Electrical Conundrum

[TheIronWolf]

Installed Inverter this weekend... everything is working fine, but when I turn OFF the inverter and then turn OFF main battery switch (installed on the positive cable) the main lights in the trailer dim to off in about 2 sec. Almost seems like current being discharged from some storage device. After about a min the CO2 sensor audio alarm turns ON and continues to beep until I restore the battery power back.... very strange. It was late so I did not measured Voltage to the CO2 alarm after the battery disconnected (via the main switch).

Any ideas whats going on...?

Here is a basic power plan for the fifth wheel.

[WinnieView]

Should the main battery switch be installed on the negative cable?

[Jagiven]

My CO/gas detector will start to beep for a bit, when I disconnect the battery. I think that is normal.

My guess, your inverter has a decent size capacitor in it, and you are de-energizing it for a moment. I bet RobRoy, will will chime in and give us the details.

My inverter is still sitting in the box. That reminds me to get the wiring plan finished.

[RKusina]

From my experience with a travel trailers, The co2 alarm will sound if it loses power. This is to alert you in case you are sleeping. Since you are essentially cutting power to the alarm, it seems to be normal.

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[Mustang65]

What is the mfr/model of your inverter?

Don


My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[TheIronWolf]

AIMS Power PICOGLF40W12V120V

Interestingly if I disconnect positive wire from the Co2 sensor it will chirp and die .... if I disconect battery positive it will stay in audio alarm mode for who knows how long .... I was thinking the same thing, that most likely inverter has capacitor that holds charge and when battery is disconnected it back feeds power to the RV.

[PlayersZ28]

Easy to test if it's the inverter, just unhook the fuse you have in the 12v feed to it and do the same procedure that causes the extended chirping.

[TheIronWolf]

Tested...by disconnecting the inverted fuse. The voltage in RV dropped from 15.7 V to 1.2 within 2 sec. Then continued to drop at much slower paste.

The Co2 detector beeped and faded to silent right away...

P.S.: I am such a bozo not thinking to test this way before... Thanks you all who offered ideas and suggestions...

Now on to dream about 4 x 6V batteries and solar panels...
Meanwhile my girl can make coffee (yes, we use electric coffee maker) first thing in the morning without making me to get out of the bed to start the generator.

[TheIronWolf]

Originally Posted by Jagiven

My CO/gas detector will start to beep for a bit, when I disconnect the battery. I think that is normal.

My guess, your inverter has a decent size capacitor in it, and you are de-energizing it for a moment. I bet RobRoy, will will chime in and give us the details.

My inverter is still sitting in the box. That reminds me to get the wiring plan finished.

The installation took me like 2 days...holding drink in one hand slowed me down a bit. So after crawling on the floor, drilling, pulling wires and bruising my arms that it looked like I got beat with a broomstick I was done... the inverted works like a champ...