How to Link Two Inverters Together to Get 220V AC
By William Kinsey
Most power inverters are designed to convert 12-volt, 24-volt, or 48-volt DC to 120-volt AC. These inverters are commonly used in recreation vehicles and solar power systems. Special inverters can be connected together to produce 220-volts. This process is called stacking. This process cannot be used for any type of power inverter. The inverter has to be specifically designed to allow stacking. Using this process with an inverter that is not designed for stacking will destroy the power inverter.
Shut off power to both power inverters. Plug an electrical cord into each of the inverter outlets. You should have a three prong plug plugged into each outlet on both power inverters. The wire coming off of the plug should be long enough to reach the terminal block location.
Take the other end of the corded plug and strip 1/2-inch of insulation off of each of the three wires for each plug. These wires are usually black, white and green. The black wires are the hot wires; white wires are common wires; and green wires are ground wires.
Set up three separate terminal blocks. Three bus bars will also work too. Label each block or bus bar as hot, common and ground. Wire the black wire from inverter 1 to the hot terminal block. Then wire the white wire from inverter 2 to the common terminal block.
Connect the white wire of inverter 1 and the black wire of inverter 2 together and secure them with a plastic twist cap. Finally, connect all of the green wires to the ground terminal block.
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Writer Bio
William Kinsey lives in Concord, N.C. He started writing articles in March 2009, which have appeared on Autos.com and CarsDirect.com. He currently holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. He also has several years experience as an outside plant engineer and planner with AT&T. He also currently owns and operates Sophisticated Curves, an online fashion mall that caters to the needs of plus size women.