Dorm Fridge: Too Complicated?

[mitiempo]

wuif, mitiemp's post shows how the Freedom 20 should be wired: the AC shorepower goes to the i/c FIRST, then to the AC panel, since this is the only way the ATS inside it can work.

Stu

The shorepower goes to the main panel first in the diagram I posted. The inverter AC out goes to the sub-panel for inverter loads. This can be done with only one panel if desired - in this case the shorepower goes to the double main breaker and then to the inverter. The AC out comes back to the rest of the panel's breakers. This requires the removal of the wires from both hot and neutral to the positive and neutral buses on the panel.

The advantage of the layout shown in the diagram is that there is no chance of draining the house bank by leaving the water heater or other high amp load on by mistake while away from the dock. The inverter only powers the outlets and possibly other circuits on the sub-panel.

There has to be a circuit breaker before the inverter.

 

[Bill Roosa]

There are several ways to switch the inverter and shore power into/outof the circuit(s) that power the panel. The CB technique takes a lot of panel space IMHO. It also requires you to actually know what is going on to operate it. This seems to be an issue with a lot of folks out there so I would recommend a source selector switch as it has "shore power" and Sea power" and you really can't mess it up. Leave it on sea power till you connect to shore power then switch it. The high wattage appliances are not even connected to the inverter so you really can't drain the batts unless you run something off the electrical outlets. Presumably you would know that and it would not happen.

 

[mitiempo]

A source selector switch over complicates it. You would never want to switch sources when both are available. A breaker is required before the inverter in any case. As I posted it can be done with either one panel or a main panel and sub panel as the diagram posted.