Electrical Layout (HELP)

[Luke00warm20]

If anyone with electrical knowledge could quickly check this drawing for redundancies, it would be of huge help! Thank you. See attachment

[JDOnTheGo]

Originally Posted by Luke00warm20

If anyone with electrical knowledge could quickly check this drawing for redundancies, it would be of huge help! Thank you. See attachment

A few things:
1. Solar Charge Controller is connected directly to battery bank.
2. Converter/Charger is connected directly to battery bank.
3. Are you looking for an automatic AC transfer system or a very manual variant? If automatic, you'll need a transfer switch to connect shore/generator OR inverter to AC distribution panel.
4. Probably already understood but your converter/charger should be wired such that it is never powered by the inverter.
5. I'm not exactly sure what you have going with the alternator to battery charging - would need more details to comment.

[Luke00warm20]

Thanks for the response! Ideally I would prefer the solar and converter to switch automatically when i plug into shore or gen. As for the inverter, I'll only turn it on when unplugged from shore/gen. My idea was to place the switches for converter and inverter near eachother to insure they oppose. I agree the inverter should not run through converter after the ac box. As for the isolator, I want the bus alternator to charge the aux bank while driving. After the bus batteries have fully charged, I was thinking an isolator relay would turn it's power over to a secondary charge controller and on to the aux bank.

[JDOnTheGo]

Originally Posted by Luke00warm20

Ideally I would prefer the solar and converter to switch automatically when i plug into shore or gen.

These are magical devices that take care of themselves. You can have both "on" and connected to the battery and all will be well. There is a lot of detail involved but, keeping it simple, you do not need any sort of switching here. That said, I can imagine there may be some non-electrical requirements to isolate/switch them (such as you do not want to draw any more shore power than necessary because it is expensive, for example).

Originally Posted by Luke00warm20

As for the inverter, I'll only turn it on when unplugged from shore/gen. My idea was to place the switches for converter and inverter near each other to insure they oppose.

Lots of options and everyone has a different idea of ideal. Nothing wrong with any of them. I prefer a fully automatic system and transfer relays make that possible (as do combined converter/inverters with internal switch). Having a check list of plugs and/or switches that must be a certain way is ok too - as long as you follow it!!

[Drew Bru]

Originally Posted by Luke00warm20

Thanks for the response! Ideally I would prefer the solar and converter to switch automatically when i plug into shore or gen. As for the inverter, I'll only turn it on when unplugged from shore/gen. My idea was to place the switches for converter and inverter near eachother to insure they oppose. I agree the inverter should not run through converter after the ac box. As for the isolator, I want the bus alternator to charge the aux bank while driving. After the bus batteries have fully charged, I was thinking an isolator relay would turn it's power over to a secondary charge controller and on to the aux bank.

We kept it simple. Our inverter has an automatic transfer switch and a charger built into it, and we have no converter at all. If on AC power, it passes through the inverter altogether and keeps the battery charged. Solar charge controller is always running and charges the batteries as needed.
Some people think the inverter and charger should be separate units (in case one fails, no need to replace both) but, for simplicity, we went with the combined unit.

[nanoplane]

I'm with Drew. Our inverter has a built in charger and transfer system. When the shore power is turned off, inverter automatically takes over in milliseconds. When shore power is re-connected, inverter turns off in 10 seconds or so and AC restored to shore power. When AC is connected, if the battery is low, it will be charged automatically.

Charge controllers work happily in this environment. The only thing I worry about is total charge current when AC is connected and also charging. I haven't had any issues yet, but since I can set the charging current on the inverter, I just limit it to about 60 Amps.

I'm thinking of adding a Sterling-Power battery to battery charge controller to be able to charge the house batteries from the bus alternator.. ( Sterling Power 60A Battery to Battery Charger ). Note that you need to have this kind of system if you're charging the batteries from three different sources like this.

Here's my electrical layout (at least the DC side):