Battery power for home during power outage

[CMS]

I failed to unplug... My error entirely after a year plus on the hook. I have a visual now though the 1k is now out of the system.

My AIMS1000 has three outlets to plug in items. Instead I took one cord and wired it into my AC panel. The plug part goes into one outlet on the inverter. Thus the whole boat has power available. The flaw was my user error. When I docked I should have shut off inverter AND unplugged that cord. Operator error for certain.

Since then, for maybe four years or so, I had a visual on the 30amp inlet of Seaweed. I recently "put to bed" the 1000 because I upgraded to a 1200. The old square wave is not in service. At some point I will probably swap it for something I want more...

I have a pure sine wave inverter now. It automatically switches on and off though I have a remote to shut it down manually.

The flaw is that this is considered an incorrect, unsafe and dangerous installation. Human error is quite often what leads us to the reason we have safety standards.

What you did is back feed the system negating any sort of proper source isolation or transfer switch. On land this is illegal. Line workers have died due to homeowners back-feeding generators in the exact manner you did with an inverter. It could also kill someone working on a dock pedestal when they assume the power is switched off.. Out on the water you can seemingly do what you wish but eventually you plug back in. No marine safety standard allows for what you did because it creates a safety issue and can create dangerous situations even up to the point of potentially resulting in a death..

If you want to wire a non-marine stand alone inverter, that is not built to marine UL458 standards (supplement SA), the best option is to wire it to its own dedicated outlets, clearly marked "INVERTER ONLY". While this means installing a few new outlets it is often far less expensive than a UL458 + Supplement SA marine inverter.

It is important to keep these outlets 100% isolated from the rest of the vessels AC systems. Still not the best practice to install a non-marine tested inverter but it prevents back-feeding the system and neutral/Earth bonding issues.

The other option is to install a proper isolation/transfer switch.

A marine inverter installation should always be installed with its own internal transfer switch or an external transfer switch that ensures the vessels neutral/white and Earth/green are bonded on the vessel only when the inverter is actually operational. Neutral/White and Earth/Green are then isolated, on-board the vessel, the split-second that transfer switch breaks..

When buying an inverter it is important that it meets UL458 + Supplement SA - Marine Power Converters/Inverters.

Many inverters are sold that meet UL458 (this should be a bare minimum) but most have never been tested to the marine supplement/portion of UL458...

 

[CaptTom]

If you want to wire a non-marine stand alone inverter, that is not built to marine UL standards, the best option is to wire it to its own dedicated outlets, clearly marked "INVERTER ONLY"...

...The other option is to install a proper isolation/transfer switch.

Wouldn't your "other" option be the better one? A simple rotary switch

could select the source (shore or inverter) and the send power to just the circuits that would be appropriate for running on the inverter. For example, just the outlets but not the water heater or range.

 

[CMS]

Wouldn't your "other" option be the better one? A simple rotary switch

could select the source (shore or inverter) and the send power to just the circuits that would be appropriate for running on the inverter. For example, just the outlets but not the water heater or range.

Yes a source selector would be the preferred option however isolating just the outlets, from the rest of the AC panel, gets into a whole other wiring job and many AC panels don't have the physical room to do that.

 

[Seevee]

tcpip95,


Sounds like you're heading toward a solution and wish you the best.

However, if your goal is to live there long term, I'd argue strongly to get on the board of your HOA, and get like minded people on there with you. Get things changed to be sensible. A restriction during an electrical outage is just stupid.

The problem with HOAs is there's often people on the board that have a lot of time, no brains, no skills, and just want to be in charge, telling people what to do. It's just the way it is. And, along with that, the benefits one gets with the HOA fees is horribly costly compared to just no HOA.

I live in an area where there are HOAs and condos on three sides of my neighborhood, and most of the friends I have that live in them don't like it. And some have rules way worse than you have.

As you can tell, I'm not a fan of HOAs. They often run like small governments with overzealous expenditures and gestapo rules. And speaking of governments, they are just as bad or worse. It's swung from poor regulation to over regulation. Sure, we need to protect neighbors from doing stupid things, but has gotten to the point that the neighbors will do nothing because of the cost of regulation and will live in sub standard housing. I can understand why, as the codes, permitting, and stupid requirement double or triple the cost of doing things.

 

[CaptTom]

Yes a source selector would be the preferred option however isolating just the outlets, from the rest of the AC panel, gets into a whole other wiring job and many AC panels don't have the physical room to do that.

True, you'd need a way to change the source for an individual breaker. On a home breaker panel, that's not easy, since the breakers snap into a bus built into the panel.

Most marine breakers I've seen (admittedly a small sample) have two screw terminals, one for source and one for the load. There may be a bus bar connecting all the source screws, which would have to be cut or relocated, and you might want to re-organize the panel to put the circuits on the inverter next to each other. But none of this should take up much extra space.

I confirmed this is the way the standard Blue Sea "A-Series" breakers (a popular model) are configured. Here's their diagram:

None of this is beyond the abilities of a careful DIY'er, but obviously anyone not comfortable working with 120VAC should seek help from an electrician.

 

[janice142]

Yes and that is the very switch I bought to permanently solve this ...then I switched inverters. The new one is automatic.

As the old one is not in service the urgency to install said switch is gone.

Yes I am fully aware that I made a mistake. The inverter was shut off. It was not powering my outlets. It was wired without a switch. That was a mistake. If I ever put that inverter back in service I will wire the blue switch. Mine says shore, off and generator. I will check the switch for continuity too as it is older.

Thank you for the information and reminder that I should have installed the switch asap.

Addition: the perko switch that provided battery power was turned off. Thus the inverter was not powered. That's what I mean by shut off.

 

[BigJim]

Look into a 24 VDC inverter and system. Less Amps to draw, smaller wire etc and most definatley get a pure Sine wave inverter.