Xantrex Technology RV2012 - Manual (Page 13)

Xantrex RV Series Inverter/Charger Owner’s Manual
8
Stage Three: Float Voltage
The purpose of stage three is to maintain the batteries at a voltage that will hold full charge but not
gas the batteries. The charger remains in the float stage until the AC input is removed. During this
stage the status LED will show fast flashing green (four times per second).
Note: When DC loads are placed on the battery, the charger will deliver currents up to the
Maximum Charge Rate setting while maintaining the float voltage.
Battery Charger Controls and LED
Indicator
A three-color LED reports on the activity of the battery charger. The optional RC7 remote allows
custom control over the charger section of the inverter, including battery type.
Charger LED
The LED indicates charge status as follows:
• Solid Green: this indicates that the unit is inverting
• Slow flashing Green: Search Mode
• Solid Orange: this indicates that the charger is in the bulk-charging mode.
• Blinking Orange: this indicates that the charger is in the absorption stage.
• Fast Flashing Green (four times per second): Float charge mode
• Solid Red: Over current
• Flashing Red: An error has occurred. The number of flashes before a five-second rest
period indicates one of the error conditions listed below.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 or more
Low battery
voltage High battery
voltage Inverter
over temp Charger fault PV controller
fault Generator
start fault Consult
Xantrex
support
Generator Requirements
The maximum charge rate of the battery charger is dependent upon the peak AC voltage
available. Because this type of battery charger uses only the peak part of the input sine wave,
small variations in peak voltage result in large variations in the amount of energy available to the
charger. The charger’s output is rated on the basis of typical public power input, which has a peak
voltage of approximately 164 V.
It takes a powerful AC generator set to maintain the full 164-volt peak while delivering the current
necessary to operate the charger at its maximum rate (typically 5 kW for 2500-watt models and
2.5 kW for 1500-watt models). Smaller generators will have the tops of their waveform clipped
under such loads. Running at these reduced peak voltages will not harm the charger, but it will
limit the maximum charge rate. Large auxiliary AC loads may exacerbate this problem. See the
appendix for specific generator types and peak voltage vs. maximum charge amps information.