We have a 1KW inverter and it suns everything we need. THe microwave is
the biggest load.

Doug

"Skip Gundlach" skipgundlach sez use my name at earthlink dot fishcatcher
(net) - with apologies for the spamtrap wrote in message
...
Hi, Larry, and thanks for the thought provoking, left below for reference.

However, one snippet which I don't understand - can you elaborate?

I doubt many here will be powering the shore power throughout the boat
with
the battery killing inverter, don't you?.....

Battery killing inverter? Most of what I read these days suggests a
static
load of well under an amp, some are milliamps. Running any electrical
device will kill a battery eventually if it's not got the power replaced
(which we expect to do in spades, or, as you've noted, our own power
company
should be able to cope with extended periods of no-replacement) - how's
this
different?

We have yet to decide about the capacity of the inverter we'll use.
Likely
the mikey or coffeemaker will be the biggest draw; I assume that will want
something on the order of 1500w. I have a 1/3hp grinder/polisher and a
skilsaw which might also have a pretty good startup load, so I'm thinking
of
2kw as my "solution" to house power.

As we next to never expect to be at shorepower except during haulouts (and
even then, should have no particular need, with our solar and wind), we'll
want to make our various outlets be both - inverter and shorepower.

As we don't yet know how we'll use the computer and entertainment stuff,
we
assume we'll want to have our outlets available everywhere they are now,
as
well as some other places I'll install in the next few weeks. None of
those
loads are very big, of course, but running drop cords isn't my ideal power
solution, even if they are in raceways. So, back to the question of
central
power (and switchability for shore power/house power) and what to do...

L8R

Skip and Lydia, inching toward completion

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...

Why can't we just plug the loads into it? Plug the boat into it, if you
like....just like the dock. Of course, you'd should install a transfer
switch to keep you from feeding the dock into it, or any other inverter
that doesn't have one.

Most things on Lionheart run on DC. A couple of things that don't are
the
little microwave oven we paid $15 (new!) for and the laptop power supply
and printer power supply for WEFAX charts at sea. For those, we have a
1KW
Radio Shack inverter mounted right next to the battery switches inside
the
engine compartment over the monsters to keep the inverter fan noise out
of
the boat and the big cables to it to a minimum length. A length of #14
drop cord snakes its way through to overstuffed wireways to the nav
station
where I installed a 115VAC standard 6-outlet power strip to plug the
various computer loads into it. A second custom drop cord runs from the
inverter to a dual outlet in a handibox behind the microwave in the
galley.

I also ran a control cable from the power switch inside the inverter over
to a microswitch mounted on a neat little plate in a hole at the nav
station used by the former owner for something that needed filling. This
gives the inverter remote control to switch it on and off. A
panel-mounted
neon indicator connected to the 120VAC in the nav station power strip
lets
me know the inverter is on and, in fact, producing 120VAC power. When
the
microwave is running, my DC clamp-on ammeter shows it drawing about 33A
at
13.8VDC to heat dinner. Even at the dock, the microwave runs off the
inverter. We plug the computer stuff into a shore-power outlet by the
inverter's power strip.

I doubt many here will be powering the shore power throughout the boat
with
the battery killing inverter, don't you?.....

3KW is way overkill because the boats can't provide DC to 3KW for very
long....