New Inverter/House Bank

[km1125]

The two "switches" for the voltmeters are really circuit breakers. You can't have unprotected wires from the battery all the way up to the volt meters. Also nice to be able to shut them off for the off-season.

On the Air conditioner... just use a good vacuum WITH A BRUSH and go back and forth same direction as the fins.

I do not think you should ever see frost, especially in heating mode... that means you're not moving enough water through the system (you'll also get more heat out if you solve that problem)

[vineyardgray]

I sent an email to the Blue Seas folks about the broken RBS switch but I'm not expecting much frankly. I opened it up and the stud is in potted plastic - no backing nut or anything. So these are not designed to withstand any amount of torque and the power lugs I used were a contributing factor.

I'm going to save the rewiring of the starters/alternators for when my bank account recovers from the rest of this stuff and focus on the inverter install. So for now the alternators will charge the start bank through the starter wiring.

Over the winter I'll get my hands on a dc to dc charger (Sterling) to charge the starters from the house battery system - I will install that in springtime.

I've ordered the triplex AWG 6 to get the AC power to and from the inverter/charger so that I can finally power it up and get it programmed. Had to buy a 100' reel. Let me tell you I will have a lot of cable for sale come the end of this

I'm going to come out of the shore/gen switch at the panel, and come back to the 50a breaker in the panel. I have sized the wire to accommodate a max 75a output from the inverter, but as my loads haven't changed, the 50a should be fine for now.

Onwards!

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[vineyardgray]

Source of the post
The two "switches" for the voltmeters are really circuit breakers. You can't have unprotected wires from the battery all the way up to the volt meters. Also nice to be able to shut them off for the off-season.

I didn't realize that. You've made a good point. Now that I took at it, the circuits for the bilge pumps were breakers as well, which I have now bypassed and wired directly to the hot side of the battery switch (I.E. always on, 24hr power, essential ccts, whateveryouwannacallit) with NO protection!

I remember as a kid we used to run a wire between the + and - of my dad's 12v battery charger and the wires would get red hot. We melted a few GI Joe heads and limbs off lol.

Suppose that were to happen now. Hell of a problem! In my haste to get the bilge circuits back online I didn't consider this.

Much Appreciated!

[km1125]

Source of the post
I've ordered the triplex AWG 6 to get the AC power to and from the inverter/charger so that I can finally power it up and get it programmed. Had to buy a 100' reel. Let me tell you I will have a lot of cable for sale come the end of this

I'm going to come out of the shore/gen switch at the panel, and come back to the 50a breaker in the panel. I have sized the wire to accommodate a max 75a output from the inverter, but as my loads haven't changed, the 50a should be fine for now.

How do you get 75A max out of a 3000 W inverter?

6GA is way overkill for a 3000 W inverter. 10GA would have been plenty, but you could have gone to 8 in case you thought you might go with a larger inverter someday.

[vineyardgray]

Source of the post How do you get 75A max out of a 3000 W inverter?

The inverter has a function called power assist where it will add battery powered AC to the shore power AC to make up the difference where demand is greater than the shore produces. So it will add 25a max to the 50a already from shore.

In my case, I haven't changed the load on that leg of the panel, so this assist function would only occur very rarely, like during perhaps a utility brown out scenario, and even then not greater than 50a.

Since the device has the ability to output 75a max total (even though I'll never use it) I felt compelled to accommodate the additional capacity since I have no control over what the next owner might do.

I used the blue seas calculator app to determine cable size - which also shows the ABYC regulation sizing but also adjusts for cables running in bundles and in engine bays, which these will be for about 16' or so.

[km1125]

That's an interesting feature!! I also like the "B" output that disables if the unit is running on batteries.

[vineyardgray]

Source of the post That's an interesting feature!! I also like the "B" output that disables if the unit is running on batteries.

It is!

Granted with 50a per leg (100a total! )coming onto my boat it is kinda useless. It would be great if I were on a single 30a feed, though and the inverter could make up the additional 20a during bursts when needed.

I had considered wiring the B output to the AC side of the panel, which would have worked if the victron could switch 100a but it cannot, or it accepted two AC inputs but it doesn't do that either.

[vineyardgray]

Source of the post

Source of the post That's an interesting feature!! I also like the "B" output that disables if the unit is running on batteries.

It is!

Granted with 50a per leg (100a total! )coming onto my boat it is kinda useless. It would be great if I were on a single 30a feed, though and the inverter could make up the additional 20a during bursts when needed.

I had considered wiring the B output to the Aircon side of the panel, which would have worked if the victron could switch 100a but it cannot, or it accepted two AC inputs but it doesn't do that either.

[vineyardgray]

I do believe the quatro from victron can accept two AC inputs so maybe I should have gone that way in retrospect.

I really wanted to keep the install as simple as possible but I know now that when it comes to inverter install, simple is a total farce

[bud37]

Maybe I am missing something here......I am easily confused.....but isn't that breaker in your pic just 50 amps total......how many shore power cords do you have from the dock pedestal ?