and things will now work.

if that doesn't work you are going to have to determine if the inverter is actually receiving 120 volt input power or not. the way to do that would be to use a multimeter or even a non-contact tester to check to see if there is power on the black wire on the input side of the inverter. if there is suspect an inverter problem. if there isn't time to trace that wire back to the distribution panel.

be safe when working with and measuring live 120 volt wires!!!!

I'll try to injest this and see what I can figure out myself here. Thank you so much for your help, it's been invaluable.

[uphoto]

Everything else in the trailer works power wise. Except for the non GFCI outlets, they only work with the inverter turned on, so on shore power we only have the AC powered items (Microwave, AC, refrigerator etc) and the 2 GFCI outlets (one in bathroom and one in kitchen), unless we turn the inverter on and then the rest of the outlets work.

[Bama Rambler]

I can't tell exactly how it's wired, but the 120 volt side should be as follows.
"Input" "L" should go to a breaker in the power panel. "Input" "N" should go to the neutral bar in the power panel. "Output" L should go to circuit to be powered (looks like it goes into one of the butt splices in the power panel) "Output" "N" should go to the neutral of the circuit to be powered. (looks like it goes into the other butt splice in the power panel).

[uphoto]

So that black wire in the first image that's hooked up to the input of the inverter SHOULD be coming from the converter? If not, then where would it be coming from?

If it was using only battery power then wouldn't there not be anything plugged into the input? It would be battery cables on one side (other side of inverter has the pos and neg battery cables going into it) and then output only on the side in pic 1 wouldn't it? What would be plugged into the input side of the inverter?

[uphoto]

From this image it looks like it's hooked up correctly.

There are two black wires just like what Bama Rambler said there should be. The yellow highlighted area is the conduit from the inverter and you can see the same wires coming out of there as are coming out of the inverter.

I'll look closer to see where that one black wire is going but you can clearly see (highlighted in red) where the black wire is going to a breaker in the panel, I'll flip that breaker to see if it helps. That breaker should be outputing power to that wire that is going to the input on the inverter shouldn't it?

Shouldn't that be showing us that it's hooked up correctly and that my photo editing skills are quite amazing.........

[Bama Rambler]

If the black wire you have highlighted is the same wire connected to the "L" terminal of the inverter input then it's correct.

And yes, by inputting power from the breaker to the inverter it should switch the transfer switch to shore power and stop powering the circuit from the battery power.

[uphoto]

Originally Posted by Bama Rambler

If the black wire you have highlighted is the same wire connected to the "L" terminal of the inverter input then it's correct.

And yes, by inputting power from the breaker to the inverter it should switch the transfer switch to shore power and stop powering the circuit from the battery power.

Just tested the black wire going into the input of the inverter and it showed 117-118v, so it’s hooked up right but just not switching over.

The manufacturer said they will warranty it if we provide the receipt/invoice, but we aren’t the original owner.....reached out to the original owner and they can’t find the receipt.

So looks like we might try an external switcher to see if that works before spending big money in a new inverter.

[uphoto]

Actually.......this has an easier way of testing hahaha

I have a battery disconnect. I disconnected my batteries and the inverter turns on and powers everything when hooked up to shore power!

So an external switch would be nice but not a necessity if I just switch off my batteries when hooked up to shore?

[CHICKDOE]

if you have 117 vac on that black wire going into the inverter but no 117 vac coming out of it there is a problem. don't believe your test using the battery disconnect switch to show that the inverter passes through 130 vac power when the batteries are off. many times the inverter is wired directly to the batteries and does not go through the battery disconnect switch. so it is still powered by the batteries when the disconnect switch disconnects other loads from the battery. to see if this is the case have the inverter working off the batteries with the disconnect switch set to on. then check the green battery indicator light. then turn the switch to off. is the inverter still providing power? is the green indicator light still on? check the 12 volt battery cables between the inverter and the battery to see if they go direct between the two and bypass the disconnect switch.

did the previous owner register the inverter? perhaps if you give the the serial number they can determine when it was manufactured. it it was newly manufactured it might still be within the warranty period.

it sounds like you are identifying where the problem is.

you could disconnect the battery cables from the battery so that they inverter will not get any battery power and then see if the shore power pass through works. it is possible that if the inverter sees both shore power and battery power it will chose to operate on battery power as the priority. i doubt that this is the case but it would be simople to test this just to rule it out.

[uphoto]

ugghhhh.......why didn't I think of that? You're right.

I did the battery disconnect and then disconnected shore power and the inverter stayed on. So yes it's hard wired to the battery.

Glad I didn't leave that on too long or I would have run down my batteries again. Okay, so now it's either figure out how to get the manufacturer to replace/fix it OR try to put in an external switch. Once I would install the external switch the only way to see if it's working is to disconnect the battery completely and see if I still get the inverter to work?

Thank you again CHICKDOE.

[CHICKDOE]

one other thought. turn the inverter off and then connect to shore power. then see if the bypass relay is passing shore power through to the receptacles. i'm just wondering if having the inverter on is telling it to use battery power even if shore power is present.

[uphoto]

Originally Posted by CHICKDOE

one other thought. turn the inverter off and then connect to shore power. then see if the bypass relay is passing shore power through to the receptacles. i'm just wondering if having the inverter on is telling it to use battery power even if shore power is present.

None of the outlets besides the GFCI ones are powered on shore without the inverter, no power at all to those outlets.

[Bama Rambler]

You can add a transfer switch so that when it senses shore power it switches the inverter out of the circuit.

[uphoto]

Originally Posted by Bama Rambler

You can add a transfer switch so that when it senses shore power it switches the inverter out of the circuit.

I think that’s where we will go if the manufacturer doesn’t want to cover it. Sucks because the company is in my own city! They are 10 min away, so I’m going to pressure them a bit more to honor it. They said they don’t repair them and send out new ones when they break.

[uphoto]

Well looks like I'm going to install this https://www.donrowe.com/KISAE-TS15A-...ch-p/ts15a.htm

Do I have this right? I would take the power, neutral and ground that right now go into my inverter "input" (these are coming from my converter/breakers) and wire those into the swtiches "AC input". Then take the power, netral and ground that are coming out of my inverters "output" (right now going to the power outlets) and wire those into the switch's "output load".

Since I don't have a power outlet on my inverter I'm guessing I cut off the three prong plug and wire those three into the inverters "input"?

Hope that makes sense......

Edit: I think I have that wrong. The 3 prong plug wires from the switch would be wired into the inverters output wouldn't it? Then the battery power being inverted to AC would be going to the switch.

[Bama Rambler]

You are correct in your in your edit. the plug on the transfer switch connects to the output of the inverter.

The rest of your verbiage is correct. Breaker power to input 2. Move wires on existing inverter output to transfer switch output.

[uphoto]

Originally Posted by Bama Rambler

You are correct in your in your edit. the plug on the transfer switch connects to the output of the inverter.

The rest of your verbiage is correct. Breaker power to input 2. Move wires on existing inverter output to transfer switch output.

Great! I’ve learned something!

I can’t thank you all enough, it’s been a crazy journey. Hopefully to be fixed soon!

[CHICKDOE]

Be careful. The switch has two sets of inputs. One is the shore power input. The other is the input that is coming from the inverter. That is probably the cable with the plug on it. This needs to be the 120 volt power that the inverter is produces. The actual load is connected to the switches output. This allows the switch to select either input and rout it through to the switch output.

[uphoto]

Okay. Hooked up the switch and now everything is back to normal I hope. Plugged into shore power, turned on the inverter and everything is working, I’m showing a small drain on the battery of 1.75 amps, if the inverter is on it would still drain a little bit from the batteries wouldn’t it? Even though I have shore power on?

That’s with my outside mini fridge and TV turned on, which are all drawing power from the inverter.

[Half Ton Heavy]

Originally Posted by uphoto

Okay, finally got a chance to check this all out. The light does not change when I'm hooked up to shore power, it's staying green which means battery.

Looks to me that it's all hooked up right but if somebody could check it out, I would greatly appreciate it.

Here are some images of the wiring coming out of where the inverter is, you can see the wiring that was installed by the person who installed the inverter as it's running thru the conduit and the foam insulation they used. It runs all the way down to under the converter. Images of converter show where the conduit leads to and the same green, black and white wiring coming from the inverter.

Not sure if those wires are going anywhere else that would suggest it's seeing any shore power but I'm not sure what to look for there.

Looking at the picture with the ground wire looped from one side of the terminal block to the other, I question the knowledge level of whomever installed that inverter. I have the same one. A) the ground terminals are already connected to each other internally, and B) the terminal is only supposed to have ONE 14 gauge max wire in it.
I own the same inverter, and already have to change out the terminal block (it is ridiculously small for intended purpose) because it strips easily. Also, you are missing the terminal cover with the romex grommets to grip the wire so it will not pull out of the barrier strip.