Electrical Outlet Question

[NativeTexan]

I am definitely not an electrician, but are my electrical outlets supposed to run off the house battery? Unless I am plugged in to shore power or generator, none of my electrical outlets will work. If I pull over and dry camp, I cannot even charge my phone without running my generator. I have had a ton of electrical issues, beginning with a wiring harness falling behind the emergency brake when it was brand new (it never worked properly) and wouldn't charge the house battery. It was replaced by the dealer and ever since, my levelers, power steps, and tv think my ignition is on for about 15 minutes after I stop, so they won't work. The battery volume changes drastically with the use of the turn signal. The dealer said they may have hooked it up wrong, but the labor warranty is only 30 days... of course, I didn't use it for 30 days after they repaired it. Needless to say, I will not step foot in his door any more. But, the electrical issues have been so persistent and have lasted so long, I keep waiting for it to short out and go up in flames while I sleep.

Sorry, but should my electrical outlets be able to be used without the generator or shore power? I noticed someone else mentioned not to use the microwave off the house battery due to power draw... I don't have to worry about that, it also requires shore or generator power to even come on.

It is a 2016 Greyhawk.

[Shakedown St.]

No, outlets cannot be used unless plugged in or under genny power. All outlets are 110v, and are powered through your circuit panel while plugged in or under generator.

Your TV outlet can be powered by the inverter, though will drain your house battery fairly quick. We use our inverter to power the TV while on the road, so the engine is constantly charging the house battery.

Microwave and A/C is 110v, and will not operate unless plugged in or genny. Refrigerator is 110v or 12v/propane. Furnace, lights, levelers, slides, tankless WH and power steps are all 12v and run off of the house battery.

Hope this sheds a little light.

[RyRoRyan]

Do the Greyhawks microwaves run off the inverter? On the Seneca's, the inverter powers the microwave and the TV. Because of this, I know a few people have just added a power strip to the microwave outlet and ran it down and mounted it on the wall above the stove. This gives you a power strip that can be powered by the inverter to charge things like your cell phone, laptop. coffee maker etc.

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by RyRoRyan

Do the Greyhawks microwaves run off the inverter?

Not in my 2016. It's only a 1000 watt inverter. The 'wave is probably 1100 watts give or take.

Our inverter powered outlet is behind the TV, so we too added a power strip to supply nominal power to charge laptops, phones etc.

We also have an inverter that's plugged into the Ford dash. And that too recharges tablets, phones, runs small fans, etc.

[norty1]

All the inverters in the world will not solve the problem unless you have sufficient batteries to power the inverter and sufficient source such as a generator or solar to recharge and maintain your batteries.

Electricity does not come from the inverter changing 12vdc to 120v ac. A converter does not generate anything, it Converts 120v ac to 12v dc.

Without the input source, neither will work.

Many do not know the basic theory of electricity. If you don't, there is not way to manage your system.

We are so used to just plugging something in and it works and don't have a real understanding of where it comes from.

[Marcm157]

Originally Posted by norty1

All the inverters in the world will not solve the problem unless you have sufficient batteries to power the inverter and sufficient source such as a generator or solar to recharge and maintain your batteries.

Electricity does not come from the inverter changing 12vdc to 120v ac. A converter does not generate anything, it Converts 120v ac to 12v dc.

Without the input source, neither will work.

Many do not know the basic theory of electricity. If you don't, there is not way to manage your system.

We are so used to just plugging something in and it works and don't have a real understanding of where it comes from.

Agreed Norty - many RV owners don't understand the fact that there are 2 separate electrical systems that operate in their units. You see the terms inverter / converter often used interchangeably when in fact they are 2 different beasts. Unfortunately, this is one of the many things glossed over by sales / PDI personnel.

[Ruth]

Originally Posted by Marcm157

Agreed Norty - many RV owners don't understand the fact that there are 2 separate electrical systems that operate in their units. You see the terms inverter / converter often used interchangeably when in fact they are 2 different beasts. Unfortunately, this is one of the many things glossed over by sales / PDI personnel.

People also don't know that both generator and inverter ac is considered "dirty" power. They don't produce clean sine waves and some electronics are very sensitive to it.

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[JohnWedell]

Originally Posted by Ruth

People also don't know that both generator and inverter ac is considered "dirty" power. They don't produce clean sine waves and some electronics are very sensitive to it.

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There are generators and inverters capable of producing pure sine waves just like the power company.

[Ruth]

True but they tend to be expensive and Jayco might not use them.

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[Robbbyr]

Originally Posted by Ruth

True but they tend to be expensive and Jayco might not use them.

My Seneca has a Xantrex 1800-watt pure sine wave inverter and my Cummins/Onan QD 8000 generator is also advertised as a pure sine wave generator. So Jayco did use quality components in mine, but I certainly paid for it!

[Ruth]

Yes you did!!!

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[pconroy]

Originally Posted by norty1

Many do not know the basic theory of electricity. If you don't, there is not way to manage your system.

I completely agree - and I'm an engineer.


While I have a pretty good handle on Household 120V AC, the systems in our RV were puzzling me for an hour or so when we first got it. After you play with them awhile, you do learn how things are wired, but it's confusing for a newbie.

More so when you're not plugged in and one or two 120VAC outlets "work" while the others don't.

I get it now, but it does require some education to manage the electrical systems in an RV.

[t18skyguy]

Originally Posted by pconroy

Not in my 2016. It's only a 1000 watt inverter. The 'wave is probably 1100 watts give or take.

Our inverter powered outlet is behind the TV, so we too added a power strip to supply nominal power to charge laptops, phones etc.

We also have an inverter that's plugged into the Ford dash. And that too recharges tablets, phones, runs small fans, etc.

I'm still learning about my 2017. So the inverter powers only one outlet? PC you say yours is behind the t.v., would that be the same for all of them? I thought the inverter would power them all. How do you know which one the inverter serves? Sorry I am just learning the rig and am not an electrical guy.

[RyRoRyan]

Your generator will power ALL the outlets and just uses the gasoline/diesel to do it. The inverter is designed to invert the 12v from your house batteries to 120v AC. because your house batteries only have a limited amount of energy in them, its not practical to put a huge inverter in there to allow it to supply all of the outlets. If you were running your TV, your microwave, coffee maker, charging your phones and what not, you would kill your batteries in no time at all. Due to this, they design the whole thing based on how many amp hours you have available in your batteries...and supply an inverter rated for that. It would be stupid to put a large 10k W inverter in with just two batteries as it will kill those in minutes if you actually were able to use all that power at once. Your inverter is 1000W capable which is about 8.3 amps. Since the most "practical" (I will use that term loosely here) item to have running when boondocking is the TV, they made that outlet the one that works off battery.Your TV runs off about 2 amps so that give you about 6 or so to use off that outlet without overdoing the inverter. Since your microwave is prob close to 1200 watts, your inverter wont be able to supply enough power for it to run hence why it is not hooked up. The Seneca's get 4 batteries and therefor we get 1800 watt inverters, and because of this we get TV outlet and microwave outlet on the inverter.

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by t18skyguy

I'm still learning about my 2017. So the inverter powers only one outlet? PC you say yours is behind the t.v., would that be the same for all of them? I thought the inverter would power them all. How do you know which one the inverter serves? Sorry I am just learning the rig and am not an electrical guy.

No worries, I'm not an EE either but the electrical system in the RV confused me for a bit.

Yes - in my model, the inverter powers up only one outlet (from the battery) and its the one behind the TV. Might be a different outlet, or outlets, in your rig.

Then what's extra silly - is that the very same outlet is wired to shut down when the RV starts up. "They" don't want the driver to be distracted by a TV when in motion.

In a nutshell:
1. Plugged into Shore Power? Then all 120VAC outlets are on
2. Running the Generator? Then all 120VAC outlets are on
3. Unplugged and on 12V battery power? Then if you have an inverter only one (or a couple) outlets will be powered up

Remember "Converters" convert 120V AC to 12V DC
And your inverter turns 12V DC into 120V AC


As for finding that "inverter powered outlet", I'd suggest the 'hunt n' poke' method. Unplug, generator off, inverter on.

Then grab a small lamp and start testing the outlets.

[t18skyguy]

Thanks to all you guys for your great input. Yes PC I did as you advised and worked like a charm. On my 2017 31FS the inverter supplies all the outlets near all the T.V's. It has four T.V's; main one, two bunk ones, and one in the back in front of the queen. They each have two outlets and they are all active with the inverter on. We're never gonna use all those tv's. Even on shore power can you imagine what it would sound like with 4 tv's on at the same time? Thanks for the clarification.

[norty1]

How about the member that started this thread. Does he have any more questions?