Hi All,
Trying to get my
head around the whole
Inverter Combi thang...
I live on board just as a side note.
When I bought my
boat, it had a 12V Mastervolt Combi in it, which subsequently blewup after 1 month
After investigation by Mastervolt, they concluded that the dust build up inside has caused a short circuit on the PCB and that was that.
Fast forward 3 or so years, and now I am in a position to investigate replacing the
Inverter.
Now to my question. The
Victron and others advertise the Power Assist function. This is important for me as we are limited to a 240V/15A
shore power supply. Is the power assist function truly that? If my
current draw exceeds 15A, then will the Inverter will
concurrently draw the deficit Amps from the house bank?
I have read the literature on the
Victron Quattro in particular, and it seems to be slightly ambiguous. It mentions the power assist function, but then goes on to say that the switchover is essentially instant. This means to me, that if the
current exceeds a certain amperage, then the Inverter will draw all power requirements (limited to Inverter size) from the house bank. I would have assumed the switchover to mean that if it is drawing off the housebank, and a external power source (genset, shore power) is detected, then the switchover to the new power source would be essentially instant. However, I could be completely wrong.
I guess the upshot of it all is to get the sizing of the Inverter right. If I can rely on 3.5kW from the
shore power, and have a 3kW Inverter, then I theoretically have access to 6.5kW of power. Is this assumption correct?
Any input would be appreciated.