5 Comments

Mike, you missed a golden opportunity to complicate things by tossing in chargers. My understanding is converters and chargers serve the same purpose but are slightly different.

Expand full comment
author

That's Part 2 next week. Baby steps...

Expand full comment

not really the same purpose per se....while the inverter/converter (often a single integrated unit) does take 120vac / shore power and CONVERTS it to 12vdc (enable you to run 12vdc appliances; ie lighting & water pump) - they also perform an additional function by charging (and hopefully) intelligently maintaining (aka float) the house batteries.

Expand full comment

That’s what I meant. A converter is just a straight constant voltage source whereas a charger probably has different levels of voltage depending on where the battery is in its charging status. At least that’s the way I understand it.

Expand full comment
Dec 1, 2023·edited Dec 3, 2023

when it comes to 12vdc & 120vac RVs typically 3 devices - and often these 3 devices are integrated into a Single unit (if not 2 devices)....the 3 devices perform the following jobs....

1) INVERTER - this changes 12 Volt DC to 120 Volt AC (aka enabling the microwave to run off the 12 volt dc batteries)

2) CONVERTER - this changes 120 Volt AC to 12 Volt DC (aka enabling the 12vdc water pump and lighting to run off of 120vac/shore power)

3) CHARGER - this keeps the 12 Volt DC batteries charged.

Expand full comment