Hello,
I’ve seen a handful of people on here or in other parts of the web using inverters connected to their car battery and then plugging in the AC adapter to charger their Buetti’s. I just did a wiring install for the same purpose - installing a 500w Victron Phoenix inverter into my van (to combine with my 400w of solar).
The install went great and the Victron is reading proper voltage coming into it and I tested it with a small space heater and getting proper output with it.
However, when I plug in the T500 AC adapter into it and then plug that into my AC200P - the output wattage surges past the inverters peak rating of 900 watts and trips the inverter.
I don’t see this being an issue with the inverter as the voltage ratings on it remain constant - it’s like the ac adapter is pushing higher than its specs show on the label. Is this normal?
Anyone on here have any suggestions or what may be happening? I looked online for the T400 adapter to get my hands on one and see if that would help but they seem to be out of stock everywhere. I also saw a 3rd party 300w ac adapter but that makes me a little nervous. I really don’t want to push my vehicles alternator too much by installing a 1000w inverter to be able to handle something that supposed to work around 500w but maybe thats my only solution? I watched a video of someone using a different brand 500w inverter with this setup and had no issues.
Thanks for any tips!
My suggestion would be to install an inverter sized correctly to the load it will run. I would suggest the Victron 1200 watt phoenix. I do not feel comfortable running any inverter for an extended period (charging) that is not less than twice the capacity of the load. The inverter will not pull any more amps than the load that it is presented with. (the 1200 watt model will not use more power (roughly speaking) running the charging brick than your 500 watt inverter will.
The T500 AC adapter has bad in rush current limiting and No PFC.
Your Inverter has VA limit but but the since the T500 has no PFC its VA input is way higher then then W output.
Not only is the Current and voltage not in phase it also has a Distorted current waveform pulling all its current in small part of die sine wave.
So while RMS current (VA) might be within the limit of your inverter Peak VA is not.
I would suggest you get a DC/DC to charge your bluetti from your car. ts way more efficient anyway.
Thanks for the response. I was worried that jumping up to the 1200 would be too taxing on the stock alternator of my Ram Promaster. In haste I ordered the 800w Victron and will test that out tomorrow when it arrives and will probably abandon the idea if I have to jump up to the 1200 - cost of that unit plus potentially a high output alternator don’t outweigh the benefit (yet).
Though, that’s helpful info knowing the inverter will not pull more amps than the load.
Thanks!
@bernad Thanks for the reply. Based on some comments on this forum and learning more about the AC200 - DC/DC charging would only be useful if I did not have solar already coming into the system. My hope is to supplement the solar, not replace it. I suppose I could unplug the solar and plug in dc/dc source if there is little to no sun out, but I wanted a solution that doesn’t require much thought from the person operating the van (we rent it out time to time).
I do have the DC enhancer charger but my understanding is it cannot output much more than 100w or so from a DC source (we have done the cigarette port option occasionally).
Are you aware of the D050S?
You can also easily feed some extra DC power from your car into the Solar input (as long as it not maxed out with solar input power) with a DCDC converter and diodes.
just need a DCDC step up with current and voltage limit.
or buy the D050S?
or get way bigger inverter. just having a bigger inverter will not overload your alternator. its only if you use that power for long time… but tats what fuses are for.
@bernad Yup, I have the D050S but thought it caps out around 100w going from a DC source to the ac200p?
That’s intriguing feeding more power from a DC source into the solar input. I’ve not seen that done - do you have any examples of how to combine the two? Might be a little over my head but that sounds like a good way to go about it. I don’t believe I’m over voltage with solar right now but I’ll have to double check - I can’t remember off the top of my head what my panels are rated at when at full load.
i thought 1000W?
The 1200 watt unit will not draw any more power ( broadly speaking) than the 500 watt unit when loaded with a 500 watt load. You are simply not stressing the unit as much by running it at 1/2 capacity.
Please be warned that both statements @bernad is making here are false. The picture he refers to just generic illustration.
I’ve specifically measured PF of T500 that is charging at 450W today. Measured Pf=0.99, so it obviously have PVC.
False:
False:
- no, it is not. The only case when VA input is way higher then then W output is in idle state.