[Tom]

Rodger,

Out of curiosity what is the situation? When you are on shore power I presume your inverter is functioning as a battery charger, while closing a circuit (usually a big relay) that passes shore power through to the devices that are set up on the inverter such as outlets, TVs or a refrigerator for example.

That suggests to me if you are getting a fault indication something that should be happening isn’t. By that I mean your inverter is not maintaining the charge on your batteries or shore power is not passing through to your 120 volt devices.

Not to dissuade you from having it checked out, but to point out it may be necessary to rule out all other potential issues such as problems with your batteries, ground problems with the inverter or the coach circuits or just simply a problem with the inverter(s). I started having high voltage issues on the inverters in my coach several years back. The voltages would reach the inverter limit for the DC (battery charger) side and after cleaning all DC circuit connections at the batteries, main circuit breakers and ground connections the problem went away. Until I did that I went crazy trying to figure out what was wrong with the inverters. It turns out mine were very sensitive to ground connections. For reference my inverters were Heart Interface Freedom 2500.

[Archived]

Thanx Jon,as always,you step right up to the plate . Basically we have been getting a HiTemp fault readout on the inverter/charger panel inside the bus with a fail light on the Freedom 2000 unit inide the 2nd compartement psgr side,which is also the House Battery Location. Overtemp is the fault. Talked to a couple of POGS and suggestion went to probable overtemp due to extreme Temps recently (duh!) and less than sellar circulation.So,for now I have a small house circulation fan in the compartment to improve (vastly) the circulation of air and seems to be doing the trick. Replace batteries and completely overhauled the entire compartment last Sept(2011) while at Xtreme Grapics in Tx and have no problems since.I used my IR gun and saw temps topping 100 but with the fan dropping to 90. The compartment door has a couple of vents for air to circulate as well as the floor has 4 vents to vent/drain below,all are free and clear of debris. Plan is to when i get home (couple weeks) is install a hard wired 12v fan of at least 150cfm velocity with a temp relay so that I hopefully will not continue with this. I also have to keep in mind I may be having some early signs of Thermal problems with the inverter itself,I have no idea/paperwork as to when it was installed (PO?). We do not do much dry camping, usually just an overnighter when travelling from one location to another if any. I do not have an AC working off of it due to size. I checked batteries and cables, 1 was slightly loose (on a slide rack) and adjusted and re tightened. I think now,will wait and keep close eye out. Just like me, the age is a factor I am sure on the performance. But the inverter would be an easy replacement. Thanx

PS: It was Martin Diesel,in Defiance,Oh not Deshler (close) and they have offered any assistance I may need as well .

[Larry & Diane]

Rodger, I am not, repeat NOT an inverter expert, but I have learned a few things. I am not conversant with your specific inverter but in general I do know that your voltage for charging MUST comply with the battery recommendations for bulk, absorbtion and float. I do know the voltages are sensitive to temperatures so if I were to look for the issue you are having the first thing I would do is find out what the battery charging protocol is.

Then I would insure the settings for the inverter matched that. I would look specifically for information on how or if the battery charge voltage is to wary as temperatures vary. You might find adjusting the charging voltages on the inverter might correct the problem.

It is very bad to put excess voltage into a hot battery. You could end up with thermal runaway in which the the voltages increase as the the temperature rises and the temperature rises as the voltage increases. You see the picture. Your idea of a fan is excellent. If your batteries cannot be out in the open the next best thing is to bring those outside temps to the batteries to keep them reasonably cool.

I am sure Tom is more up on how the charge voltage needs to vary in relation to temperatures and he may be able to provide a link to some insight on the topic.

[gary]

Rodger

Check the inverter in question next time it codes as to whether the fan inside the inverter is working? Compare it to the other inverter if you have more than one as to whether it’s fan is on. Both must be working under the same load. I have the same inverters and one is kick off and I have noticed it’s fan is not working.

Greg

[Archived]

Roger,

Sorry for the delay, CRS has set in. As
Greg pointed out, make sure your internal fans are working in the
inverters. If you have temperature compensating you will have a
sensor from each inverter going to the battery bank. They are usually
stuck to a battery with sticky tape or some connect them to a
negative terminal. If you don’t have the sensors, some inverters
allow setting the ambient temperature based on your location and
usage. I am mentioned this if you are getting an overcharge due to
high temps while on shore power or gen.

You’re on the right track by adding
cooling to the bay. I have a 12v fan that is controlled by a
thermostat that I set at 90 degrees. Being anal, I have a remote temp
sensor in the bay and I can monitor the bay temp in the bus. When dry
camping in hot weather, I see bay temps over 100 degree’s often, but
usually not beyond 105. The key to the cooling is to get the hot air
exhausted out of the bay, so be sure to rig up your fan to exhaust in
some form or fashion. Just moving hot air around the bay won’t
accomplish much. Royale in their wisdom put the gen radiator,
batteries and inverters in the same bay, so I’m used to monitoring
the temp. When running my gen, the bay stays cool because of the mass
amount of air being pulled into the radiator, but once the gen is
off, the compartment gets heated real quick. You won’t have that
problem, so cooling yours should be easy.

[Rodger]

Time for an Update and a hearty thanks to everyone for the input….I think problem has been resolved.While we are still away from home,it is temporary,but seems to be working. The last 2 days with temps in high 90s and with direct sun hitting the Psgr side of bus (where battery compartment is) I have not had the problem. This because I put a small cirulating fan usually in the bus to help move air about, and using it during the heat of the day with my bay door slightly ajar (handle in closed postion) (thanks to Alex & Lucia for that tidbit). I have checked battery case temps and also tightened on of my battery connections (they are now repositioned so as when I close the battery bank on its slide,the cables are not being pressured to move. I feel comortable with this outcome, and will be looking for a nice metal shrouded fan similar to what used to be used in bus/truck windoes and with at least 150 cfm potential,and as Truck ,will have it hard wired with fuse and set up to force air out of the compartment. Thanks again to all,it just never really ends,does it?

[Larry & Diane]

The frustratrating part about problem resolution is we often do multiple things in an attempt to fix what is giving problems. Adding to the frustration is when the problem is not a total failure but an intermittent one.

So we do as Rodger did. He made multiple changes such as tightening terminals, opening the bay door, adding a fan, etc. and he may never know if it was one single problem such as a loose terminal or if it was heat related, or if he had the right combination of small issues that created the situation.

Incredible how it is always the little things that drive us crazier.

[Archived]

Rodger,

It’s not uncommon for the charger overtemp alarm to come on when charging the batteries after thay’ve been drained on a hot day. The bay air circulation or more importantly out side air exchange is not very good on many of our coaches. I’m assuming the alarm you are talking about is the self resetting alarm. If self resetting, the inverter/charger is not raising a critical alarm. Of course, over temp is not good. The inverter/charger fan ;should be the first thing you check, as previously stated. Another way to reduce the possibility of the alarm condition being raised is to configure your inverter/charger to a lower input power. I have reduced my input power from 50A to 30A and no longer get the over temperature alarm. This will increase the time it takes to charge the batteries. That’s no big deal to me, so I just leave the input power setting to 30A regardless of outside temperature.

[Archived]

Gil has made an excellent point that few are aware of.

The charging current should be set based on how you use your coach. If you dry camp a lot, and especially if you use autostart to charge the batteries back up you likely want to go with the maximum. That way before your generator run times out (if it is time controlled) your batteries are fully charged. But if you run from shore power to shore power or run your generator almost continuously when not plugged in set the inverter to a lesser value. I am using 10 amps, which means if I draw more battery power than my inverters can supply in the evening by using all my lights for example, by the time I shut things down, go to bed, and wake up in the morning the batteries are fully charged again. The advantages of doing this based on my use of the coach is I can run my ACs and not worry if the inverters start charging due to a heavy load on the batteries that I am likely to trip a breaker.

If I did a lot of dry camping or used the generator a lot then I might set the inverters for a much higher amount because I have ample generator capacity or I want the batteries fully charged quickly.

[Archived]

That’s good Jon….

If mine are in Float and I need to run all 4 airs & everything… else I turn my chargers down to 2 amps… I’ve never tripped an outside breaker when the park supply is good… works very well for us.I aim to stay under 45 amps. !!!

The default charge for my coach is 15 amps… I’ve never had a problem with turning them down and enjoy the “stuff” running in the coach.

For example it’s 99* here in San Antonio and the bus is nice and cool but it takes it all 4 airs to keep it that way. Salon temp is 72* Stateroom temp 70*.

Very front of H buses are always warmer I think… I keep a fan on high up there and it helps a lot.

I think different things work for different coaches !!

[Tom]

I have Trace 3012’s and don’t even have a 50 amp setting, the highest being 30. Never have any issues with excessive usage in the heat.

[Archived]

Diane, I agree with different things working for different coaches because there are enough variations in how our coaches are set up, but also due to variations in the devices. I think I can go up to 70 amps chanrging (I might be wrong, I’m still learning) so if I left it there I would be popping breakers on shore power when running the AC units. But Tom with a max of 30 may be OK, not only on not popping a breaker, but not heating up his batteries.

Our installations have a role to play as well. If the batteries and inverters can be cooled, life is good, but we know some coaches that were modified over the years may have inverter chargers that were not original or bigger inverters and they might not be in the ideal place as far as cooling. Each owner has to get to know their coach.

To be honest I am learning a lot based on the range of discussions we have had on this forum and I hope others are as well. We all teach one another.

[John]

Maybe in Indy you can help me adjust the amps on my charger. I think it is 25. When I asked Troy he just said to turn off one when I am pulling a lot of power, but I would rather adjust how much it pulls.

[Tom]

That should be easy to do. On my coach I have an instruction at the top of my electric panel that lists the steps but if you don’t have that and have the book it will be listed in there. The process is determined by the type inverter. On some it can be programmed from the remote, on my previous coach the change was made with dip switches at the rear of the remote.