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Old 07-08-2015, 08:05 AM   #1
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Inverter/charger: turn on to charge when plugged in?

Kind of embarrassed that I don't know this. I have a Trace Engineering 1512 inverter/charger. When I'm plugged in to AC and have the AC breaker on, do I have to turn on the unit to charge the batteries or does it do that automatically in the background? I'm thinking that if I turn the unit on then the AC in the van will be coming from the inverter and not the shore power.

When I plug in at home to charge I turn the unit on, but I don't have at AC breakers on.

I have the manual but it's not clear on this. We rarely stay in campgrounds with power (maybe five times in four years) so I keep forgetting to figure it out).

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Old 07-08-2015, 02:14 PM   #2
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Re: Inverter/charger: turn on to charge when plugged in?

I'm pretty sure that it will turn on by itself. I had a similar model in my last van. Try turning on your shore power (incoming) breaker as well as your house breakers. Sometimes there is a slight delay for the inverter to recognize shore power (10 sec or so), but you should hear it hum a bit. Without turning the inverter on, you should also be able to plug something into your van's outlets and test that you have shore power passing through.
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Old 07-08-2015, 04:05 PM   #3
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Re: Inverter/charger: turn on to charge when plugged in?

I found a "spec sheet" on this link http://www.solarcellsales.com/products/DR1512.cfm
It says the unit automatically starts charging your battery when it is connected to shore power.
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Old 07-08-2015, 08:03 PM   #4
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Re: Inverter/charger: turn on to charge when plugged in?

I'd look into that closely. Sorry I didn't research your inverter and only reflecting on my system. Yours might be totally different in operation so you can take it at face value.

Myself I want total control of the charging. Maybe the unit supplies a 12vDC supply when plugged in? When I'm plugged in, my inverter becomes a 12v power supply and doesn't push a higher "charge" voltage into the battery system unless I switch it to a charge setting. In a sense with the charge switch in the off position, the inverter becomes a fully charged battery banked with the house battery system when plugged into shore power. I get enough from the solar that I figure I really don't need an additional charger when the van is sitting at home on the pad in most circumstances. I do set it to a charge setting from time to time but monitor the charge. There have been those Opps situations when I've left it on for several days... I try to avoid that.

In general batteries take what they need and is why chargers taper off when all is normal but you can overcharge batteries especially if the charger doesn't have a temperature compensation feature or if a battery fails for some reason.
I'm not going over the hazards of an automatic charger overcharging a battery again... only pointing out I've had a couple close calls. Much depends on how the inverter is set up and often there are ways to avoid what happened to me by using the correct settings.

Just know what setting can be programmed, how it operates, and understand the hazards.
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