Inverter Question - RV-Dreams Community Forum

rvtrippin · RV-Dreams Community Member

Inverter Question

LarryW21 · RV-Dreams Family Member

I turn off all unneeded equipment.

rvtrippin · RV-Dreams Community Member

Thank you Larry!

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

Do you mean just shutting down the "Invert" setting and leaving the "Charge" on? Assuming that is the case, I know a lot of people keep the "Invert" on, but personally I want to know when the power goes off, then I can determine the cause (breaker trip at power pole or whole park lose power) and then decide, assuming park lost power, whether I really need to "Invert" or can get along on DC system until power is back on.

Barb

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

We leave it on and that way we have a large uninterruptible power supply to handle short power outages. That is assuming the inverter is a pure sinewave, which the fridge one is sure to be. But we also have a power out alarm plugged in to a circuit that does not go through the inverter., so we know when the power is out. In our case that is the washer/dryer circuit. Make sure the "everything else" inverter is pure sinewave before plugging just anything into it and leaving it on. Some things, like some electric toothbrushes , electric blankets and chest freezers, have been known to fry in just seconds on modified sinewave power.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Tuesday 20th of February 2018 07:18:53 AM

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

rvtrippin wrote:
Hi All!
We just purchased a 2012 Fleetwood Discovery 40G and it has 2 inverters, one for the residential refer and another for everything else. The question is, when plugged into shore power should I turn off the inverters or does it really matter? Thank you for any advice.
Ray

We leave the inverter on so it can act as a UPS as was mentioned. I.e. if the power goes out the it will keep things running and protect the equipment to some degree.

However, the decision involves understanding how your equipment works and its capability. Depending on the inverter capability (read the manual) if you are using the non-fridge inverter to operate equipment like computers or satellite receivers that don't take kindly to power losses, the inverter can act as an UPS - Uninterruptible Power Supply - and bridge an outage. Same for the fridge inverter. However, one much know their battery capacity and have a way, as was suggested, of knowing the shore power is out so as not to overly deplete the batteries.

Each rig's equipment is different. The above is how we've done it for years. For others this may not be the best way. One must know their systems and battery capacities. It depends and both ways have their benefits and drawbacks.

carolinakids · RV-Dreams Family Member

We turn it off to add life to it.

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

carolinakids wrote:
We turn it off to add life to it.

That doesn’t add any life to it. It’s designed to run and it’s a well known thing about electronics that power cycles with the associated heat/cool cycle and surge due to turning on/off is much worse for the device than just leaving iT run.

Depending on how your rig is wired...turning of the inverter might provide no power to certain loads.

Just leave it on.

LarryW21 · RV-Dreams Family Member

No, electronic equipment may last longer if left on but I choose the additional safety of powering off equipment I’m not using. Those with very limited battery power should power down for that reason alone. I could easily carry four batteries and leave everything on. I choose two for weight and space issues.

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Everybody gets to make their own choices…but that doesn't make them good choices. It's far better in most RVer's opinion to leave the inverter on as a UPS for the attached loads…particularly if one has a residential fridge…and it's undeniably better for the inverter lifetime to leave it on. I have no intention of dictating how you should use your equipment…but the fact remains that turning off the inverter to "add life to it"…is ridiculous.

IMO opinion…and in the opinion of most RVers with residential fridges…leaving the inverter on to power it's loads is a no-brainer. I do have a nightlight plugged into a non-inverter outlet over the sink all the time to let me know if shore power goes out as we don't always have our A/C units turned on and we might not realize that shore power went away otherwise.

If I had two inverters and the other one was powering stuff that doesn't need to stay on…like computers and TV and such…then I might consider turning that inverter off when not being used if I was in a boon docking situation…because the inverter itself uses a few AH per day even if none of it's loads are turned on. However…in normal situations where I had shore power I would just leave it on.

I also leave my inverter on on travel days… because I want my ice cream to stay frozen. It would probably stay frozen anyway but then I would have to turn the inverter back on. As it is…with solar panels on the roof if we start the travel day with fully charged batteries (like they normally are on shore power) they are fully charged when we park for the night. Even without solar panels you don't discharge them very much anyway. A residential fridge takes on the order of 125 AH per day or about 5 AH per hour and this is usually made up by the 5-8 AH per hour that the batteries get charged from the tow vehicle over the 7 pin connector. Before we installed our solar panels we would would plug in after a day of travel and our batteries would briefly go into absorb charging and then almost immediately to float charge which means they're full.

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

There is a difference between turning inverter on (by default ours is always on when any AC power is available) and having the “invert” function on standby. By default, we have to choose to invert but the default it to charge and maintain float. But I don’t have a residential frig to maintain, so we only hit the inverter when we choose, such as being in a park where all power is lost so we can watch Rangers baseball game in the evening.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

"I do have a nightlight plugged into a non-inverter outlet over the sink all the time to let me know if shore power goes out as we don't always have our A/C units turned on and we might not realize that shore power went away otherwise."

I use one of these instead, https://www.amazon.com/Powerout-Power-Failure-Alarm-Safety/dp/B018A30T8Q/ ($13.85), it makes noise and will wake me up if the power goes out at night.

Bill

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

I might have to get me one of those.

carolinakids · RV-Dreams Family Member

I've had one (1000 watt magnum) inverter go bad. The tech asked what its used for. He suggested cutting it off when its use is not needed. We use it only to power frig. We are following there instructions. I bought a switch to run from inverter to inside RV to cut it off instead of having to go under storage compartment and doing it.

If our power goes out during the night or if we are traveling and the frig. inverter goes off, I wouldn't be worried to much. It will stay cold for a few hours till arrangments can be made. That's the good about residential frigs.

-- Edited by carolinakids on Saturday 24th of February 2018 08:55:15 AM