Giandel solar charger/inverter

I bought a Giandel 2200w pure sine inverter with solar charge controller built in. I look at everyone's posts and don't see where anyone uses anything like this. Is it a good unit? Better to have separate charge controller?

link please

Ok so its a cheap high frequency inverter with an integrated pwm solar charge controller.
Also no hardwire capability.
Unless money is real tight you can do better.

mppt solar charge controller's have just about completely displaced pwm in the market.
Low frequency inverters are preferrable to high frequency.
I think your should look at all in one units https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/all-in-one-solar-power-packages.html

driesterer said:

I bought a Giandel 2200w pure sine inverter with solar charge controller built in. I look at everyone's posts and don't see where anyone uses anything like this. Is it a good unit? Better to have separate charge controller?

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I think you are correct, those units are not a popular choice here.

I'm happy to use a Giandel inverter, but personally would not use their integrated charger/inverter. That class of product doesn't have a good reputation, IMO, in the first place and doing it in the lower price end of the scale would only make that worse. I've never used one, so who knows, it might actually be good.

I probably jumped the gun on this one. After learning more I can see the mppt is the better way to go. oh well. it's just a camper. it'll do for now.

I have that inverter. It works well. I've pulled up to 2160 watts from it. Even with 4, 12v 100ah sealed lead acid batteries fully charged my bank was down to 12.1v in a little over 45 minutes. The inverter handled it fine. It was warm but not hot. I've never used the solar charge controller. I have no use for PWM SCCs. I use a 40amp tracerAN. I bought the inverter with a very small back up system in mind to run my boiler when the power is out, which is rare. That quickly changed to a plan for a larger system. I wish I would have bought a 24v inverter that can be hard wired and handle a neutral ground bond. I'm looking at upgrading to an aims inverter charger 24v / 2000w or one of the MPP Solar or Growatt all in ones so I can run the backup solar on one leg of my generator transfer switch and add more panels. I already have a moes ATS and The AN Tracer MPPT but like the expandability of the all in one's. I would recommend to anyone looking a buying an inverter to seriously consider a 24v or 48v unless absolutely have to have 12v for many reasons.

No1JetDoc said:

I have that inverter. It works well. I've pulled up to 2160 watts from it. Even with 4, 12v 100ah sealed lead acid batteries fully charged my bank was down to 12.1v in a little over 45 minutes. The inverter handled it fine. It was warm but not hot. I've never used the solar charge controller. I have no use for PWM SCCs. I use a 40amp tracerAN. I bought the inverter with a very small back up system in mind to run my boiler when the power is out, which is rare. That quickly changed to a plan for a larger system. I wish I would have bought a 24v inverter that can be hard wired and handle a neutral ground bond. I'm looking at upgrading to an aims inverter charger 24v / 2000w or one of the MPP Solar or Growatt all in ones so I can run the backup solar on one leg of my generator transfer switch and add more panels. I already have a moes ATS and The AN Tracer MPPT but like the expandability of the all in one's. I would recommend to anyone looking a buying an inverter to seriously consider a 24v or 48v unless absolutely have to have 12v for many reasons.

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Giandel just got back to me. The input and outputs are fully isolated so this inverter can be used to power circuits with bonded neutral/ground. Guess we'll see!

I have used the 2400 giandel inverter (No solar input as that was Available in the previous generation) as well as the 4000 watt version (available from Amazon). They are super efficient inverters which is a huge plus (the 4000 watt inverter only draws 500ma when turned on (6 watts)) which makes it the most efficient higher power inverter I have tested yet. It also easily powers my RV air conditioner/heatpump, microwave and everything else on board my RV. One thing to consider with the giandel inverters is the rated power it the maximum available power. Any kind of surge above that will cause it to immediately shut down. Also be very careful as there is pretty much no protection of the output. If you plug into regular AC Power (even with the inverter off) then it will immediately kill the inverter.

Well after receiving contradictory information from Giandel on ebay and Amazon they are going with it would be a potential safety hazard to power a circuit with a bonded neutral with this inverter. They have not said that the inverter can't handle it. It seems that there is a potential for the inverter case to be energized or at least that's what I gathered from there responses. I will say that Giandel on Amazon was quick to respond. Giandel on Ebay was slower but responded and I received NO response from Giandel customer service on their website. My start up loads are below the inverter max. I know that nearly all the cheap to medium priced high frequency inverters have basically no surge capacity. My load requirements for my present set up are small and this inverter has pretty low idle consumption so I will probably keep it as is for the time being.

Im curious- What makes you say " It seems that there is a potential for the inverter case to be energized or at least that's what I gathered from there responses."? I have not seen, measured in testing or heard any information like this. Tell us more.

From ebay seller when I asked about powering a circuit with the neutral and ground bonded.

"Our inverter is grounded by connecting case with ground wire. If it is connected to your circuit which has the neutral and ground bonded, I'm afraid it will be likely result in leakage.
Hope this will help you.
Regards
Giandel"

2nd response from Amazon seller when I sent them the ebay sellers response.

"Thank you for your reply.
I think I have misunderstand you.

Our inverter's ground wire should be connected to earth, but not neutral. We don't recommend customers to bond neatral and ground together, there will have safety problem.

Regards

Giandel "

Are you powering a panel with a bonded neutral with no problems? That would be cool.

I would think the panel in your rv would have the grounds and neutrals separate but I admit I don't know a lot about RV electric systems.

My inverter and I would imagine most others, have continuity between the ground pins on the ac outputs and the equipment ground. Unless the user has explicitly defeated that safety feature.

No1JetDoc said:

I would think the panel in your rv would have the grounds and neutrals separate but I admit I don't know a lot about RV electric systems.

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The point of the ground wire is to provide a fault clearing path in the event the metal enclosure of an AC powered device gets energized. This can only work if the neutral and ground are electrically connected (bonded) together. This way the circuit breaker will trip.

In residential wiring the Neutral and ground are bonded at the point the power enters the building (at the circuit breaker panel).

There is only one ground to neutral bond allowed in the system. This is because the neutral wires will be at different potential (voltage), depending on how much current is flowing through each wire. An additional ground/neutral connection located somewhere else also can prevent a GFI from working properly.

In an RV that only uses an inverter for power, you must connect the ground and neutral together if your inverter doesn't do this for you. If your inverter has AC outlets built into it, the neutral and ground are definitely bonded in the inverter.

This gets complicated when you add shore power. Now you have two mutually exclusive situations. The neutral must be grounded by your system when shore power is not connected, but must not be grounded by your system when shore power is connected.

An automatic power switchover device should take care of the ground so you are both safe and code compliant. High quality products (like the Victron Multiplus) take care of this for you.

Just occurred to me that your detailed explanation for my benefit deserved more than a thumbs up. Thank you for clearing that up for me!