Shore power wiring for inverter (1 Viewer)

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LandLocked93

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So there's one thing I've wired but haven't had the fortitude to gamble my rigs existence upon trying...
...and that's connecting 120V grid to the 30A capacity shore power input of the inverter to charge the battery bank.
I'm going strictly by wire color - white hot, black ground, and green neutral.

Short of hiring an AC guy to look at it and try it, any AC gurus out there with top tips for the average DC guy?
AC likes to redefine what it means to 'ef up' imo.
TIA
 
well, an inverter is meant to go from DC to AC so this thing will run backwards as well like a charger?
As to wiring, I don't think your colors are standard for AC if that's what you meant.
Maybe best to get a multimeter and do some reading first?
 
Let's start with: What inverter are you using? I have a Xantrex Freedom XC Pro inverter installed in our little custom Escape fiberglass trailer and it functions as a built in transfer switch that makes going between 120v AC "shore power" to onboard 12v DC seamless and visa-versa that has been reliable the few times we've used it for same.

Its available with/without the charger option. Since we rarely stay in developed RV campgrounds I didn't opt for the charger model since we have 800w of rooftop solar and 7500wh of LFP...and if needed I'd just deploy a 120v standalone charger.

Ditto others above: Not sure where you got your wiring color codes...
 
I'm going strictly by wire color - white hot, black ground, and green neutral.

Are you making up your own wiring standard?
Even in Australia/eu/Uk black or red is load and green is earth… what am I missing? Do inverters have their own color standards?

70A6C226-C59F-4C95-89F2-D2E86B6D8852.png
 
120v AC black is primary hot/line; red is secondary hot/line. Given 120v AC, shore power or otherwise, in a 2-wire + ground scheme, black is the color for hot, white is the color for common/neutral and green or green with yellow stripe for ground.

Red is used, as an example and again for 120v AC, in a 3 or 4-way switched circuit, et al.

I'm not a licensed electrician but I do try to follow established protocols and/or codes when I'm working on electrical circuits.
 
personally, I'd rather have a separate charger. More versatile, I think.

coming from a US perspective on wire colors, I must say I was surprised when I saw the colors used in the EU, with brown and purple or something like that. Seemed like lacking a natural association with cold / warm etc. TBF, though, it is also a bit odd that the black is used differently in AC and DC in the US.
 
"shore power" implies feeding your vehicle/RV/boat/etc from utility power or local generation. Inverters convert DC to AC, what you want is a rectifier and filter assembly found in a charger / power supply. I believe inverters are limited to one way conversion.

What inverter do you have? Have you read the manual? I am sure that would answer the question.
 
Ok, so it's been a year or more since I wired it up. And agreed my memory for the colors and their respective purpose is piss poor. lol Agree with the consensus and misremember what is what.

The inverter is also a charger, with the built-in switch. It is the best one I could find for the money I wanted to spend at the time.
Amazon product ASIN B011DRA7U6(looks like they de-rated the charging capacity by 5A, mine is rated to 30A)

The manual specifies what wire/color goes where and I followed that. Seemed a bit too easy but whatever. I think it's the case ground I'm unclear on. Is it OK to input AC to a device that is grounded to the truck? (really don't know how that works)
I'm not using a breaker box instead relying on the inverters built-in resettable breakers. It has 2 - one on AC output (to a small power strip) and one on AC input (from the shore power plug). Both runs are shorter than 2ft.

I've no issues with any of the other features on the inverter - multiple power inputs that all work as expected. And its overdrive is right on time. Pulled almost 4kw once, starting up a chop saw.
It's just connecting grid power that really has me wanting to make sure it's all good first.

Thanks again for all the help!
 
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I would think that connecting the ground of the AC to the ground / negative of the battery would be no problem. With the rubber tires, that ground is floating wrt to Earth, I imagine, so connecting the AC ground (real earth) to the battery - would just make the battery - voltage down to Earth level. It's all relative. But there is probably no need to do that.
Having said all that, I suppose it's possible that the friction of the tires may have brought your truck's negative to 10,000V static in which case it could be interesting, but then again, you would probably have been able to tell before with one foot on the ground and one hand on the door handle... :)
 
What is the model number? That link is for a 24V inverter, is that what you have?

There are some pretty good manuals on the Sun Gold Power website, assuming you have a LFP series, which has some instructions on grounding and AC/vehicle connections. Not sure if you saw that.

Here is the 12V version of the one you linked above
 
Grounding your AC to the vehicle should not pose a problem. My day job is wiring these trucks, they run large amounts of both AC and DC power and it all ends up grounded to the vehicle chassis. Shore power can draw as much as 80A on one.
Nomad-GCS-1.jpg
 
I would think that connecting the ground of the AC to the ground / negative of the battery would be no problem. With the rubber tires, that ground is floating wrt to Earth, I imagine, so connecting the AC ground (real earth) to the battery - would just make the battery - voltage down to Earth level. It's all relative. But there is probably no need to do that.
Understand. Thanks!
Having said all that, I suppose it's possible that the friction of the tires may have brought your truck's negative to 10,000V static in which case it could be interesting, but then again, you would probably have been able to tell before with one foot on the ground and one hand on the door handle... :)
LOL I think 10kV is a little low here in CO. Prob closer to 50kV with some of the ridiculous shocks I've had.
The kind that make you wonder why you walked in to a room to touch the light switch. lol
 
What is the model number? That link is for a 24V inverter, is that what you have?

There are some pretty good manuals on the Sun Gold Power website, assuming you have a LFP series, which has some instructions on grounding and AC/vehicle connections. Not sure if you saw that.

Here is the 12V version of the one you linked above
Yes, it's 24V LFP.
The manual is good enough, tho the actual connectors aren't labeled. (labeled it when I wired it up)
Is how the manual shows it being wired correct in your opinion?
I'm using a 3-prong, 20A, male plug for input and only intend to plug it in to typical house wired wall plug via typical extension cord.

edit:something I see on the link you show, the "solar charging" feature, is performed by "third party" and does not involve the inverter at all. Which is funny because when I bought mine, the image showed the solar panels wired directly to the inverter.
As an owner/operator, I agree with your link in terms of how to connect solar panels.
It's not a big deal as a Victron controller is the primary for solar.
But it was the backup as my Redarc isn't equipped with one.
 
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Yes, it's 24V LFP.
The manual is good enough, tho the actual connectors aren't labeled. (labeled it when I wired it up)
Is how the manual shows it being wired correct in your opinion?
I'm using a 3-prong, 20A, male plug for input and only intend to plug it in to typical house wired wall plug via typical extension cord.

I did not interpret the manual that way. As far as I can tell, the duplex GFI plug is for connected AC loads only and not for shore power. The shore power would be connected to the "input" terminal strip below it under the cover.

EDIT: if you mean that you are plugging the male end of the power cord into the wall, and the connect the other end to the input terminals, then yes this is how I interpret the manual. After re-reading I think that is what you are saying.

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Yes, it's 24V LFP.
The manual is good enough, tho the actual connectors aren't labeled. (labeled it when I wired it up)
Is how the manual shows it being wired correct in your opinion?
I'm using a 3-prong, 20A, male plug for input and only intend to plug it in to typical house wired wall plug via typical extension cord.
The male plug goes into your home wall outlet and the stripped wires into the ac input terminal. When the inverter is in Shore power mode, all your ac connections in the vehicle will run off shore power, plus the battery charging circuitry. according to the manual, the battery charger will draw a max of about 1000 watts. add in 1000w of accessories being powered, and 20A should be enough juice. I would use a 6 awg extension cord.
 
Grounding your AC to the vehicle should not pose a problem. My day job is wiring these trucks, they run large amounts of both AC and DC power and it all ends up grounded to the vehicle chassis. Shore power can draw as much as 80A on one.
Those puny things? :rofl:
It goes w/o saying that the kind of power available in those rigs is far beyond what I'm working with.
I hope to only draw on 15/20A inputs.
 
The male plug goes into your home wall outlet and the stripped wires into the ac input terminal. When the inverter is in Shore power mode, all your ac connections in the vehicle will run off shore power, plus the battery charging circuitry. according to the manual, the battery charger will draw a max of about 1000 watts. add in 1000w of accessories being powered, and 20A should be enough juice. I would use a 6 awg extension cord.

Concur.
 
I did not interpret the manual that way. As far as I can tell, the duplex GFI plug is for connected AC loads only and not for shore power. The shore power would be connected to the "input" terminal strip below it under the cover.
Correct. The small power strip is plugged into the GFI plug.
The shore power plug is wired to the terminal strip.
And yes, I've looked at it to refresh my memory. lol
 

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