Power interruption to living room TV

[RockingRK]

Have experienced a recurring problem where the TV and refrigerator go offline. Both are connected to the inverter. Tripping and resetting the "Dishwasher" breaker was the fix. However, we don't have a dishwasher so that made no sense. Went trouble shooting and found an Intellitec Automatic Energy Select Switch connected to the unused dishwasher outlet (black wire from the switch in the attached picture) under the island. This is where a non-contact voltage tester is your best friend. Tripped the dishwasher breaker and found there was still power there and to the TV. Looked at inverter panel and found that the inverter was on battery even though shore power was still connected and powering all the other AC circuits. Shut off the inverter and voila, power to the switch, TV and refrigerator was off.

Conclusions:
1. I don't have a dishwasher and don't plan to install one, so the box is pointless.
2. The automatic switch is faulty and interrupting the power to the "primary" load (i.e. TV/refrigerator et al) even though there is no secondary load.
3. The dishwasher breaker does not disconnect the dishwasher outlet.
4. Appears that. if there were a dishwasher and the dishwasher created an overload, there is no circuit breaker protection to that outlet. The only protection is the inverter which is not designed to act as a circuit breaker. Why would you connect a dishwasher to the inverter??
5. Not a good design.

BTW, AC circuits are NOT color coded. They are all just white or black ROMEX.

I have disconnected the box, capped off the wire to the dishwasher outlet and connected the "primary" load to the line side coming from the breaker. As noted above, tripping the "Shore Power in to Inverter" breaker does not cut power to those white wires. It just shifts the inverter to battery and all the inverter outlets remain on.

Additional note:

I disconnected shore power completely and checked to see which outlets are on the inverter. Here is my list:

1. Refrigerator
2. Living room TV outlet
3. GFCI outlet on the island
4. Outlet on the dinette slide wall
5. ALL the AC outlets in the bedroom except washer and dryer

This becomes important when traveling because, they all represent "phantom loads" on the inverter when shore power is disconnected. TV's and satellite receivers plugged in to those outlets will draw power even when turned off. They need to be unplugged. Our experience is that the refrigerator can operate for more than 8 hours on the inverter if the other outlets are not drawing power (we have 2 Li-Ion batteries). With two TV's and two satellite receivers plugged in, the refrigerator lasts about 4 hours. I wouldn't believe that unless I saw it myself.

Disclaimer - I am not a licensed electrician (nor do I play one on TV). I do have a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering.

 

[Coltsdad]

I have been having the same problem with our rig. I have replaced the inverter under warranty and today I talked to Dennis at Progressive Dynamics about the problem. He has given me some home work to report back to him.

 

[Potica]

Potica​

I placed this question in the general thread first. Not realizing there were better places to do it. I found this and moved my question. The thread above that talks about some kind of a switch on the dishwasher outlet seems like a possible solution. I’ll give it a try. I don’t intend to ever install dishwasher either. BTW my rig is a 2022 370FB.

RV inverter, not on shore power, and batteries read 13.4 volts with multimeter. Reading directly on AC Out terminals ov inverter is 125 volts. Reading for circuit breaker for inverter in breaker/fuse box also measures 125 volts. According to Alliance RV only the residential refrigerator is connected to the inverter. However both TVs appear to be and at least one GFCI outlet on the kitchen island is also. That oulet does not hold reset nor does the light come on. Device itself functions normally when swapping it with another GFCI receptacle on another circuit. At a loss on how to systematically search from one device to another on the circuit the refrig is in to try and find where the trouble first shows up

 

[Mike in North Wales]

Just to clarify, the Intelllitec switch for the dishwasher is supposed switch power between the dishwasher and the fireplace. No other appliance, to my knowledge, should be on that switch. You should check the fireplace to see if it works with the 2nd line disconnected from the switch.

 

[Mike in North Wales]

Oh, and I have seen some posts about the inverter going into "sleep mode". Obviously, this isn't appropriate in all circumstances.