Adding an inverter

[WAArete]

 Seems, I'm faced with making multiple upgrades to my B36. I can't see spending more money on a newer model. My 2003, doesn't have an inverter. Seems, like a sound upgrade I ought to pursue. Couple questions:
 What would be a reasonable size; I have a 110 volt tv. But, guess I need its wattage..
 Location if someone has done this project.
 Thanks

[sy_Anniina]

Regarding side / wattage: You need to sum up all items (Power) that you plan to use at the same time. All inductive loads = motors like power drill, wacuum cleaner etc need to be multiplied by 3 due to high start current rush.

Also consider possible future or intermittent used like hairdryer, nesperesso...

Furthermore some items like hairdryer would mostly be happy with modified sine wave (lower cost) while e.g. our nesperesso was picky and required pure sine wave inverter.

The higher the power, more important is short 12V high-current route. So you may want to place the inverter close to your battery bank. My inverter is behind saloon settee backrest, while battery bank is under the settees.

BR

Tommi
s/y Anniina

[cegri]

It's a vicious circle! The more powerful your inverter, the bigger electrical devices you start to bring on board, the bigger rating on the inverter you need...

If you don't have a considerable  surplus solar energy on your B36, I would try simpler solutions before installing a high power inverter.

Television: there are 12 VDC models. If their spec does not satisfy you; consider buying a simple none sine wave inverter, just for the TV (and possibly your lap top.) No motors on this one!

On the other hand, if you do have surplus solar energy (>500 Watts) a powerful inverter does open a lot of options from hair driers to water heaters. We can even run our washing machine.

[SYJetzt]

and it's not only a thing of the right cable size and short 12V high power connections. It's a thing of right battery size too, because you need to store the needed amount of energy in your house bank !
I added a 1500W sine inverter with short 70mm2 cabling on my 2x140Ah House bank. Works fine with all that convenient stuff like nespresso, my power tools and the jet plane of my wife ( mmh vacuum cleaner ).
But not really long, because it draws 130 Amps at full load, so the house bank gets flat pretty soon and my better half unemployed.


 

[Rampage]

I’ve got a 1000 watt inverter fitted under the chart table using the factory supplied leads to connect to the battery bank.  It has its own socket (ie you plug whatever you’re using into the inverter not the mains sockets) and is used only occasionally.  The only regularly used appliance is a juicer and charging for power tool batteries.
As others have said, look at the sort of loads you’re thinking of using and size your inverter accordingly.  Using the inverter for heavy loads really hammers the batteries.

[nightowle]

With our B35 we were in somewhat the same place when wanting to upgrade our battery charger.  So, we decided that we'd go the charger/inverter combo with a 1200 watt inverter that is not a pure sine wave.  The reason for this configuration was the space available under the starboard side settee, forward of the batteries and exactly where the charger had been. It doesn't allow for anything more formidable. I've yet to run the TV, we really just use the inverter infrequently when not at a dock with shore power for either our toaster or the Admiral's lower wattage travel size hairdryer.  Those items put a very little drain on the batts for a short time.  It's a Magnum brand unit, which seems to get high marks for reliability and performance on the battery charging side of things.