The house battery is the RV's energetic motherboard, and draining it can cause pervasive issues in the RV. *Images within the body content were provided by and used with permission from the author. Watch for more of Steve’s work in upcoming Coach-Net publications. Professionally, he works as a quality engineer and musician. He frequently collaborates with the “RV Doctor”, Gary Bunzer, and has worked with the RVIA/RVDA as a technical and training writer and consultant. Steve, an avid RV owner, traveler, and Coach-Net member since 2013, is the principal of “A Word to the Wise Technical Communications”, a published RV author, certified RV technician, and licensed Professional Engineer. This provides for some battery voltage recovery while dry camping.Ĭoach-Net is pleased to welcome Steve Froese to our team of writers. Finally, it is a good idea to incorporate a solar panel array with the inverter system. Second, invest in a pure sine wave inverter, as regular inverters produce a square wave that can easily damage sensitive electronics. Generators or shore power are still required for this. First, due to the large current load required, inverters are unable to power large appliances such as air-conditioners, as the batteries would drain quickly. For example, if you are watching a TV that requires a 5 Amp AC draw, the inverter is drawing 50 Amps from the batteries.Īlthough having an inverter installed in your RV is highly recommended, there are a few things to consider. Because the inverter must produce ten times the voltage when inverting from 12V to 120V, it also pulls ten times more current from the batteries. The most important thing to be aware of with an inverter is capacity. Inverter/chargers usually have much higher battery charging capability, often up to 100 Amps, and charge the batteries by simply reversing the inversion process when the RV is plugged in. Stand-alone high-output battery chargers are required for this purpose. This means that these converters are not able to properly charge house batteries that are at a low state of charge. It should be noted that while converters incorporate a battery charging feature, the charging current available is often quite low. If you find that you are missing some AC or DC power in your RV, inspecting the circuit breakers and fuses first is suggested.įinally, both converters and inverter/chargers keep the house batteries charged whenever the RV is plugged in to shore power or the generator is running. Inverters do not have a distribution system built-in, so require separate fuse panels and breaker boxes to be installed. There is a separate fuse panel for the various 12V house systems. This power distribution system takes the main power coming from the shore line or generator and distributes it to different branch circuits through individual breaker switches. Unlike a converter, an inverter creates AC power without the need for shore power or a generator.Ĭonverters also provide a means to distribute power to the different AC and DC circuits in the RV. An inverter does the opposite and connects directly to the RV batteries to invert (and rectify) the 12V DC to create 120V AC output. This prevents the house batteries from being drained when the RV has 120V power, and is the function for which the converter is named. First, the device converts some of the incoming 120V AC to 12V DC power for the house system when the RV is connected to shore power or generator. Whether converters are stand-alone or modular, they all perform the same three primary functions. While there are many different types and sizes of the inverter, we will focus on the larger, permanently installed types that also incorporate a battery charger. This article will compare the functions of the converter and inverter. However, an alternative to a converter is an inverter. It is one of those “out of sight, out of mind” devices. The converter ensures that power is properly distributed throughout the RV, 12V is supplied to the DC systems when the RV is plugged in to shore power or running off a generator, and the house batteries are kept charged. Without a properly working power converter, RV appliances and electrical fixtures won’t run.
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