Inverter / Battery Charger

Joe2954 · Dec 20, 2014

It probably depends on wiring. I have an older inverter/charger but do not have the charger function enabled. I do have to switch off the standalone charger.

The combined inverter/charger should handle it internally.

artboas · Dec 20, 2014

Can't run both

Jeff Jellick said:
I have a 2006 Hunter 45 CC with a Xantrex Freedom 25 Charger / Inverter. When running the Inverter, I was told that the Battery Charger should be turned off. So when I used the inverter, I turned off the circuit breaker for the battery charger.

Are others with a similar set-up doing the same thing... turning off the battery charger?

Thanks,
Jeff

If you are running the inverter, the charger is automatically shut off. I assume you are doing this with no shore power plugged it.
On the xantrex, you can either use it as an inverter or charter; not both

seadaddler · Dec 21, 2014

Circuit Breaker

I have a 2007 H-36 with inverter/charger and I think it is the 200 freedom and
it has a remote panel just for the inverter/charge which I thick you have too,the remote panel controls the inverter /charger.
I don't have a breaker for the charger and the charger/inverter is what it says the charger is built in the inverter /charger and don't understand where this circuit breaker is for the charger.
The remote panel has push switch for charger and inverter and yes maybe have seen the charge lite come on when inverter but when not on shore power pushing the charge part just lites up the remote panel to show battery monitoring any time you check it and unless you are on shore power I think the charger does not really do any charging.
So more info would be good and do you have same remote panels as I do.
Nick

Maine Sail · Dec 21, 2014

Jeff Jellick said:
Yes, I have added a 3 - position selector switch, that allows me to switch between, Shore Power, Generator, or Invertor. So, to answer your question, when I am running off the Invertor, I cannot be connected to Shore Power. I added this as a safety option.

Jeff,

Be 100% sure this was done correctly, the vast majority of transfer switches I see installed are done incorrectly.

When on shore power AC NEUTRAL and GROUND ARE NOT connected on the boat

When using INVERT AC NEUTRAL & GROUND ARE connected on the boat

When using GENSET AC NEUTRAL & GROUND ARE connected on the boat

Jeff Jellick said:
So I guess that when in the "invertor Mode" there is no reason for me to turn off the circuit breaker for the "invertor" battery charger. Any thoughts?/

Thank You for your Response.

Jeff

Many AC panels come with a battery charger breaker and in fact your boat may have come from the factory with a battery charger, and the IC was added later. Best to look at the back of that breaker and see if it is actually wired to something. If it is, find it and discern what it is.

I had one customer who went through two battery banks before he realized his Battery Charger breaker was connected to nothing.... The idiot light came on so he assumed he was charging...

Terry Cox · Dec 21, 2014

Charger

Hi Jeff, a few years ago I replaced our tired original inverter/charger with a Freedom 25. Did the job myself, basically plug and play. Our boat also has a Genset. Our power panel is set up in a way that allows you to select either inverter or Genset/shorepower, but not both. I let the Freedom 25 determine whether to charge or not and to what level. I leave the charge function on all the time, whether I use the inverter or not. This all seems to work well without incident.

seadaddler · Dec 21, 2014

Factory

My boat Has inverter/charger and gen all installed at the factory and insisted
everything be added at factory and not added by dealer.
My dealer did want to add some things at the dealership but I said no and had everything done at factory and have never had any problems,I believe I have 2 auto transfer switch one for Gen and I think one for maybe inverter/charger but not sure and have switched from inverter to Gen or shore power and always
been done auto with no back feeding of any kind and I don't have any manual switching.
I am not much of a electrical guy but my system is very involved with extra breakers and battery switch and cross over parallel breakers because of my FP Gen and 2 battery banks which I changed to 1 big Bank and starter battery and than the Inverter/charger.
I do see wiring for a charger from the factory but is not used because I have
a inverter/charger and the remote panel is wired to the inverter/charger and that remote controls the charging and inverter functions and acts as a battery monitor.
I would think if there is a breaker for the charger that that means a separate
charger was installed and than later the inverter/charger was added and maybe that breaker is to the inverter/charger
Nick

Tumororlater · Dec 31, 2014

Hey guys,

The reason to turn of your battery charger if it's setup like mine is because the battery charger is using the shore power (AC) to charge your battery. The inverter takes DC and makes it AC for your use off dock. Turning the inverter on while its hooked up to AC is dangerous to your electrical system and will most likely cause damage, like a fuse blowing or inverter frying. You must shut off all AC input before turning on inverter. Otherwise they will parallel out of phase with one another which is a bad thing (electrical engineer speak). Hope this helps.