My generator does not recharge my Lithium batteries but shore power does!

[Pjwod]

I installed four 200 W solar panels and two 270 Ah Battle Born batteries, Victron Linq, Victron Battery Isolation Monitor, Victron Solar Controller, Victron Shunt, and Aims 3000 W Pure Sine Inverter. My stock Automatic Transfer Switches (ATS) chooses Shore or Generator power. This power goes into a second ATS (that I added) that takes the feed from from first ATS together with the Inverter Line to choose Inverter or Shore/Generator. I kept my stock converter which is suppose to be compatible with Lithium batteries and moved that stock converter switch to Lithium., Purely running on batteries, I do well for days, but then, of course my batteries gradually lose charge and delete down to 30% in 6 days. I lose about 10% state of charge daily. I have a 12V refrigerator. To get the batteries back up to 100% state of charge, I have to plug into shore power. Using the generator will NOT raise the battery state of charge whatsoever.. I want the generator to recharge the batteries just as my Shore power does. Please help me.

 

[740GLE]

Any chance you could draw your system out?

What brand and size is the generator? What is the charging current set up for in the inverter?

If you disconnect shore power will the generator work?

Have you tried bypassing the ATS, connect generator directly to the inverter/charger?

Also why don’t you want to use shore power? It has to be way cheaper than feeding the generator. I guess I can see you want to verify in an emergency the generator will work.

 

[Madcodger]

As a first guess, sounds like that first ATS isn't passing the gen power through.

 

[Rednecktek]

Open frame generator not playing well with the inverter? That's really common with a lot of units that require inverter generators to give clean enough power for the charger to kick in.

 

[wme]

I basically have your setup. Just make sure you have the inverter feeding the second ATS into the generator in.

 

[Pjwod]

I am the author of the question on the thread. Please read my initial post at the top.
Here are some answers to the questions posted here.
I have an Onan 3.6 KW LP generator.
60 Amp Progressive Dynamics converter
6 Gallon DSI gas/electric water heater
30,000 BTU furnace
15,000 BTU GE brand AC with heat pump
I have a 12V refrigerator.
I choose to use the generator instead of shore power when there is an absence of shore power as in boondocking.
The first (stock) ATS has two feeds, 1.) shore power and 2.) Onan power. The out feed of this first ATS becomes one of the two in feeds that runs to the second ATS. The other in feed into the second ATS is the inverter. The out feed of this second ATS is to the AC breaker panel.
The generator works just fine, and can run the AC and all other appliance, etc., but does not recharge the batteries.

I hope this clears up the questions and can lead to the solution to my problem. I want the generator to recharge the batteries just as my Shore power does.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

I choose to use the generator instead of shore power when there is an absence of shore power as in boondocking.
The first (stock) ATS has two feeds, 1.) shore power and 2.) Onan power. The out feed of this first ATS becomes one of the two in feeds that runs to the second ATS. The other in feed into the second ATS is the inverter. The out feed of this second ATS is to the AC breaker panel.
The generator works just fine, and can run the AC and all other appliance, etc., but does not recharge the batteries.

Your going to have to draw the circuit out in detail.

From reading this neither shore power nor generator should charge the battery.

What is feeding the AC in to your inverter?

Where does the AC in to inverter come from?

 

[Firstrapid]

120 rv gen or 240 v real gen?
Derated for propane and altitude?
Tried a bigger gen.?

 

[schmism]

I choose to use the generator instead of shore power when there is an absence of shore power as in boondocking.
The first (stock) ATS has two feeds, 1.) shore power and 2.) Onan power. The out feed of this first ATS becomes one of the two in feeds that runs to the second ATS. The other in feed into the second ATS is the inverter. The out feed of this second ATS is to the AC breaker panel.
The generator works just fine, and can run the AC and all other appliance, etc., but does not recharge the batteries.

I hope this clears up the questions and can lead to the solution to my problem. I want the generator to recharge the batteries just as my Shore power does.

the way ATS work, power source 1 never mixes with power source 2.

its unclear which side of the battery charger you have on which side of which ATS. As others have said, a diagram is going to help understand and troubleshoot.

 

[wme]

The rv converter must be powered by the output of ATS #1. IF it is powered by the output of ATS#2 it will try to bootstrap, charge the battery from the inverter, while the inverter is running from the battery.
This maynot be your answer, but here is an answer to the bootstrap problem,
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/catsy.549/50750_MOBI_MAN_GP-TS_prewired.pdf

 

[gramos100]

I have a similar situation ,and found out that the inverter will not work with a modified sine wave generator , it must be a pure sine wave generator

 

[Pjwod]

Someone wanted a drawing of my wiring. Here it is. And I have a Pure Sine Inverter. It seems my wiring is exactly the same as Schmism post above.

 

[740GLE]

A line sketch is typically industry standard for wiring diagrams so everything is shown in the picture.

On the inverter what is connected to the AC in? Per your own words it sounds like nothing is connected to AC in.

 

[sunsurfer]

I was just watching an official victron video and they said inverter to gen sync can take up to 20 seconds (sometimes)

 

[wme]

Both of my ATS have a 20 sec delay. AN ATS is designed for shore, generator, so the delay is for the generator to stabilize. If using it with an inverter it still give the inverter 20 sec to "stabilize"

 

[nnagreg]

For the generator, do you have the hot - wired to the correct side?

I know this sounds simple & silly, but I ran into some problems this summer with electrics on a generator. At buddy's place he had accidentally swapped the neutral and hot on the line coming from the generator to his panel. We didn't noticed it at first, as most of the devices (lights, fans) connected worked as expected, however some of the electronic devices (chargers, LED light, computers) gave us odd issues. It took a while to trackdown the problem.

Thought I would share.

 

[Tomthumb62]

And I have a Pure Sine Inverter.

Just to be clear, are you saying that your GENERATOR is pure sine wave?

Or are you referring to your inverter/charger as pure sine wave?

Because if your GENERATOR isn’t truly pure sine wave, then that could be your issue.

 

[scrubjaysnest]

The converter appears to be wired to shore power only from your description.

 

[Nimrod5]

I thought that the power produced by a gas/propane generator was pure sine wave. The problem is total harmonic distortion.

I have had to adjust the governor on my 3000 watt screamer generator to get the proper 60 Hz frequency and 120 volts. A killawatt type meter will tell you these values.

 

[Tomthumb62]

I thought that the power produced by a gas/propane generator was pure sine wave.

Not necessarily. There are plenty of modified sine wave gas and propane inverter generators out there.

4375 Watt Gas Powered Portable Generator with CO SECURE Technology, EPA

Amazing deals on this 4375W Co Secure Gas Generator Epa at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

This item doesn’t list it as modified or pure sine wave, at least not in the description. This tells me that it is most decidedly a modified sine wave, because pure sine wave is a strong selling point and for this price, it’s not going to be anything other than modified sine wave. I didn’t read the owner’s manual, perhaps it specifies modified sine there.

Edit: page 9 of the owner’s manual lists a notice that specifies this is not to be used for sensitive electronics and you should use a pure sine wave inverter for those.

https://manuals.harborfreight.com/manuals/59000-59999/59207-193175459725.pdf