Question about battery hookup

[trinitysj]

I think I did this right.. The primary question is the battery config?

It is all working as expected however I just want to make sure that the battery connections are correct for the panel and the inverter. placement of positive and negative cables.

[Tigerman67]

Just curious, i assume your 50 amp panel has two different hot legs, does your inverter power both legs or just one leg?

On my 30 amp setup i have two seperate sides on my ac panel, and one side is only powered by shore/gen, and the otherside is either shore/gen or inverter based transfer switch. This way i put the dc converter and my ac unit on the side that only works on shore/gen so i wont have to worry about the inverter trying to run the ac or batter charger.

[trinitysj]

Originally Posted by Tigerman67

Just curious, i assume your 50 amp panel has two different hot legs, does your inverter power both legs or just one leg?

My panel and Transfer switch have 2 hot legs on them. 1-Red, 1-Black

The inverter powers the generator side of the transfer switch and then jumpers to the other side to provide power to both sides of the panel.

[trinitysj]

Here is an updated diagram

[Tigerman67]

Looks good in my opinion. My only caveat is to make sure you dont have your dc converter running while on inverter.

[trinitysj]

Originally Posted by Tigerman67

Looks good in my opinion. My only caveat is to make sure you dont have your dc converter running while on inverter.

That is the bottom breaker in my panel and it can be switched off when on the inverter.. that's how we do it

[trinitysj]

Im still not sure i got an actual answer.

specifically, if I have four batteries, do i connect the positive from the first one and the negative from the last one to the inverter.. or do i connect the positive and negative from the first OR last one to the inverter?

thanks

[JDOnTheGo]

I'm not sure I understand what you are doing. I think you are planing to have one shore power cord that is plugged into either a pedestal or generator. Correct?

It might be helpful if you labeled the wires/colors. It appears that you have both legs (hot - of the 50 amp circuit) going to a single panel? Correct? Is this a split panel where half of the breakers are powered from one leg and the other half from the second leg?

Battery wiring depends battery voltage, battery count, and desired output. I assume you want a 12V bank, as that is typical. Also assume you are using 12V batteries. Hopefully this helps:

[trinitysj]

Originally Posted by JDOnTheGo

I'm not sure I understand what you are doing. I think you are planing to have one shore power cord that is plugged into either a pedestal or generator. Correct? It might be helpful if you labeled the wires/colors. It appears that you have both legs (hot - of the 50 amp circuit) going to a single panel? Correct? Is this a split panel where half of the breakers are powered from one leg and the other half from the second leg?

That is correct. It is a 50A Progressive Dynamics panel which has a two pole 50A breaker in the middle that powers both halves of the panel. Then there is a a 12v panel on the right side for all of the 12v stuff. And a charge conrtoller in the bottom.

Originally Posted by JDOnTheGo

Battery wiring depends battery voltage, battery count, and desired output. I assume you want a 12V bank, as that is typical. Also assume you are using 12V batteries.

I added a new image to help too...

Originally Posted by JDOnTheGo

Hopefully this helps:

[Drew Bru]

There's been some posts lately about balancing battery size with inverter size. I'm pretty much a moron when it comes to electrical (I just want to know what's tried-and-true for other people and copy their system!) but something about internal resistance inside a battery and it not being workable with too big of an inverter.

Here's a link that discusses it in detail: https://www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum...-size-tutorial

[JDOnTheGo]

Ok, the specific equipment helps - as does the wire color key. I assume the PD4500.

It appears you are jumpering the two legs together when on inverter power. That is fine as long as you understand that you are responsible for power management. Going from 100 amps (110VAC) down to whatever the inverter will provide (25 amps, max) requires some human involvement. For example, the battery charger is typically on a circuit that is not powered from the inverter. Obviously, charging the battery from the inverter would not work very well.

As Drew points out, a 3500 watt inverter is oversize for a 12VDC battery bank. It will work but you can damage your battery bank pretty easily if you run it very hard (near max output). The referenced article is very good. Just another thing to manage which is certainly not hard but part of living 'off-grid'.

I think the 'Battery Bank 2 @ 140 Ah' label plus what you've said above means that you have four, 12VDC batteries that are each 140 Ah. So, you have a "house" battery bank that has a total capacity of 560Ah and 280 Ah usable. Correct?

I realize we are fairly high level at this point but please do plan a good battery monitor (like this) to keep track of your system and take care of your investment.

[trinitysj]

I have the Progeressive Dynamics PD4560 Panel to be specific.

[RiskGoals]

Originally Posted by Drew Bru

There's been some posts lately about balancing battery size with inverter size. I'm pretty much a moron when it comes to electrical (I just want to know what's tried-and-true for other people and copy their system!) but something about internal resistance inside a battery and it not being workable with too big of an inverter.

Here's a link that discusses it in detail: https://www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum...-size-tutorial

Does this apply equally to lifepo4 or ev batteries?