Inverters and plugs

[Jack Long]

If a boat has house style power outlets and appliances such as TVs plugged into them... It means there is an inverter in the system somewhere behind those plugs right? Because the power is coming from the batteries right?

Why would a boat have a separate inverter then?

Maybe the outlets only work when the boat is plugged into shore power and the inverter is used when the boat only has the batteries?

[Randyonr3]

Not to say how your boat is wired but mine has a seperate 110 loop running through it. and 6 plugs around the boat (for the TV -coffee pot & such) the 110 loop is NOT tyed into the rest of the boat or the batteries.. off the 110 loop the battery charger has a breaker tyed into it..
Now my inverter is tyed to the house bank and only works when I turn it on and run a jumper plug to the 110 loop.
A good way to check is to un-plug the 110 shore-power and see if your TV works..
If it does, you've got an inverter in the system. Some systems, Like Xantrax make an inverter charger combined.. works like a charger and when shore power is turned off, it works as an inverter.. nice system but very pricy.

[David M]

The boat does not necessarily have an inverter. The 120V plugs may only work when it is connected to shore power. It could also be the case that the boat has an AC generator but no inverter. You can only use one of the three sources of 120 AC at a time though otherwise the phase angle would need to match.

[DeepFrz]

There are now synchronizing inverters that can be used with a generator so the generator does not have to be sized large enough to take the surge currents of AC motors when they start up.

But if I read your question right Jack, there are not usually separate inverters behind each plug. There is usually one large inverter feeding all the plugs. Some people use a smaller separate one for the computer so they don't have to have the large one running all the time.