Greetings, I have a "new to me" 53 ft. Royal Cape
Catamaran in very bad condition that I am refurbishing. I am based close to the RCC factory in Durban,
South Africa. I need help with sizing the invertor.
I have not calculated a detailed
power requirement spreadsheet for the vessel. However, its a standard luxury cat with 5 cabins. The vessel has 4 fridges & freezers, ( chillers ) an ice maker, a
washing machine and aircons in the cabins and
saloon. It also has a 220V AC
water maker that makes 220 l / hr. The vessel is equipped with an old 8 KVA
diesel generator and can be connected to
shore power if necessary. In
South Africa, we run a 12 Volt system and our AC
power is 220 Volt. On rare occasions, I will have a maximum of 9 people on board at any one time. With todays technology, I am hoping that I will be able to run my
water maker and one, or if I'm lucky, 2 aircons off my
battery & invertor system. I understand that the new
Victron equipment has built in soft start capabilities to enable 220V
equipment to be run if supported with the correct
hardware. I am hoping that I will never ever need my
generator again and this is what I'm trying / hoping to achieve, if at all possible. Given the relative cost effectiveness of
solar panels, I will install the maximum
panels and
work backwards with my power specifications and hope that it meets my needs. I will install 8 x 550 Watt
solar panels with one
MPPT controller per two
panels so will install 4
MPPT controllers. I will install 7 x 300 Amp hour Sunray
Lithium Lifepo4 batteries from
China. All my
electrical components will be
Victron. However, I'm unsure of what size & configuration of the Victron Multiplus invertor to install. My thinking is to install two 12 V / 3000 W Multiplus Victron
Charger controllers. Is the 2 as suggested the optimal choice? If so, should they be connected in parallel? Should I rather be installing only one 12V 5000 or 6000 ( or 8000 even ) Watt invertor. Do the 5000 / 6000 exist? I notice that sine invertors exist. Is a sine invertor necessary or recommended? I will appreciate any comments on the above Invertor queries as well as any general comments from the gurus out there on my whole proposed system. Does 7 x 300 AHr
batteries makes sense. I've tried my best to come up with a balanced system with very limited knowledge and lots of time spent on the web. Any criticism and
advice will be most welcomed. Thank you immensely in advance.