Replacing the Sure Power 1315-200 with a Blue Sea 7622 - Difficult?

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by MerlinG

If I connect to shore power does the inverter need to be on in order to charge the batteries? Mine has two settings, Auto and Charge Only and not sure what the Charge Only provides.

Thanks.

Easy test..use a voltmeter to check house battery voltage. Should be around 12.8V engine off, at rest, fully charged. Plug in shore power, check voltage again, should be 13.6 or more volts if the charger part of the inverter is charging the battery.

...or wait for Scalf77 to show up; he'll have a more definitive answer based on what model inverter/charger you have.


..kinda looks like a Tripplite Inverter?....

[MerlinG]

Thanks, and yeah it's a triplite

[Scalf77]

The "charge only" button will turn the charger on and enable AC passthru when you are plugged into shore power.

"Auto" will essentially turn the inverter on, how it functions will be a product of if you have shore power plugged on or not. If shore power is not plugged in it will enable the inverter to provide AC power. when this switch is left on it will at a minimum be checking if AC power is needed, if the threshold is met it will start inverting. The load that it turns on is controlled by a load sense dial. This can save some power, but the better goal is to only enable the inverter when wanting to use an AC appliance. SMB has a habit of sometimes not mounting the remote panel "APSRM4" in a convenient place.

If you are plugged into shore power with auto on, the AC will be passed thru and the inverter will be in stand-by mode. If AC power drops from the shore power side the inverter will pick up and provide AC power to your connected equipment.

The inverter itself has a 3 position switch "charge only, off , auto" , for the remote to work this switch needs to be in "auto" and the remote plugged in of course.

Your wiring looks even worse then standard SMB wiring. I would check to see if you can find the model # of the tripp-lite. I am not sure if it's the angle of the picture, that makes it look a little smaller than I would expect. I also would have expected the cable to be 2/0 gauge for a 2000 watt inverter. So just more to check.

What is the max current values can the hall sensor can manage, will it support the heavy loads when the inverter is being used? With the hall you can go on either positive of negative, just need to get the direction of the sensor correct. You will want to make sure that it is placed right before the cable goes thru the floor to connect to the battery. Also make sure their are no other power using cables connected directly to the battery. I would budget for a proper shunt based SOC meter in the future.

As far as moving from the sure power unit, the BlueSea 7610 is a great little unit. If you have the upgraded alternator, or think you will be putting on larger alternator in the future move right to the 7620 or 7622. The 7610 is for alternators up to 120 amps, to meet this current rating you would need 1 awg versus the 2 awg you have. The 2 awg would derate to 100 amp. This most likely would still work great for you, but because the 7610 is FET based they require larger size wire in their installation documentation. It is a heat transfer thing. Obviously boywonder has used one for years.

The 762X units are magnetic latch relays so they wouldn't suffer from that. Earlier in this document I lined a pdf describing upgrade from Surepower to 762X. The terminals are larger on the 762X units so you would need to replace those ends. Make sure you put a fuse on the ground wire to the 762X. If you chose to use start isolate, then the existing start isolate wire for the SP 1315 would attach to that input not the red control wire. I highly recommend the switch to be installed, but it will work with out.

As boywonder said a properly rated SPDT switch would work,


or use a SPDT relay with a switch to control relay.



-greg

[MerlinG]

Great info. The Inverter is model RV2012UL and it does have 2/0 coming from the fuse. The 2 gauge goes to the separator. The PO said he removed the SMB interior and replaced with trail kitchen cabinets. You can see the cut out in the pic from where the original stuff was setup so may explain the current wiring.

I'm currently redoing the penthouse as all the wires going up there had been cut. I'm also replacing all the lower lights with LEDs. Aside from those issues I haven't had any issues other not knowing the state of the system. How difficult is it to set up the battery monitor you mentioned in my current setup? I would like to put the monitor on the wall instead of on the bed face so it's easily accessible but not sure if distance makes a difference or not?

This would let me get some trips in and determine what I really may want to do in terms of a full upgrade. My current energy needs only include device charging, which will be done via 12volts, lights, water pump, radio, electric PH top, furnace and water heater ( which are propane and not constant).

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by MerlinG

How difficult is it to set up the battery monitor you mentioned in my current setup? I would like to put the monitor on the wall instead of on the bed face so it's easily accessible but not sure if distance makes a difference or not?

Battery negative to the shunt, then shunt to ground. There are two small current sense wires that run from the shunt to the monitor itself, the distances of these wires is not an issue in the space of the van. When I put mine in I wasn't sure how useful it would be, but it's incredibly useful; I use it all the time.


Most of the modern Victron stuff comes plain or with bluetooth, so if you want to see what's going on with your phone it's a nice option. I have a Xantrex Linkpro and it work great also, easy enough to scroll through the settings.

[MerlinG]

So I did a lot of reading on battery setups using current components and I decided to take advantage of the black Friday deals and go with a full upgrade.
I'm going to have most of the van trim apart anyway to deal with my penthouse and lighting issues so I figured I would upgrade and add additional circuits to separate lighting, sockets, water pump, etc. Going to go with a DC to DC charger for the alternator side, a new inverter / charger, and leave room for a future portable solar setup.

[boywonder]

Consider keeping the Triplite inverter and going with a LiFeP04 battery.


If the tripplite is a true sine wave and has an integral charger/transfer switch that's a good quality unit. They are a bit old school but are quite robust.


Swapping out your AGMs for a LiFeP04 gives you almost double the AH for a given size since you can run a LIFeP04 battery down to 10% SOC reasonably easily and get many (3000+) cycles out of it. AGMs should only be discharged to 50% SOC for a reasonable life span (500-1000 cycles).

..and if you are already moving to a DC-DC converter you are mostly there....



If your AGMs are fresh that forget all this and be happy......lol

[MerlinG]

Going with 200ah renogy LiFePo because it is the same dimensions as my renogy AMG battery so reconfig should be minimized. I'll know more when everything shows up.

[Twistedtech]

Man, just as I was getting into this novel, it stops. I have a SMB Magnum inverter/charger/BMS/setup with the 1520 (according to the docs) and a 270XP Nations dedicated alternator. Everything is working ( I know..why fix it?) but I wanted to go from AGM to Lithium. Boywonder you briefly mentioned that the DC to DC could replace the isolator and negate a need for an external regulator? Also random question, I had to jump the Van a couple of times due to starter battery voltage drop. But the shorepower was on, should the isolator have been charging my start battery?

[Scalf77]

Ok, I think I just answered you on youtube comment. In any case The magnum inverter/charger probably includes a BMK , not a BMS, which is usually for a Lithium battery.

I am not sure what you are referring to, on the 1520?

Are you sure that you have a independent 270XP Nations Alternator? This would assume you are running dual alternators. One for the van system, and one for the camper house system.

If yes, the cleanest option in my opinion would be an external regulator such as Balmar MC-618 or Wakespeed WS-500.

If you are running a just 270XP for both batteries, you would probably be best a DC to DC solution. Their are other solutions out there, but let's figure out where were at before exploring possible setups.