Help me avoid getting shocked please.

[Nevadablue]

I am removing my existing Renogy 2000 watt 12 volt inverter and changing the battery bank for my house system. (converting to 24 volt system as advised here)

The Renogy manual warns of the ‘large’ capacitors connected to the terminals of the unit. So, how do I disconnect the cables from the inverter without getting zapped? The manual just warns that they are there and says nothing about how to deal with disconnecting them.

I ‘think’ I could just short the terminals to ground, but don’t know for sure. I don’t want to ruin the inverter either, it has a new home in our camper one day.

Help please.

 

[Bud Martin]

Do you have circuit breaker or battery disconnect between the inverter and the battery? If you do, then turn off the breaker or battery disconnect, then turn on the inverter, you will hear the inverter beep and die down due to the capacitor banks being discharged, then use the DC Volt meter to check the DC Voltage on the inverter DC input terminals, it should be < 2 ~3 Volt by then so you can safely disconnect the inverter from the system

 

[Nevadablue]

Thank you VERY much for the quick answer. I have a disconnect switch, that will do it!

 

[Nevadablue]

That seems to have worked. I turned off the batteries, turned on the inverter and it sang it’s normal song. Then I unplugged the inverter and it gave a dying beep. The 12 volt terminals then measured just under 4 volts. It is slowly dropping now. I won‘t be working on it until tomorrow, so I am guessing the caps will be flat by then.
Thanks again!

 

[Bud Martin]

Great! now you will need to do capacitor pre-charge with a resistor or light bulb when try to connect the inverter back to the battery otherwise you will quite good spark due to inrush current.

 

[Darren67-72]

Same can be done to ensure caps are empty. Light bulb, pencil trick or any load.

 

[Nevadablue]

Great! now you will need to do capacitor pre-charge with a resistor or light bulb when try to connect the inverter back to the battery otherwise you will quite good spark due to inrush current.

This inverter won’t be installed in it’s new home for quite a while. That project is way down the list. Hopefully it will get done someday.