Converter wiring: Need help

[Loon]

I'm wiring my new fish house with a Suburban forced-air furnace and an InteliPower converter based on recommendations made on this forum...

What are the benefits of using a converter?

Do I wire two sets of lights? One set for 12v while using the battery and another set for 110 while using the generator?

Or are they all tied together and the converter takes care of it?

I'm confused.

I understand the generator powers the converter and the converter charges the battery while giving you "unlimited" 12v power. Like an unbelievable battery.

I just don't understand how the 110 outlets on the wall get powered by the converter.

Is the only benefit to a converter the charging aspect? If so, why not just pack a battery charger and run that off the generator to top off the battery while you watch a movie.

Again...very confused, but also know that I bought the converter for a reason: you guys say it's a must.

Why is it a must?

[Big Buck Buster]

Are you having second thoughts on purchasing it?

The big plus to using this unit is for surge protection. If you run your heater while using a battery charger, you have a good chance of blowing out the furnace electronics with a surge from the battery charger.

[Loon]

Already purchased but not yet installed...

Just looking for tips to maximize useage.

[pike doctor]

I have a gen and 110 outlets. Now I know very little about electricity, but my brother wired the house for me. Here is how mine works.

I have two batteries in the fishouse that run the forced air furnace and all of my lights. All of my lights are 12V LEDs. When my batteries start to get low I just fire up the generator and and plug it into the house. It charges the batteries, runs the lights/furnace, and if I want to use 110 i can do that all at the same time. The way i understand it is there is no need to have the 110 lights. Get some LEDs. They are extremely bright and draw little 12V power compared to a conventional light.

The power from the generator comes into the fishouse as 110 and goes to an inverter or converter or whatever you call it and does its thing. When I get home I can take an extension chord and run it from the garage to the outside plug in and that will charge my batteries for me next time I want to go fishing. When the batteries are fully charged the inverter/converter stops from overcharging.

Hope this helps.

Like I said I dont know a thing about electricity.

[cold one sd]

One reason I use a direct vent heater and computer fans is that I have no electronic circuit packs to worry about damaging with a surge. I use an onboard charger and fire up my generator when I want to give the batteries a charge. I have all 12v lights and a 12v outlet to charge a cell phone or whatever. One reason I did it this way was to stay away from a furnace that won't work if the voltage gets low. I usually charge my batteries in the evening when it gets dark enough to need lights inside my wheelhouse. This way my batteries ard charged for the night. In the morning I will run the generator while i'm using the coffee maker and the batteries get a bit of a charge then also. I also get away with using a couple of small 30A batteries to keep the weight down in the wheelhouse. My batteries are set up so I can add or change batteries by unplugging them and plugging others in. I have ten spare batteries if I want to add some to the harness, but two with an occasional charge seem to work fine. The way my house is wired, I can add six more computer fans if I would have a reason to want more, but two seem to work well for me. Maybe I just have a different way of doing things.

[slammer]

Can you guys get any pics of your wiring hookups?

[ben karas]

in my shack iv'e got a couple of gel batteries out of a freightliner, works great. the inverter keeps batteries charged well, 3 double lights directly off batteries and atwood duraflame furnace w/3 vents keeping the floor dry. furnace directly off batterys, not inverter(mfg recommends not my idea. honda generator 2000's manual recommends not running a charger off of it ever! less of a hassel with the inverter! run 12v appliances off battery when not plugged in and when plugged in to 120v run off of 120/12v and battery charges!