Three way switch

[Alan de Enfield]

8 minutes ago, waterdog said:

2. When on shore power should I switch the inverter off. It stays on according to the MICC panel?

It will depend on how everything is wired - by the sounds of it your boat 'decides what to use' and therefore if the marina bollard should 'trip' for any reason it will automatically revert to Inverter (without your knowledge) and you could be running for days unaware, until the lights go out & you have destroyed the batteries.

 

It depends on how 'active' you want to be, ie checking every few hours if the inverter is 'humming', or checking there is output from the bollard.

To be 100% 'safe' just unplug your blue socket in the morning and plug it back in again at night.

 

Although - to be honest I wouldn't go to all the faff. Just switch off the inverter for the winter. The solar will not be putting anything into the batteries so the mains will just have to supply 'more' when you reconnect as the battery charger has to replace what you have used with the inverter during the day.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

To add to @Alan de Enfield's answer. Shore bollard power is incredibly cheap compared with other ways of making electricity on board. Solar, although free, has a high capital installation cost. The price of the electricity from a shore bollard over winter will be tiny compared with other boating costs.

Jen