Which Inverter?

[snaps]

Hello All,

 

Could anyone point me in the direction of a good quality inverter at a good price.?

 

I am fitting out a sailaway and may want to run tv's etc off 240, or should I stay on 12v as much as possibe.

 

Still unsure how much more the losses will be running an inverter? Should I get a cheap one without sinewave? technology which should be ok for everything bar the tv go for 2 smaller watage or one larger say 2kw incase I run a microwave??

 

Any advice on this most welcome.

 

Running twin alternators with 3 or 4 domestic.

 

Many Thanks

 

Simon

[NB Alnwick]

Hello All,

 

Could anyone point me in the direction of a good quality inverter at a good price.?

 

I am fitting out a sailaway and may want to run tv's etc off 240, or should I stay on 12v as much as possibe.

 

Still unsure how much more the losses will be running an inverter? Should I get a cheap one without sinewave? technology which should be ok for everything bar the tv go for 2 smaller watage or one larger say 2kw incase I run a microwave??

 

Any advice on this most welcome.

 

Running twin alternators with 3 or 4 domestic.

 

 

We run our flat screen TV, vacuum cleaner (Dyson), Spin Dryer, CD Player, hair dryer, DVD Player and computer plus various other 240 volt gadgets of our Sterling 1800 modified or quasi-sine waive inverter and, apart from the fact that hte inverter is sometimes slow to switch itself on, we have had no problems - they cost about £270 from Midland Chandlers

 

In addition we saw a very smart bit of kit at the Crick Boat show on the stand of A B Butts of Leicester. This firm has a tremendous reputation in the vehicle electrical market and it might prove fruitful if you gave them a call: 0116 2513344 - they weree showing a range of high quality inverters at prices that matched those of Sterling.

[NB Willawaw]

This is slightly contentious as there is a lot of personal opinion out here about different solutions.

Personally, I just went for a pure sine wave and I chose Mastervolt, which I have always found to be

a well designed and reliable make.

Not the cheapest on the market though.

[onthecut]

Hi Simon.

 

Mine's a Victron. It works hard for its living, seems to tolerate a spot of overload without too much fuss and has been reliable (3 years, so far). Also has the benefit of a charger built in -- although that costs more at the outset. Mistakenly, didn't go for pure sine wave, but none the less, works everything, including electronic controlled microwave, except the washing machine. I suspect the best advice is to stay away from the suspiciously cheap ones. There's a big difference between brewing up the odd cuppa in your truck cab and the demands of a modern narrowboat. When you've made your choice, make sure you wire it using the recommended (or greater) size cable and a suitable fuse. --- They draw a lot of juice, depending what you're asking them to do. If you haven't already, it's definitely worth fitting an external alternator controller -- Sterling or similar, to make sure you get the best recharge from you running time.

 

Mike

[Chris Pink]

I have a 'handy mains' by Switched Mode, tidgy thing, not particularly cheap or powerful but very reliable, lasted about 10 years now.

 

And the company is great, support on the end of the phone.

 

Which is the nub; inverters by their nature run a lot of power around so can be pretty unreliable and go 'bang', possibly taking out the much more expensive piece of kit attached to it, so a make where you have access to support if it goes wrong is important.

 

Mastervolt; probably the best

Victron, very Dutch, very solid.

Sterling, despite his idiosyncracies a tryer.

Waeco, pretty good American build.

 

I'd recommend any of these, having used all of them. I would be a bit suspicious of the cheap chinese units that abound these days.

 

And i think, strongly, that wherever possible use the 12V (or 24V) solution to the problem. It has always seemed daft to me to make 240V to then transform it down to low voltage DC again.

 

Hot cheapo tip for the mean amongst us;

 

I had a Belkin UPS (£60 for 250W) that I took the 12V battery out of and used as an inverter. They 'guaranteed' anything attached to it, though maybe not after my modification, and the software was very good at monitoring all my power sources, generator frequency and voltage, battery voltage with very funky graphs. A bit of technical knowledge needed to set it up in this way but nothing too complicated. Most annoying thing was it insisted on warning me that I was using it. I will definitely use one again (the original ended up at the bottom of the canal unfortunately, a fireside tale that one!).

[Narrowjack]

Support the view on the sterling 1800. Not the biggest unit, but so far it's run everything I've tried on it [no washing machine though!] & doesn't seem to consume much pwoer in running itself. One word of caution though, our unit failed, continually tripping on overload after about four weeks. The spark who came to fit the replacement said it was probably down to a software issue. Apparently there has been some sort of problem associated with a certain recent batch of these items. The repalcement works perfectly.

[Pav]

Hi Simon,

Inverters...................Well they gave me a real headache, so I recently asked for opinions, regarding which type and make of inverter to have fitted on my narrowboat.

 

The members of this forum came back with some really useful information.

 

In the end I opted for a Power Master unit.

 

The company building my narrowboat took delivery of the inverter and seem to be quite impressed with the build quality, lets just hope that it functions to the same level when fitted and put into action.

 

This is the web page for the company.

 

http://www.powermastersystems.com/index.htm

 

If you wish to read through the replies I had to my original question, they can be found under

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=11338

 

Hope that helps.

 

Good Luck.

Regards,

Pav.

 

 

Hello All,

 

Could anyone point me in the direction of a good quality inverter at a good price.?

 

I am fitting out a sailaway and may want to run tv's etc off 240, or should I stay on 12v as much as possibe.

 

Still unsure how much more the losses will be running an inverter? Should I get a cheap one without sinewave? technology which should be ok for everything bar the tv go for 2 smaller watage or one larger say 2kw incase I run a microwave??

 

Any advice on this most welcome.

 

Running twin alternators with 3 or 4 domestic.

 

Many Thanks

 

Simon

[blackrose]

I have the same Sterling 1800w quasi sine wave inverter as Alnwick & Narrowjack and although it suits me, for running appliances like microwaves or a small washing machine you might want to go for a pure sinewave inverter. Although my 1400w (input) 850w (output) microwave/convector oven works on the inverter, it doesn't work as well as on mains, which indicates to me that it's a sinewave issue.

 

My understanding is that pure sinwave inverters consume more battery power (and of course they're more expensive to buy), so there's the rub.

Edited November 27, 2007 by blackrose

[snaps]

Thanks For all your useful information. I like the look of the powermaster systems and the price is good.

 

Cheers

 

Simon

 

 

Hi Simon,

Inverters...................Well they gave me a real headache, so I recently asked for opinions, regarding which type and make of inverter to have fitted on my narrowboat.

 

The members of this forum came back with some really useful information.

 

In the end I opted for a Power Master unit.

 

The company building my narrowboat took delivery of the inverter and seem to be quite impressed with the build quality, lets just hope that it functions to the same level when fitted and put into action.

 

This is the web page for the company.

 

http://www.powermastersystems.com/index.htm

 

If you wish to read through the replies I had to my original question, they can be found under

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=11338

 

Hope that helps.

 

Good Luck.

Regards,

Pav.

[dor]

I'm happy to endorse the Powermaster job. It got best review in a survey in Powerboat Monthly and mine (1800 PSW) hasn't given me any trouble. Doesn't seem to use a lot of power on standby or when running a small load (radio) and the microwave runs fine on it.

[chris w]

Do you know at what temperature the Powermaster is specified for its 1800W output? I can't see it in the spec.

 

Chris

[ChrisPy]

I would be a bit suspicious of the cheap chinese units that abound these days.

when I was unable to buy a Sterling 1500 combi - out of stock everywhere - I bought a Kipoint 1500 combi from Taiwan (find it on google) at much lower price.

I believe it is the same unit as the Sterling, so the only difference will be the (?) back-up.

[onthecut]

Hi Chris W.

 

Our Victron sits in the engine space and must get pretty warm in the summer, but have never noticed any problems. Unless you're putting it in a completely enclosed , tight spot that's very hot, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.

 

Mike.

[chris w]

I was curious as maximum continuous power will fall off with inrcreased temperature. Some manufacturers specify max power at 20degC and some specify at 40degC.

 

Chris

[dor]

Do you know at what temperature the Powermaster is specified for its 1800W output? I can't see it in the spec.

 

40 deg C

[Yoda]

Wouldn't it be sensible to use the steel hull as a heatsink?