110v outlets without shore power attached ?

[baz]

Subject: 110v outlets without shore power attached ?

With the winter months now here I've connected two dehumidifiers to help with keeping the cabin area less humid etc. I have one connected to the 110v outlet in the head and the other connected to the 110v outlet under the dinette table.

Normally when I want these humidifiers to run I flip the breakers ON for these two outlets and have shore power connected.

I leave the two breakers ON with the assumption they will not be 'live' until I connect shore power.

Yesterday, I arrived back at my slip and did not connect to shore power, yet the two dehumidifiers were powered ON. Thus I assume the power to the 110v outlets was being supplied by my dual battery charger/Inverter. Am I correct to assume this ?

 

[Bosn Mate]

On my R29S, I need AC1 breaker on to power the outlets. If I have shore power connected, the power source is externally supplied. If not connected to shore power, the inverter kicks in and power is supplied from the batteries.

Mike

 

[baz]

Thanks for responding about this. 😀 Initially, I was confused about this and seeing that the Humidifiers were running I was convinced I was connected to shore power. The auto mode is convenient but people should be aware of this happening as batteries could be drained if left like this for too long.

Can the combo charger/inverter unit be configured to avoid this situation ?

[EDIT]
I had a chat with one of the RT persons and was told to take a look at the KISAE Inverter/Charger panel display located on the fwd upper wall in the cave entrance area. It has two buttons; SELECT and POWER. Now if the upper right corner displays an orange LED then the combo inverter/charger is in inverter mode that means 110v will be supplied to the 110v outlets (that are breaker controlled on the main panel on the aft wall of the cave entrance area) regardless of being connected to shore power. This can be deselected by pressing the POWER button.

See photos of the KISAE panel here (left most panel display) -> https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1AGcuRfIGdXBuz

When I'm next on my boat I will check this out and if my description is wrong or misleading I will correct it here later.

 

[JohnL]

Baz, I had the same experience on my new R29s. I was taking the boat out and disconnected the shore power. When I went to unplug a 300 watt heater running at the bottom of the steps by the bunk I found it still running, drawing down the house batteries. When I got back to the dock I sat down with the Kisae owners manual and figured out how to stop that from happening.

The key is changing the default setting for inverter from In1 to In0. The latter setting ensures that the inverter will not continue to work when the shore power cuts off. If you do this, then to reheat coffee etc when underway or at anchor you would have to return the setting to In1.

There is another setting, In4, that appears to allow you to turn the inverter on and off whenever you want using the Power button on the panel. The manual isn’t very clear but it looks like if you had the inverter power on in this setting, the house batteries would be called on to power any appliance (eg humidifier, heater, light) you had left on if shore power was cut off. Thus you would be in the same situation you would encounter if you had left the inverter in the default setting. I’m still trying to clarify exactly how In4 works.

Another useful point. The default battery charging setting for the inverter is for flooded cell batteries. Check to see if the factory or dealer has changed the setting to AGM. If not, you should do so.

The instructions for using the ‘power and ‘select’ buttons to make the above changes are in the manual. If you don’t have a hard copy it can be accessed at:

https://www.donrowe.com/v/vspfiles/pdf/ ... _guide.pdf

 

[baz]

Thanks for all that info JohnL. 😀