Date:         Tue, 18 Apr 2006 21:34:02 -0400
Reply-To:     Edward Maglott <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Edward Maglott <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US>
Subject:      battery-inverter-charger-battery loop
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

I'm working on a setup that would use one switch to switch all my AC
outlets from Shore power to inverter power, and power on the inverter.  I
see the potential for this error to occur: I'm plugged in to shore power
and running my battery charger into my aux battery.  I flip the switch to
the inverter power and forget to turn off the charger.  So now I've got a
loop with the inverter drawing power from the battery, changing it to 120v
AC, the charger is taking that and turning it back into 12v DC and putting
it into the same battery.  I know this is stupid and a waste of power, but
is it dangerous?  It seems like I've read warnings about this type of
situation or something similar creating some sort of feedback loop or
something.  The other option is to leave one outlet only and always
connected to the shore power, but that is more complicated...

Edward