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From: Dave Skolnick (no email)
Date: Sun Sep 23 2007 - 08:34:01 EDT
I have separate Mastervolt charger and inverter for my 675 Ah wet cell
battery bank. My charger is an 80A unit that runs happily off 50 or 60
Hz, but needs an external transformer to run off 230V. The charger has
an independent 15 A (I think) circuit for charging the start bank. I
have a small tool transformer I got in the UK for that conversion when
needed. The charger is 2000 watts and has run everything I have
plugged into it quite happily. The charger and inverter are both
controlled by a single remote panel at the nav station. I would
recommend the Mastervolt unit highly. I also have a Mastervolt battery
monitor (like a Link 20) and generator. The integration of the units
is nice -- all the controls just plug together easily. I can (I
haven't, but I can) even set up the controller to do things like
automatically start the generator when the batteries get low, or shut
the inverter off.
I have a stand-alone Xantrex pure-sine-wave inverter in my truck that
has worked fine, but it is not a marine unit.
I know several people with ProSine 2.0 combination inverter/chargers.
All are happy with them, although it does seem to me that the repair
rate is a little high.
Several of the combination inverter/chargers have a mode that allows
you to combine shore power and inverter power for short bursts that
would otherwise exceed the capacity of your shore power connection.
The Victron is among the most elegant, and even provides a
synchronization line so that you could parallel more than one inverter
for even higher power output.
A little off-topic, but while you are working on this project I
suggest looking at your shore power inlets. Do you have one inlet or
two? 30A or 50A? What does your inventory of shore power cords look
like? What are the power connections in your anticipated cruising
grounds?
You should at least have galvanic isolators on each input. I do, and
now regret that I didn't install isolation transformers with voltage
conversion capability.
My boat has two 30A inputs: one for air conditioning and one for
everything else. I have two 25' 30A cords that I use most of the time.
I also have a 1 x 50A to 2 x 30A adapter for when there is only 50A
power available at the dock. Buried in the boat is a 50' 50A cord that
makes a dandy extension when I am bow in somewhere or the power pylon
is for some other reason far away. For European waters I have a 50'
16A 230V shore power cord, a 2 kW 230 V to 117V tool transformer, and
a Euro to US 30A adapter. I can only run one circuit at a time (air
conditioning or house) but that hasn't been a problem yet. If I ever
get to the Med in summer I will probably put voltage converting
isolation transformers in first.
Apologies for the rambling drift off-topic.
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