Monday 4 April 2011

All Powered Up

On Friday a box full of cables, big isolators and fuses arrived.  All the cables had been made up as I requested with soldered and crimped ring terminals.  As much as I wanted to play at the weekend I resisted.

Today was wiring up day.  I connected up the 6 x 2v battery cells, run the 50mm² negative cable from the batteries to the shunt, then 2 x 25mm² cables to the inverter, run the 50mm²  positive cable from the battery to the 400amp fuse, then a 50mm² on to the the 600amp isolator then 2 x 25mm² cables to the inverter. From the domestic alternator to the inverter I ran 1 x 25mm² positive and negative cable, and to the 12v domestic fuse board I connected the already installed 80amp supply cable to the inverter.

The isolator will be fixed in place at a later stage

Also connected were the trickle charge to the start battery, the sensing wires for the battery voltage and temperature.  The sensing wires feed information to the charger side of the inverter to optimise the battery charging.

I connected the AC in, AC1 out and AC2 out.  The inverter has to be switched on to manage the 240v.  The AC comes in and is given straight out to the fuse board via AC1.  Only when the shore power or indeed the generator are providing power then AC2 is fed.  This is so something like A/C or in my case an immersion heater can be run.  If the AC in is cut the inverter switches over and AC2 is dropped to save battery and drop non essential systems.  I also wired up the immersion heater.

Cover off.  White wire is Cat 5 for the PC interface

All covered and tidied up and

Additional wiring is also in and ready for a Victron battery monitor  and a Victron remote control panel for the inverter.  All that needs to be put in will be the cables for the solar panel when I decide what I am going for.  

5 comments:

  1. Hi, all looks a nice neat install.
    Just a question, have you thought through your wiring up of the lower alternator?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello

    Yes there are 2 additional wires to go on the lower altenator. 1 will be the warning light and the other will be the exciter wire. The red wire comming up is the trickle charge wire for the start battery from the inverter/charger

    ReplyDelete
  3. What happens to the lower alternator when the charger is switched on and possibly the engine is running?

    ReplyDelete
  4. The charger is only charging when it gets power from the shore power or generator.

    Although not impossible I doubt there would be a situation where I'd be plugged in to shore power or the generator is running and the engine running.

    But if any or all these situations were to happen there would be no problem as the regulators in the alternators would only provide what the batteries were demanding as would the charger.

    ReplyDelete
  5. well written blog with useful information about Inverter with Charger.
    Inverter with Charger

    ReplyDelete