Anyone using an inverter instead of a generator? What has been your experience?
How big is it and is it doing what you expected?

"Listen to the live broadcast of 'Nautical Talk Radio' with Captain Lou every
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www.959watd.com or if you are in Boston or Cape Cod set your radio dial to
95.9FM.

I have both inverter and generator.. The gen set is a pain in the a$$..
Noisy, etc.

My inverter is 2000 watt with 110 amp charger.. The battery bank is about
800 ah. (4 ea. Trojan L16s).

So far I have been very happy with the inverter, but just yesterday, I
noticed the microwave seems to be acting up while operating on the inverter.

Oh yah! another problem was with the recharger for the batteries for my
portable drill.. I left a battery on charge for about an hour while
operating on the inverter.. This small charger started over heating.. Never
happened before while on shore power or gen set.

Most be something to do with the square wave of the inverter. So I'm told.

My inverter also has a load sense setting that keeps it in standby until as
preset load level is reached. Or it can be set a '0' and it stays on all the
time.

Otherwise, I prefer the inverter..

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Capt Lou wrote:

Anyone using an inverter instead of a generator? ....

We're just getting back to sailing but have used a small inverter to
power a laptop and other low-power appliances in our motor home for
years. Works great within its (and our batteries') limitations but I
always fire off the Onan to run the AC, coffee pot and microwave. Plan
to do the same in the boat.
Regards
Howard

On Fri, 18 Jul 2003 10:24:24 -0700, "David Oswald"
wrote:
Unless you have a lot of battery capacity, your inverter will pretty much be
limited to supplying power to small loads. If you've got a couple of Group
27's, for example, pair them up with a 300w inverter that will power your
laptop, your blender, and the electric drill.

Larger capacity battery banks can effectively supply power to larger
inverters. But consider the load you're putting on the batteries. If
you've got a 1500W inverter, and you're running full capacity through it,
you're drawing your batteries down at a rate of nearly 140 Amps (assuming
90% efficiency). You would completely depleat (and destroy) a pair of
Group27 batteries in about 90 minutes. ...probably sooner actually since
they're really not designed to supply that kind of load over a sustained
period.

Even a larger battery bank of 450AH is only going to last about 1.5 hours at
full inverter load (with a 1500W inverter) before it's at 50% charge state,
which is as low as you should take it.

Inverters are useful for low consumption long term loads (such as a
notebook), or for moderate consumption brief loads (such as a drill or
blender). If your battery bank is large enough, inverters are even ok for
high-load short-term use (such as a microwave).

But if you need prolonged power, such as supplying power to an electric
heater, electric cook-top, full-size TV, DVD and Stereo, or an Air
Conditioner, you're going to have to run a generator.
================================================== ====

All of that is true but there are many uses for a high wattage
inverter never the less. A microwave oven, blender, vacuum cleaner,
one burner stove top, are all uses that my 440 amp-hour battery bank
cheerfully supply power to over periods of 3 to 15 minutes. I've even
been known to turn on the hot water heater for 15 or 20 minutes if I
want an eary morning shower with out running the generator. The
secret is to monitor your batteries, not draw them down to less than
50% of capacity, and recharge promptly with the generator when
convenient. Large battery capacity is key, as well as properly sized
cables between battery bank and inverter.

In my view the best use of a high power inverter is as a supplement to
the generator, not as a replacement.