question

renzer23 avatar image
renzer23 asked

Phoenix 12/800 Overload Issue Resolved

I have been using this unit since 2 months in my camper van and was very satisfied with it's delivery until the day my electrical skateboard's charger, once doing it's job, as in recharging the skateboard battery at 350w, would constantly trip on and off... headscratcher.

I first stripped down the manual and appart from the fact that the inverter was not grounded, it was the only thing I could think of.

Then I came here and found many posts with Phoenix (and other inverters) complaining of overload and shut downs being resolved because of one load being difficult with the inverter. Eg: Electric blanket, souldering iron, LED lights and did not find any post that covers issues with chargers.

Then I remembered that I did recently ad a new load to my van, an (el cheapo) 60w small fridge that I had to plug up to the inverter as I did not have a cigarette lighter plug with me at the time (3 weeks ago) and that indeed, my problems started at this very moment. I then unpluged the AC input from the inverter and voila, no more overloads.

Interesting isn't it?

The fridge was in a sort of conflict specifically with the skateboard charger, making the Phenix to trigger to Overload, when all the other loads worked fine with it, as in 120w laptop charger, phone charger, fan etc.

I'm glad that I somehow fixed that up myself by adding things together according to timing leading me to that new load (the fridge), elementary my dear Watson!

Perhaps one of our electricsl specialists will find this case somehow interesting and will bless us with some good old science so we go to bed smarter tonight?

Kind regards.

Renzer23

Phoenix Inverter
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3 Answers
wkirby avatar image
wkirby answered ·

This is the problem with reactive loads where the current and the Voltage are not in phase, also known as power factor.
A good old resistive load like a filament lamp or heater will have a power factor of 1, the current and Voltage are in phase.
Inductive loads like motors and capacitive loads like switch mode chargers cause a bad power factor which is less than 1. This is where a device that says it uses 100W the apparent power (what the inverter can see) is actually more.
Also, badly designed switch mode chargers with no power factor correction nor filtering will cause horrible harmonics which are more difficult for a small power source to deal with.
The transformer in your inverter is, of course, a lot smaller than the transformer in the substation at the end of your street.

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renzer23 avatar image
renzer23 answered ·

Hoyga boyga

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renzer23 avatar image
renzer23 answered ·

All about that darn reactive load, deemed to be featuring voltage and current being out of phase confusing the inverter, and yes that's correct, those 2 loads are both el cheapos. Thanks mate!

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