I’m trying to use an inverter to occasionally charge my AC500 w/2 B300S. I know I could get the DC charger, but I’m already using all the DC inputs for Solar.
I’ve tried to do this with 3 inverters now (400W installed in Tundra - fried, 1000W DeWalt connected to battery - fried, 400W offbrand connected to battery - fried). In all cases, I changed the input amperage to less than max continuous power rating (7 amps and 3 amps respectively).
Is there something intrinsically incompatible, or is there an issue with my unit/installation?
So are you trying to plug the AC500 into your inverters, using the power cord, and it’s killing your inverters? You can set the input amps down to 1 amp by using the APP. If you have some kind of power meter like a Kill-a-Watt meter you should make sure it’s really pulling only 1 amp,
Apart of the extremely inefficiency in using an external inverter to charge the AC500 (?->DC->AC->AC->DC), your inverters were too weak to withstand the input power of the AC500 since they were probably not pure sinewave and so very inefficient, with their advertised power as purely resistive with a power factor of 1.
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That means, a square-wave cheap inverter with an advertised power of 300 W will not be able to power a 30 W fluorescent light due to its inductive load. You could imagine this characteristic as the inverter providing power but getting some power back in a different form thus increasing the effort for the inverter to keep it up.
That was my thinking, but even at 1A it still fried the 400W. Why would it have a significant inrush?! Guess I’ll need to pick up a current sensor to confirm.
I know, definitely not my preference. I’ve been living off grid in a trailer for 7 months, relying on solar, but this summer heat is awful and I need something to power my AC.
I knew there was a difference in load types, but had no idea it could be 10:1. The DeWalt manual said 2-6x (and said it should reset if overdrawn, which was incorrect). If I were to buy/rent a 1500W generator, would the inverter on the generator also struggle?
As ndwr pointed out, are these pure sign wave inverters? Non sign wave inverters cause all kinds of problems.
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As for running air conditioning, I have the AC500 with six B300s batteries, running two window A/Cs in the daytime no problem, but at night just running one of them takes all my battery juice, (I’m also powering the fridge, modem, wifi, fans, and some lights.) I have to set the A/C timer to turn off around 5am. (LG 10,000 btu inverter A/C).
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Sounds like you might need more solar panels to get you through the day, and more battery power to get through the night. I’ve got about 1500W into each of the two AC500 inputs, plus some extra panels plugged directly into each battery. Things like refrigerators and air conditioning take a whole lot of power.
I used to have a Honda 2000i that would run a window A/C no problem. I’m from Gulf Coast hurricane country and was tired of the blackouts that always comes from hurricanes. The setup worked well except for having to refill with gas every several hours.
Thanks for all the input. I forgot the B300S has DC inputs with reasonably large ranges. Unfortunately I left all the cords I’m not using in storage, so I’ll need to find another.
I could hook the AC directly to a generator, but I’d prefer to be able to charge my whole system. Should a 2500W inverter generator work? I’d hate to fry it too (they really should come with over current protection…)
Hi @Bcmurphy21 , We have reported this issue to the engineers. Under normal circumstances, adjusting to a 1A input current should not be problematic. Can you confirm that you have correctly adjusted the current to 1A? Please make this adjustment in the Parameter Setting on the AC500 touchscreen.
I have attached a few screenshots for your reference.
Before adjusting the current and entering the password, please make sure your load can handle the updated current to avoid any safety hazards. Please be mindful of electrical safety.
I was able to change to 1A without using Advanced mode, and I can confirm it was at 7A when it damaged the 1000W continuous, 2000W max DeWalt inverter and at 1A with the 400W inverter.
Do I need to be in advanced to reduce? I thought that was only required to increase above 15A?
Okay, the AC500 is definitely pulling more power than it is set for, and setting it to 1A does nothing; it maintains the previous setting.
Tried it with an 1800 cont, 2500 peak pure sine inverter generator. Set the AC500 at 1A, and the app showed it drawing 357W…nearly 3x. It didn’t correct until I changed the setting to 2A, when it drew exactly 240W. However, changing back to 1A did not reduce the draw. Increased to 12A, all good. Dropped to 1A…still drawing 1.4kW.
Additionally, when a 1kW AC load kicked on, it tripped the generators overload protection.
Clearly there is an issue with my units power draw. Not sure if it’s unique to using an inverter; I won’t be back to a conventional grid for another few weeks.
hi
I have an ac500 with a b300s battery in South Africa.
I have attached 2 x Five Star 650w Mono Double Glass Bifacial Solar Panels in series to each of the DC1 and DC2 solar inputs.
How ever I am getting a max PV input of 640W from all 4 panels.
It appears I am restricted to 3A input from PV.
I have tried changing it to 10A but it refuses to do so.
Does anyone have any ideas what I can do to get the 1000W+ from my solar panels?
