inverter connected to battery while it is charging

[eastr]

Is it safe to have the inverter connected to the battery while it is charging?
I will be staying in a camp where the generator is switched off at night, but I still require 220 volt power for some appliances. I don't want to have keep disconnecting the converter each time the power is reconnected.

I also need backup 40 amp blade fuses for said inverter, where in Fourways / Centurion can I buy them? I've had big difficulty in the past trying to find blade fuses bigger than 30 amps.

Terry

[SarelF]

It is safe to have the inverter connected while charging the battery.

[JDeV]

Go here:

RS Components SA
20 Indianapolis Street
Kyalami Business Park
Midrand

http://za.rs-online.com/web/home.html

For this:

RS Stock No. 318-0519
You must buy 10, they are R2.17 each. If you take 2500 of them, they are only R1.76 each
Can also order online.

Fuse,automotive,257 series ATO,fast acting,32V,amber,40A

[eastr]

Thank you all very much for your responses

[Andre N]

Short Answer:

Yep, It's perfectly safe to keep your Inverter connected whilst charging your battery.


Long Answer:

In actual fact, your Inverter is going to love you for it (Less Amps,Less Heat), as well as your battery (Less duty cycle, Less Amps drawn), But your charger is going to hate you. Let me explain.

The Inverter first.

Lets say you have a 500w Inverter, connected to 105a/h Battery (Your normal run of the mill setup) and everything is running at full till. Battery is almost empty at 11.1v. So the maths looks like this: 500w = 45A @ 11.1v

So that means, for the Inverter to supply you 500w it needs to chow 45A an hour. 45A through the inverter generates quite a bit of heat.

So now you connect your trusty 10A Benton/C-Tex/Power Master battery charger. Battery voltage goes to 13.8 volt. So the maths looks like this: 500w = 36A @ 13.8v. And as you'll see, that's almost 10A less that's running through your setup whilst the Queen of the house is watching her 7de Laan in the middle of the Kalahari.

Now the Battery

Less amps is going to be drawn from the battery, as your supplementing it with the charger. Battery is going to take longer to go flat, thus the duty cycle on the battery is going to be less, and it's the duty cycle on a battery that kills them. Duty Cycle = Run flat -> Charge Full -> Run flat -> and repeat.

Charger.

As long as you have the Inverter connected, the battery is never going to get fully charged (Unless your charger can push more amps than what your Inverter can Take), so the Charger is going to run at full tilt for as long as yor inverter is running. So the Sucker is going to run HOT.

[B00ya]

thank you for this nugget , i trust its still true for 2022