Will a RV solar panel inverter be compatible with breaker panel that has a battery charger?
We are hooking solar panels up in our RV. However, in order to get the outlets to work, we have to plug our inverter into our breaker panel. The breaker panel has a battery charger and we’re afraid of creating a giant “circle” of power that will fry our system.
Wondering if it’s safe to connect the inverter to this panel/battery charger, if we can somehow install a shutoff switch on the charger or if there is some other option we’re not seeing?
Hey Sister, great idea. I’m not sure exactly what you’re doing there. We have a home that is powered by the wind and sun, and a small camper with solar as well, but ours might be set up a little different.
The solar panels you are using do not need an inverter to charge the battery, they should simply hook to the battery bank directly, or by way of a charge controller. If you are also adding an inverter to use the battery power to run your AC outlets, that is a separate problem. Most boats I’ve come in contact with have a selector switch that selects between the battery charger or the inverter. So when you are on shore power, it stays in the charger position, which allows the battery charger to keep the battery’s at float, and does not allow the inverter to power the AC system. Away from shore power, it is selected to the inverter, which allows the batteries to power the inverter, which powers the AC system, and the battery charger is then locked out. This is why most RV and marine inverters today have both the charger and inverter built into one unit, and it switches for you whenever you plug in the shore power cord.
If you are installing the solar panels yourself, see what the, “short circuit current,” rating is on the panels. If it’s 3 amps for example, and you’re hooking two of them up in parallel, then you can have as much as 6 amps of charge current on a sunny day. Then see if you can find out what the amp hour capacity of your battery bank is. As a rule of thumb, if the maximum charge current of the solar array is less than 2% of the amp hour capacity of the battery, then you don’t need a charge controller, the panels will never over charge the battery. All you need then is a diode between the panels and battery. A diode is an electrical check valve, allowing the panel to charge the battery, but not allowing the battery to feed back into the panel at night. There’s a good book on charging batteries at the library, and a magazine you might consider looking into. I will list them below. Good luck, and take care…Rudydoo
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