Battery Banks / Inverter Strategy

[rtbates]

Won't that inverter need to be plugged in to be of any use...At anchor a real long extension cord??????????????????????

[Dockhead]

A necropost, and a weird one. What extension cord? Do you know what an inverter is?

The follow up to all of this, for those who are interested, after 70-odd days at sea this year.

Following advice here I combined the two battery banks. Besides that, I discovered that one of them consisted of old batteries. I replaced these (4 batteries).

The results were wonderful. I used a combiner switch so I could uncombine the banks as necessary but eventually just started leaving them combined. I get a full 24 hours of normal life on board on the hook out of this battery bank without a deep discharge. The instruments are not bothered by the bow thruster, although the cabin lights do dim somewhat when that big boy is churning out 10 horsepower of side thrust.

So I no longer feel the need for a much bigger charger; the Newmar and the 110 amp alternator on the main engine are keeping up fine with the power needs on board.

I will eventually install a Victron charger/inverter but there is no pressing need now. Oddly enough the function of this unit which I most need is the function which supplements shore power with battery power when the shore power connection is overloaded. I installed a Victron isolation transformer that is very strictly limited to 16 amps, and I am constantly tripping the circuit breaker when I'm on shore power.

The inverter will cut down on short generator runs used for things like toasters and microwave. The heavier duty charger will just be a bonus.

[hellosailor]

"Do you know what an inverter is?"
Isn't that the big yellow crane-thingy that you use to turn the boat upside down and shake, to get all the spare change out of the bilge?