Carver Owners Forum

Can you answer some Questions

Where can I place a 2000watt Inverter?

House Bank of four 6 volt batteries. Planning on putting them where
the generator appears to go in front of STB engine. Your thoughts?

Want to stage 3ea 100 watt solar panels on top of the cockpit canopy. Is this workable as I will need to run cables to the house bank.

Adding a 30ft chain with 200ft of rode. Thinking of putting a 4" hole in the anchor storage closet. The rode would drop down to the forward part of bilge. Thoughts?

Yes, this boat will be running mostly slow for the most part. Planning on doing the great loop. But she will get her workouts. Plan on anchoring 60% of the time thus the solar panels and house bank. Have a Honda 2000 but that will be only if necessary.

If it's not an ignition proof inverter (marine rated), you can't put it in the engine compartment, you'd need to install it elsewhere. Because of that, depending on the distance to the batteries, what you save on purchasing a non-ignition proof unit, you may make up for it in the cost of extra cable. If you install a marine rated unit in the engine bay, do't install it directly above the batteries and keep it away from potential water and heat sources. A marine unit will have proper wiring diagrams for a marine installation, you won't get that with other units. A remote control panel is always a bonus. To ensure all your loads are happy with the quality of power, consider a full sine wave unit.

Don't skimp on quality here. Use marine grade wire, connectors, circuit protection, etc. They can be dangerous if not installed properly.

Are you talking about cutting a hole in the floor of the anchor locker?

In our boat we placed a Xantrex SW3000 inverter charger under the dinette, it fit great but did add some vents for the unit. This made it easy to run the 4/0 cables to the batteries in the engine compartment. The cables and connectors were not cheap! Also had to buy a crimper and cutter to deal with this big cable, so cost adds up a bit but it was well worth it. We run to 4 6 volt batteries for the house bank.

MakinTime wrote:Source of the post In our boat we placed a Xantrex SW3000 inverter charger under the dinette, it fit great but did add some vents for the unit.

Got any pics? I've been thinking of doing the same thing in that area just to port from the steps down to the galley. I've had an older Heart Interface unit but am thinking of getting a pure-sinewave instead (tried the microwave with the Heart, and it doesn't really like it).

Viper wrote:If it's not an ignition proof inverter (marine rated), you can't put it in the engine compartment, you'd need to install it elsewhere.

Are any of the marine-rated units also ignition-proof? My Heart Interface one is a marine unit but is not capable of being mounted in engine spaces.

I will take some pics this weekend when we go down. The inverter is my favorite thing I have put in the boat. It has a 150 amp charger which charges the house bank when connected to shore power and has a digital display to control everything. It has no problem running our microwave. It is actually mounted where the old ice maker was under the dinette. It is damn heavy though around 75 lbs.

km1125 wrote:Source of the post
Are any of the marine-rated units also ignition-proof?....

I was making a general statement about checking for ignition protection. If it's not "marine" it definitely won't be ignition protected but just because it says "marine" doesn't mean it's ignition proof either. You must confirm that it is if it's to be mounted in a gasoline engine bay. There are other aspects of the design that also contribute to the "marine" rating. Non-ignition proof marine units can be installed in a diesel engine bay for example as long as you follow other precautions.

ProMariner's TruePower Combi units are ignition proof. Not many others are that I know of.
http://www.promariner.com/en/products/combi-battery-charger-and-inverter