On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 15:40:01 -0800, Walt Bilofsky
wrote:

Has anyone had experience trying to drive a Xantrex inverter/charger
with a small gas generator?

The specs for the Xantrex Prosine 2.0 inverter/charger say that when
it's plugged into shorepower (or an external generator), it will
automatically reduce the charger load to keep the AC source voltage
above a minimum level.

If that's to be believed, I should be able to run a portable 1 KW
generator into the Xantrex, and have it draw as much current as the
generator can serve up, but not overload it. I should also be able to
have AC appliances running off the Xantrex, and still charge the
battery with any AC power left over.

Has anyone actually done that? Or had any experience with that kind
of setup?

- Walt Bilofsky

Read the manual for your inverter/charger CAREFULLY _before_ buying
the generator.

I have a TrueCharge 40 which a simple calculation says can be easily
driven by a 600 watt generator - so I bought a Honda 600W generator.
The charger trips the breaker on the generator every time I try it,
because that (and probably most similar chargers) have an awful power
factor - the charger actually draws about 8.5 amps at 120V, while the
40 amp at 12 (more like 14) volt output suggests that it should take
560 watts or 4.7 amps.

The TruCharge 40+ has no provision to limit the input current - don't
know about the ProSine.

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
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