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Want to replace with a 2500- 3000 watt inverter Xantrex/freedom or much higher as I bring on 2 more 160 watt solar panels, to bring me up to 500 watts 1. Need to check out the room available for the existing Freedom and what can fit there.
If you tell us a bit more about what you are trying to achieve, or do with your system, it would help us help you with this..
The question I have is why do you believe you need such a large inverter? An inverter even approaching 2500W-3000W will need to be mounted as close to the batteries as is humanly possible, within 2'-4' of MAXIMUM total DC circuit pos & neg wiring, to ensure the wire can handle the load without excessive voltage drop.
At face value an inverter of this size can easily draw in excess of 310A and that's not accounting for any surge or in-rush that can easily put a short term draw over 400A. An inverter of this size would ideally need a battery bank in excess of 1000Ah and preferably low Peukert AGM or TPPL AGM to minimize battery voltage sag. You'll also need to get this energy back into the bank.
The best choice cost wise would be to get a separate Inverter .. 21lbs for 10,000 watt (900 bucks) and a separate charger, auto transfer switch.
I have customers who go around the world without any inverter let alone 2500-3000W. A10,000W inverter would need a battery bank suitable for powering an entire house for off-grid living....
I have one customer with a 600Ah bank of flooded deep cycle batteries who self-installed a 3000W inverter because he wanted to run his microwave, have his wife dry her hair, heat hot water and use his electric stove top too. He never called me or asked about this install until he began complaining that his new inverter charger was defective because it kept shutting off. It was shutting down because he failed to do the math and size the system correctly.
- He had undersized the wire at 2/0 for a 3kW inverter
- His wire run between bank and inverter was too long
- He had the wrong type battery bank (extreme thick plate deep-cycle flooded)
- The battery bank was simply too small due to plate design
- The parasitic draw of the inverter was close to 2A
- Between wiring voltage drop & battery bank voltage sag the inverter would tap out on low voltage in under 2 minutes use.
- He had a stock alternator, only capable of about 30A, so what he took out he had no chance of getting it back in.
- The Peukert of his bank made the inverter load to the batteries massive and reduced usable capacity immensely.....
My point here is you need to do the math and fully understand it. Any large inverter needs to be installed as a
system.
Safe Inverters for Marine Use:
The only inverter you want to purchase, for safety reasons, is a "UL 458 / SA marine inverter/charger" from a
legitimate supplier of
marine inverters. Magnum Energy, Victron & would be the
most reliable choices. Do yourself a favor and google X@ntrex and key words
reliability &
customer service before you buy!
Again, you only want to install a UL-458 marine inverter or marine inverter/charger, especially if it will be directly connected to your vessels AC system. Any installed marine inverter or inverter/charger should meet UL458 and ideally UL-458
SA. "
SA" is the marine supplemental portion of UL-458. I know of no stand alone marine inverters that meet UL-458-SA.
The 10 kW inverter you reference, based on description, I suspect is not a marine unit and most of these stand alone units are not intended for marine use. Most stand alone units will have a floating ground when operational. A floating ground, when the inverter is operational, does not comply with US marine safety standards. You would need to wire in a rotary transfer switch, such as a Blue Sea/Kraus and Naimer to make this work and now you've added another $300.00 +/-. Also neutral to ground bonding of a floating ground/floating neutral inverter may void any warranty. You'll need to understand how to wire one of these switches, and the inverter, for proper neutral/Earth bonding for shore and inverter.
It goes without saying that any 3 kW to 10 kW inverter will eat your bank for breakfast and still be hungry.......
However means more wiring, work eating up any savings although a better solution if I can fit a charger/or inverter and transfer switch in stern Gen area..
Viper
There's not much you can't do on 12V these days.. The best plan is to minimize all 120V loads so you can get by with an under 2kW inverter/charger.
IMPORTANT:
If you're attempting to wire an inverter
into your vessels AC system..
WHEN UNPLUGGED FROM SHORE POWER:
WHEN UNPLUGGED FROM SHORE POWER, AND USING THE INVERTER, THERE MUST BE AN AC NEUTRAL/GROUND CONNECTION/BOND ON-BOARD THE VESSEL
WHEN PLUGGED INTO SHORE POWER:
WHEN PLUGGED INTO SHORE POWER THERE CAN NOT BE ANY ON-BOARD AC NEUTRAL/GROUND CONNECTION/BOND ON-BOARD THE VESSEL
AC SOURCES: (Inverter, Generator or Shore Power)
YOU CAN NEVER HAVE MORE THAN ONE AC SOURCE CAPABLE OF FEEDING THE AC PANEL AT ANY TIME
Wiring & over-current protection must also be sized for the SURGE loads not just the maximum running watts. This is a mistake far too many folks make. For example a typical 2800W I/C from Magnum can deliver 3900W for up to 5 seconds and 3800W for 30 seconds. The wiring needs to be able to handle these surge loads without causing excessive voltage drop. Thus the wire needs to be much larger than folks often assume it is, and with large inverters can often require doubled up 4/0 wire runs.
For a
small 800W (output) microwave a typical calculation would look like this when accounting for battery voltage sag and and inverter & conversion inefficiencies of about 20%:
1350W (
input) / 11.8V (
Bat-V under load) = 114.4A X 1.20 =
137.3A
Bump that to a 2000W load and..
2000W / 11.6V = 172.4A X 1.20 =
207A
Bump that to a 3000W load and..
3000W / 11.4V = 263A X 1.20
= 315A
Let's not forget surge loads..
3900W / 11.1V =351A X 1.20 = 421A