Should I shut off the inverter...

[rwells36]

When docked?

[wiekeith]

There is a potential issue when leaving the inverter on. If the shore-power trips or fails, for whatever reason, whilst you're using AC appliances, you could unknowingly flatten your batteries.

My preferred option is to always leave the inverter off, and only switch it on when AC power is required whilst not at the dock.

[boatman61]

Ditto.. only switch it on when needed and then back off when finished.

[Bill O]

No turn it off when you aren't using it.

If you read your instruction manual, there is a slight power drain off the batteries when the inverter is in stand-by mode. While it's small, it can drain down the batteries if you don't have any type of charger hooked up.

Bill O.

[StuM]

What power source(s) when docked? Shorepower? Solar?

What do you use AC for? What are your power drains when docked? Are you living aboard?

[boatbod]

I usually disable the invert function while leaving the charge function enabled. Lost count of how many times failed shore power had flattened batteries on boats that left the inverter enabled.

[rwells36]

Originally Posted by StuM

What power source(s) when docked? Shorepower? Solar?

What do you use AC for? What are your power drains when docked? Are you living aboard?

We live aboard and 50amp shore-power is included in dockage. No solar but have a set of chargers and the inverter is a 2500 heart. Power needs include induction stove, toaster oven, fridge, freezer, washer / dryer, a/c, heaters, etc., etc. as it is now we know if power is lost (after all we are live-aboard) and just switch on the genset.

[boatbod]

We'll if you are there frequently enough that a long duration power loss would not cause your batteries to discharge in your absence, it's doesn't really matter whether you shut the inverter down or not.

[tkeithlu]

I quake in my boots whenever I'm tempted to post in the area of boat AC; it's not my area of strength, as one poster pointed out in less than civil language. Ergo, a question, not an opinion. How is your boat wired? Are the inverter and shore power combined without a switch to select one or the other? It sounds like it from the conversation. Could that create the problem of the two being out of phase, or the inverter feeding back into the shore power cord when you loose power? I've never considered the issue because my AC sources can only be used in isolation from one another. There must be a wiring situation that I'm not aware of that activates the inverter when shore AC fails.

[boatbod]

Inverter transfer switch prevents back feeding the shore power.

[tkeithlu]

Thanks. I'm guessing that's an automatic transfer, or the original question would be moot.

[boatbod]

Originally Posted by tkeithlu

Thanks. I'm guessing that's an automatic transfer, or the original question would be moot.

Yes, that inverter had a transfer switch built in.

[rwells36]

The previous owner (12 years) didn't shut off the inverter, had no ill effects so I will continue with the same. Thanks for your post(s).

[fallingeggs]

Perhaps your inverter has a low voltage shut off function to protect your batteries?

[smac999]

we have lots of problems with that in the winter. as every boat is running heaters well docked. a 1500w heater will drain a house bank in hours. a marina losing power due to a storm, or somebody kicking your shoure power cord out. will kill your batteries in hours. even if you check often, it won't be often enough to catch a heater on inverter. most boats up here run a few of them in the winter.

turn off the inverter when not using it. the only downside is if you have an AC only fridge. and leave food in it. because then if the shore power goes out for days you may not know about it. or the food condition. but if you do this, your heaters must be on non inverted outlets.