Do you have a workable application for this? I have seen many people
cancel such projects once they came to the realization that the
required battery capacity is overwhelming. Unless your just day
sailing, typically you can only make 35% or less of your total battery
capacity available on a daily basis to meet all your DC needs,
typically any inverter use at high Ahr makes the batteries product
power at a low efficiency, and typically you can't even consider even
the briefest applications without 350++ Ahr of deep cell battery
capacity.

If you don't mind me asking, what will you be powering, for how long,
and with how much deep cycle battery capacity ? Type of battery?
How much of that battery capacity (in Ahr) will you make available to
the inverter between charges? Is this for daysailing, or multi-day
overnight situation? Is your battery normally kept topped off, if so
how (e.g. do you day sail and return to a dock each day, do you have a
lot of solar power to bring your batteris from 85% to 100% charge, you
plan to run your engine many extra hours to top off the batter ?)

Also, what type and length of boat ? Sailing or motor ?

If you plan to use the inverter only when running the engine at high
RPM, how many Amps is your alternator ?

Dan


wrote:
I have a 1200 watt nominal / 2400 watt peak, power inverter that I
would like to install about 12 feet from the battery that will power
it. My question is what gage wire will I need for a 14 foot run to the
inverter? The unit was supplied with 5 feet of 4 gage. Is 4 gage
really necessary, it seems like overkill to me? Thanks, Mike Howard