43DC - 6kW Generator enough?

[Boatsb]

That's bs

I install victron systems that will take a 30 or 50 amp feed and use it accordingly. It will charge with whatever power is available after serving the rest of the vessel with proper programming and will not draw more than I set for its maximum input. It can also be changed easily on the control panel if a feed has less than the set amps for an input.

I have a pile of old zantrex inverters in my garage awaiting recycling for a reason.

Pm me if you want to buy a victron inverter.

[oscarvan]

Interesting remark are "...inverter ate up...all power...". On a call with a Heart (Xantrex now?) engineer, he pointed out to not oversize an inverter, because they will place an over strong load on the gennyh, due to the nature of the electrical power they pull. In my case, he said 2k max size inverter for my 7.5k genny.

Why would you put an inverter on a genny? I mean.....what would it do?

Inverters make 120V out of 12V
Gennys make 120V/240V out of diesel.....

Now, if your'e talking an inverter/charger then the charging part will use the 120V the Genny made to recharge the batteries. The charger side of the inverter can be rated at a variety of AMPERAGES..... the 2K which I assume is 2000 Watts has nothing to do with that.

Unless you're talking about a Genny that makes 12V out of diesel and then the inverter makes 120V out of that..... In which case a 7500 Watt Genny should more than easily push a 2000W inverter. In that case I'm not sure what that Xantrex tech was telling you. The "nature" of the electrical power? What the heck is that? Are you talking Modfied Sine versus True Sine? Not sure that would "eat up" thousands of watts, in fact I know it wouldn't.

[sgharford]

I have a Xantrex 2000W inverter I installed myself about 8 years ago. I remember googling the 12V wire size they recommended in installation manual coming from battery - size was off the charts and turned out to be locomotive sized wire. After talking with Xantrex Engineer, he told me 0000 wire should be fine, and so that is what I used as largest size I could get tinned. Had to purchase the big bolt cutter like wire crimper for that job and genuinedealz.com became by best friend for supplies. According to Engineer, amperage is ridiculously high at inverter startup due to inductance and why wire had to be sized so large. I only bring this up because it seems somewhat relevant, maybe when you power the inverter with 120 volt instead of 12 volt they are still taking into consideration this large inductance at startup of inverter (larger the inverter, larger the inductance)?

[BOATER BOB]

I have a 2500 watt inverter and a like load works for me on NL6K don't have a electric stove.You might want to change out your HWH element to 750 or 1000 watt element as that would make a big difference in your demand.
Bob

[krush]

Why would you put an inverter on a genny? I mean.....what would it do?

Nearly every commercially available "inverter" we speak about, is technically called an "inverter/charger". Very rare are instances that an inverter only would be used on a boat. But, instances would be something like batteries charged by hippy (I mean solar) power on a house..

[Scarlett]

The wire size from the batteries to the inverter is dependent on the length of the run, the closer the inverter is to the batteries the smaller the wire can be. There are charts available that will tell you what size you need based on run length. 0000 on a 2000 watt inverter is way overkill unless your run is very long. Best way to get the best performance out of an inverter is to place it as close as possible to the batteries being used. John

[jim rosenthal]

I think inverters and generator sets are used to meet different kinds of demands. An inverter will do things like run your fridge while you are running the boat. It will run a TV set or stereo when you are at anchor. It will not run heavy loads like the water heater or air conditioning. An inverter is on my list of things to put in this coming year (actually it's been on that list for a while, but other items worked their way to the top, jumping over the inverter) I would like it if the fridge were cold when I got where I was going when I run the boat. And I would like anchoring out and not having to run the genset to watch TV or plug in my guitar amp. For larger loads, I have a generator.

[sgharford]

The wire size from the batteries to the inverter is dependent on the length of the run, the closer the inverter is to the batteries the smaller the wire can be. There are charts available that will tell you what size you need based on run length. 0000 on a 2000 watt inverter is way overkill unless your run is very long. Best way to get the best performance out of an inverter is to place it as close as possible to the batteries being used. John

Your only partially right according to Xantrex, for anything over 6 feet you need 350 MCM cable!
(below snippet from original Xantrex Prosine 2000 Watt User's Manual).
InstallCable.jpg

[Scarlett]

Thanks for that, had not seen that. What they are suggesting is something like 6/0 wire good luck finding that at the marine store. John

[sgharford]

Honestly, I think the Xantrex Engineers are out to lunch on this one. Perhaps asking for the impossible so they can reneg on warranty claims? I doubt really that nefarious, I'm sure somewhere in their theoretical max amperage calculation 300 amp at 12 volts (3600 watts of power) is correct for this 2000 watt inverter, even if only for a fraction of a second. I've been lucky enough to have no problems with my 2000 Watt unit, and I bought it as refurb when I installed 8 years ago. Can't say it gets used all that much, but it still works.