Reminder: Check your AGS settings for hot weather ops

[Neal]

Pet or no pet, you may want your GEN to come on if you have a brown out or lose shore power so you don't return to a hot coach that will never catch up or have pets that you don't want to overheat. Here in VA where I am now it's crazy hot and humid. I'm on a one week escape in the RV so I remembered this morning to check my AGS to ensure it's setup to come on if shore power was lost, it was NOT set as I probably turned off the setting when I went for my recent annual service, but it's set now as I desire. In my case AGS AUTO and EXT INPUT set for the trigger.

 

[AbdRahim]

@Neal- which AGS do you have? Did Newmar install it or was it aftermarket? Dealer gave me resistance on this when I ordered my coach. It seems like it would save a lot of hours on the generator.

 

[sheridany]

In my case AGS AUTO and EXT INPUT set for the trigger.

what do you set the temp at turn on? where exactly is this ext input?

 

[Neal]

@Neal- which AGS do you have? Did Newmar install it or was it aftermarket? Dealer gave me resistance on this when I ordered my coach. It seems like it would save a lot of hours on the generator.

Magnum AGS with the Magnum 2812 Inverter and control head. I could not see NOT having AGS, it is a crucial part of the RV in my opinion. If batteries get low, if you lose shore power and need air conditioning, etc.

what do you set the temp at turn on? where exactly is this ext input?

AGS settings 04E - GEN RUN TEMP, set EXT INPUT means it will listen to your Dometic TSTAT and if it loses shore power then GEN provides power.

 

[AbdRahim]

Tnx Neal. I will have to find one that works with the Xantrex 2000.

 

[Neal]

Timely...just lost shore power and GEN did its thing and came on, AC is running again.

By the way, I highly recommend ops and confidence check this, don't just set it and hope it works. Setup your AGS then go out and turn the shore power breaker(s) off and see if your GEN starts. If it does then you're all set, if not then you have to review your settings until it's right. It's not hard but test it is my recommendation.

 

[jmltech]

@Neal - I thought you had posted/saved the Magnum owners manual on the forum somewhere. I thought I had downloaded it, but can’t find it. One of the problems with using an ipad is you never no where it is saving things!

 

[Neal]

@Neal - I thought you had posted/saved the Magnum owners manual on the forum somewhere. I thought I had downloaded it, but can’t find it. One of the problems with using an ipad is you never no where it is saving things!

If you hit the search button upper right and type in Magnum you'll find it. Here is the link:

Magnum Inverter Manual (2812)

Neal submitted a new resource: Magnum Inverter Manual (2812) - Magnum Inverter Manual Magnum Inverter Manual Read more about this resource...

rvforums.com

I highly recommend Dropbox and that's where I store everything in an organized manner, best of my ability. I use a Dropbox > RV > Manuals folder for my location for this.

 

[Akdare]

I’ve used Dropbox for years...I organize in the same way as @Neal

 

[Jim]

@Neal, do you and I have the same Magnum inverter?

I mistakenly thought that my generator would come on and keep the heat going on my rig. But the power went out, and -0- heat.

I got down there as soon as I could navigate down the mountain, but the damage was done. Hoping it's contained to the wet bay, but we'll have to wait for warmer weather to find out.

So I was trying to configure the AGS and it works fine, all except for when the power goes out. What I mean is, if I am not connected to shore power, the AGS works as expected. It will start up and run when it is necessary to adjust the coach to the warm/cool thermostat setting(s), and then it will shut off. It will also exercise itself according to what parameters you have set.

But if the rig is plugged into shore power, and said shore power goes out, the generator couldn't care less. This doesn't seem right to me and I'm not seeing where to configure it to do otherwise.

 

[Neal]

AGS can be set to come on with various parameters such as if the roof units need to come on or by voltage or state of charge (requires adding a ME-BMK which you could do while replacing batteries). If you have furnace on and diesel burner on you should be heating regardless of shore power. Furnace runs off of 12V not 120V.

 

[Jim]

AGS can be set to come on with various parameters such as if the roof units need to come on or by voltage or state of charge (requires adding a ME-BMK which you could do while replacing batteries). If you have furnace on and diesel burner on you should be heating regardless of shore power. Furnace runs off of 12V not 120V.

Yes, and that's how it's running now. But unfortunately, I had the roof units on so when the power went, so did the heat.

 

[Neal]

Keep in mind roof units (heat pump) only heat down to around 40F outside temps. Lower than that consider using furnace. The system should auto switch but if you don't have burner on it's moot.

 

[Neemer]

@Jim , this may not be related, but i discovered another way my AGS doesn’t work that surprised me. If you manually start the generator, the AGS defaults to “off”. I figured once set, it would stay set until i turned it off. Nope.

 

[Neal]

That is correct, if you initiate a GEN start you have to stop it before the system will control it again.

I also forgot to mention that at least on mine you also have to have the GEN "armed" in AUTO mode.

It's best to TEST your setup. Get things setup then go throw the breaker on the pedestal (shore power) and verify it works. You need to learn the system by putting it into these failure scenarios and watch it work.

 

[Jim]

@Jim , this may not be related, but i discovered another way my AGS doesn’t work that surprised me. If you manually start the generator, the AGS defaults to “off”. I figured once set, it would stay set until i turned it off. Nope.

Yes, I saw that as well, but didn't realize it until you make this post. I manually started the generator when I was storing my cleaning stuffs in front of it. I wanted to make sure that the air flow was not inhibited.

Then yesterday, when the generator didn't start during the storm, I noticed that the AGS was 'off'. I'm guessing that I should have gone back in and manually turned it back on. But it sure seems shortsighted for the Silverleaf to not return to the programmed default on its own.

 

[Jim]

Quick question. By default, I guess the air conditioners don't operate off the inverter?

 

[Jim]

Power was restored to the park yesterday, and that's where my coach is parked. So shore power has been running the systems and keeping the coach warm. About an hour ago, Duke Energy came out to fix the power at my house, and in doing so, they had to temporarily shut the power off to the park. So obviously, power to my coach ceased as well.

The Silverleaf saw that it was getting cold inside and turned on the generator to warm things up. But when the power returned about 20 minutes later, the generator continued to run. I would have thought that Silverleaf would have sensed that shore power had returned, and turned off the generator, but that didn't happen.

Am I missing a setting? Or is that just how it works? Or do I have a faulty transfer switch?

 

[Neal]

Quick question. By default, I guess the air conditioners don't operate off the inverter?

No. The way to learn this is go to the circuit breaker panel inside your coach, typically in the half bath. You will notice two groups of breakers. The ones on the left are from shore power, the ones on the right go through the inverter.

 

[Neemer]

Generator power has priority through the AGS. Your generator will continue to run until its your preset parameters are met.