Inverter stays on after RV unplugged

Maybe this is common knowledge but was a surprise to me. When I plug in the RV the inverter is on..no problem with that. But when you unplug the RV the inverter stays on, adding a power drain to the batteries. You have to manually shut it off each time.

I had seen the battery voltage display but thought that was it, just the display was on, not that the inverter itself was on... until one night I noticed that the TV power light was on.

This is different from my previous RV where you had to turn the inverter on and off manually, so caught me by surprise.

I have the pure sine wave inverter and the battery monitor shows a 4.4 Amp draw for the inverter while it is on.

Ours doesn't stay on. We have to manually turn it on and turn it off. We have a 2013 2552. Perhaps it's the pure sine wave inverter (which we wish we had but didn't know to ask for it).

Hi gandalf42,

What you have there is normal.

Our PC is older with a Tripp-Lite inverter.  I keep it off all the time except when plugged in or when we want 110V while not plugged in.  When on battery power and our Tripp-Lite is on doing nothing except providing power to the 110v outlets, it draws 12 amp hours.  3 days of that alone will drain the batteries significantly.

Ron,
I also have the pure sine wave model.  What Gandalf means is that if you turn OFF the inverter then plug into shore power the inverter automatically turns on.  And when shore power is removed the inverter stays ON, whether you want it to or not.   

You are correct that the inverter alone will drain the batteries even if nothing else is running.   I practically drained my batteries the first week home because I made the assumption that when I turned the inverter off it would stay off.  But it doesn't, if you plug into shore power even for a minute the inverter is back on.

I have not looked in the manual but maybe there is a setting that will change this behavior.  I would prefer the switch control the behavior, it is too easy to forget to check it after every stop.

Ron,
I also have the pure sine wave model.  What Gandalf means is that if you turn OFF the inverter then plug into shore power the inverter automatically turns on.  And when shore power is removed the inverter stays ON, whether you want it to or not.  

You are correct that the inverter alone will drain the batteries even if nothing else is running.   I practically drained my batteries the first week home because I made the assumption that when I turned the inverter off it would stay off.  But it doesn't, if you plug into shore power even for a minute the inverter is back on.

I have not looked in the manual but maybe there is a setting that will change this behavior.  I would prefer the switch control the behavior, it is too easy to forget to check it after every stop.

Ah, that is different from mine.  My stays off when I flip the switch to "off".

My original factory setup was different from my setup today.  Phoenix utilized a control line that I unplugged to manually control the inverter via the control panel.  I wrote a post about it HERE.  Phoenix set mine up with the assumption the owner would either be driving the rig or plugged in.....not boon-docking for days at a time.

Hopefully you will find a way to disable the auto-on feature with your particular inverter.

Maybe this is common knowledge but was a surprise to me. When I plug in the RV the inverter is on..no problem with that. But when you unplug the RV the inverter stays on, adding a power drain to the batteries. You have to manually shut it off each time.

I had seen the battery voltage display but thought that was it, just the display was on, not that the inverter itself was on... until one night I noticed that the TV power light was on.

This is different from my previous RV where you had to turn the inverter on and off manually, so caught me by surprise.

I have the pure sine wave inverter and the battery monitor shows a 4.4 Amp draw for the inverter while it is on.

I would check with Kermit.  On the square wave inverters, if off, they do NOT come on with either generator or shore power.  If on, they will stay on, if off, they will stay off.  It sounds to me Iike something is mis-wired.   You could also call the inverter manufacturer to ask if that's normal behavior or not.

In either event, they should not draw 50 watts (4.4amps @12v) when nothing is turned on.  If my memory is correct, you wanted more outlets added to the inverter line than normal.... If so, what is plugged into those outlets?

I would check with Kermit.  On the square wave inverters, if off, they do NOT come on with either generator or shore power.  If on, they will stay on, if off, they will stay off.  It sounds to me Iike something is mis-wired.   You could also call the inverter manufacturer to ask if that's normal behavior or not.

In either event, they should not draw 50 watts (4.4amps @12v) when nothing is turned on.  If my memory is correct, you wanted more outlets added to the inverter line than normal.... If so, what is plugged into those outlets?

Actually I hope to ask Kermit as he is supposed to be at the rally next week. Apparently, as confirmed by another, this is happening with the pure sine wave inverter and not with the modified sine wave inverters.

Re. the 50W: that was the measurement of current draw by the battery monitor with everything else off (all lights off) and nothing plugged in. Now of course the TVs have their instant on power draw and perhaps some of the rest of the audio-visual system as well but these are wired to draw current and so the amp draw reflects what is being drawn when the inverter is on in the static state even if all of the draw is not by the inverter. It is given so folks are aware of the battery power they are using when the inverter is on and just sitting there and  "not being used."

What does the battery monitor read after you turn the inverter off?

The TV, Audio Amp, BluRay when "off" but powered should total less than 10 watts or a bit less than 1 amp draw on the batteries.

I just looked at the Prosine 1800 inverter manual.  Even if ON, with powersave also on, it should only draw 1.5 WATTS.  With powersave off, max draw when no load is attached is 22 Watts.

Presuming a transfer switch is used, that goes on the output of the inverter so if you are hooked to shore power or generator power, the transfer switch completely disconnects the inverter output...so it doesn't matter if the inverter is turned on or off.  Thus, no need for anything to turn the inverter on.

The installation instructions as far as wiring goes is identical to the square wave inverter.

Now... that presums that PC installed a  Xantrex Prosine inverter

The inverter installed on my rig is the Xantrex Freedom Xi 2000.  Per the manual it will draw .6 amps in standby.  However, my EMS reports significantly more than that being used.  About 3.5 amps but of course there is some load involved which I need to track down.

The issue is that the inverter always turns on when shore power is connected.  So if you (for example) run the generator to exercise it, then shut down and walk away, the inverter remains on, unless you turn it off.  And will drain the battery.

There is an ignition lock-out feature mentioned in the manual but since the inverter is under the bed I cannot access it right now to check that the jumper setting.  Sounds vaguely like this might affect the issue, but the manual is not really clear on what this feature does.

The ignition lockout sets whether the ignition must be on for the inverter to work.   You want that disabled otherwise you'd have to turn the ignition on before the inverter will work.

Shore power goes thru the xi2000 as the transfer switch is part of the inverter.   Thus, it turns the inverter on so that if shore power is lost, the inverter will immediately take the load.

Since the pure sine wave inverters are used with sensitive electronic equipment, they need to swith power source within a few cycles of the AC wave without spikes or total dropouts.

It's the equivalent of an Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS) which the square wave is not.

The turn on with shore power is designed in.

Shore power goes thru the xi2000 as the transfer switch is part of the inverter.   Thus, it turns the inverter on so that if shore power is lost, the inverter will immediately take the load.

Since the pure sine wave inverters are used with sensitive electronic equipment, they need to swith power source within a few cycles of the AC wave without spikes or total dropouts.

It's the equivalent of an Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS) which the square wave is not.

The turn on with shore power is designed in.

Curious what you are basing this statement on. I doubt all pure sine wave inverters are built to act as a UPS.

We asked Kermit if he knew why the inverter stayed on and he was surprised it did but said he didn't know why.