1200 watts, 3500 watt inverter, 60 amp charge controller. need help with converter/inverter switch

[kyleswenson72]

I have an off grid 5th wheel in Utah. I have 1200 watts of solar, 3500 watt inverter 2 100 amp hour batteries and a 60 amp pwm charge controller. I have a converter that charges my batteries from shore power that I would like to keep in case I have to charge them with my generator on a shady day. I need to figure out the simplist way to put a switch on my inverter and converter to run it into my breaker. I am not sure how to do that. please help!

Next question is do I have the right setup or should/ can I add batteries?

 

[HRTKD]

Is your battery 12v or 24v? I suspect that your solar charge controller is limiting the amount of output power you can get, given that you have 1200 watts of solar. That's if you have a 12v battery. If you have a 24v battery you're probably OK.

Is your inverter feeding into the main AC distribution panel? If so, you can't have the converter power coming from there. It has to be further upstream so it won't be in a loop. With both a generator and shore power, I'm not sure how you're going to do that unless you have two automatic transfer switches.

 

[padredw]

I have a fifth-wheel with a smaller system than Kyle describes, but I had exactly the concern he expresses about turning off the charger/converter when the inverter is being used. I had found several articles and/or YouTubes about an automatic transfer switch, but when I had the inverter installed professionally, they simply ran a switch to turn OFF the charger right next to a switch to turn ON the inverter. Of course, that requires a bit of alertness, but I have found it to be an intuitive and simple solution. If Kyle needs any more specific description of my simple system I will be happy to respond.

 

[padredw]

I will add that when shore power or generator is connected the inverter is disconnected and the charger/converter works normally. This is achieved by using my regular 30 amp power cord which plugs into either the shore power or the inverter. This required the addition of a regular 30 amp receptacle on the outside of my trailer. It works great. There is only one AC source into my power center: the regular 30 amp input I've always used at campgrounds. Just to give the full picture, my trailer can use either 30 amp or 50 amp power from the campground. It is only wired for 30 amp from the inverter.

 

[Dogsareloud]

I have a question that I think might be related to this Post...I want to be able to turn off my inverter but my WFCO panel is full and the converter is already on a shared breaker...

As of right now when I cut the converter off I lose power to several of my outlets.

Can I not just add a single pole switch on the black wire of the converter that is going to the breaker and switch it off that way...

Again there is no more room to add an additional breaker in this particular panel there’s physical room but the bus bar does not extend that far...

 

[Whinny]

I would think so, you could use a piece of romex and extend it to a switch box. Be sure to connect the bare wire to the ground bar. It's good electrical practice to put a ring of black tape on the white wire insulation as it will be considered a "hot" wire.
Are you using a transfer switch or the really easy system as described by padredw?