Dual Power Automatic Changeover Switch Review

This month I would like to review a very interesting, and if you use power from the main as well as a generator in your RV, useful gadget..

This little device was developed for those situation where you have the main power supply and a generator or a second source of power as back up, like hospitals for example..

On Gigi I have a similar situation where if the main power is available I can connect myself to it (like most caravan or RV), or I can simply use the generator to power those devices that cannot be used by being powered by the inverter…

Most system normally do include a main switch where the owner can manually decide for where to get the power.. It is a no brainer, and you can buy those 2 poles or three poles rotary switches for as little as $15 on eBay..

If you do make sure you ask for the BBM (Break Before Make) switches, as there are in the market the other kind MBB (Make Before Break) that look just the same, but if you use one in this situation your Generator will die, and you shall get also a nice fire.. You are dealing with 240 Volts here, so an electrician is a must if you are not qualify or don’t really understand the system..

I originally had a normal switch for my need, but because my system is located in the garage area, it didn’t really felt good to having to walk outside and up the ladder every single time I needed to change power source.. The game got old pretty quickly especially in the rain, so last month I went ahead and start to look for an automatic switch..

At first, I got a bit of a shock as the first few ones that I looked up where from electrical retailer and hovering from $150 to $500 for the most complex one.. They do come in 2 3 4 5 and 6 poles and range from 30 Amp to 400 or more Amps, and that also does push the price up obviously.. In my case, all I wanted was a simple 2 pole, so once again eBay provided a nice solution..

The picture above is of the 2 Pole 63 Amp Automatic Changeover Switch.. As usual, I’m only providing a link, feel free to shop around for a better price..

The concept of this device is quite simple.. It replaces the manual switch with an electrical one and it does sense where there is power and it gives priority to one inlet. That’s just perfect! Now before we get to the installation I would like to point out that this model it is a BBM, so it does comply with AUS/NZ standard. Also on the website it mention a “conversion time of 2 seconds”. That is simply a bad translation to Chinglish in the manual. It is not a conversion but a switch mode and it only takes much less than half a second to go from one source to the other..

By looking at the picture you can see the two labels “N” and “R”. Some other models that I have seen did have “M” and “B”. They both mean the same thing:

The left side is your main source of power (that also has the priority) label N (normal) or M (main) and the right side is your emergency power label R or B (backup).. The connection is extremely simple but once again, it is a qualify electrician job..

As you can see, it doesn’t get much easier than this.. Again the switch has the number 1 at the top for the Live and an N for the neutral, where on the exit at the bottom it has a 2 for Live and again the N for the neutral.. There is also a little handy switch to operate the unit manually if you with.. Two tiny LED will also confirm where the power is coming from, then again the big blue lever will be also pointing to the power source, making the LED redundant..

In my case I also have the Inverter powering the 240 Volts, so I used the Main and/or Generator to the common and Inverter to the Emergency. In this way what ever I get my power from the auto switch will do its job. Remember when power is detected on the Common inlet it will prevail over the Emergency inlet, as it should, so you don’t have to worry about frying the Inverter…

Built in China, it does feel a bit cheap to the touch. The question will be to see how long the electric motor will last but so far, for the original $40 spent, I can’t honestly complain. It works and it is fast..