Inverter, vs Generator

Wardy549

Wardy549

Member
Nov 12, 2014
109
Daytona Marina & Boat Works
Boat Info
1988 345 Sedan Bridge
Engines
Twin 454's
I picked up this digital 3000 watt inverter.
Wondering if anyone can give me any suggestions about how I should use this vs using my generator. With wiring and batteries etc. I only go out and stay on the hook for three days max other then that im on shore power. Im looking into solar panels as well so if you have a whole chain of info you can help out with, great! Thank you in advance!
 

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First, if it is not a marine-specific inverter do not use it.

On my last big boat I used the inverter most of the time and ran the genny morning and evening to basically charge the batteries. How long the batteries will last depends on the battery and your draw/load. Any inverter is only as good as the battery bank connected to the system. For best use I recommend 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in series. The more batteries you have in the system the better. On my 52 footer I had 8. Put in as many as you have room for.
 
I'll share my two cents - the worst thing you can do to a generator is not use it. The people I know that run their generator anytime the main engines are running have by far the least amount of issues with their gen sets. Running them for a few hours a few times per year is a killer. If you have a generator run that thing! They sip gas.

Be sure you keep that inverter out of your engine room....of course I'm assuming you were already planning for that.

It's pretty spendy to store energy. Be sure you bounce the total cost of your future system against the total fuel you'd use to run that generator more. You may find it's more economical to skip the soloar setup.

Good luck with your project!
 
Stee6043 said:
I'll share my two cents - the worst thing you can do to a generator is not use it. The people I know that run their generator anytime the main engines are running have by far the least amount of issues with their gen sets. Running them for a few hours a few times per year is a killer. If you have a generator run that thing! They sip gas.

Be sure you keep that inverter out of your engine room....of course I'm assuming you were already planning for that.

It's pretty spendy to store energy. Be sure you bounce the total cost of your future system against the total fuel you'd use to run that generator more. You may find it's more economical to skip the soloar setup.

Good luck with your project!
Click to expand...
I agree with that 110%. I "exercised" my generator, with a load, every time I was on the boat which was usually weekly. And I ran it for an hour or so. Often times, due to being courteous to my neighbors while anchored out or at a place with no power, I used the invertor. While underway I didn't need to run the genny as I had massive battery storage (thank you PM) and a 3.5K inverter/charger. It was mounted in the engine room but it was diesel boat and it was rated for engine room placement. The most important thing, IMHO, is to not go cheap on the batteries and do not use an inverter from Harbor Freight.
 
This is my first boat with a genny. I closed on my boat in December 2016. It was a fresh trade in to a dealer. The previous owner replaced the original generator with a brand new Westerbeke in April of 2016. When I ran into the previous owner and he was giving me some history about the boat he mentioned that his biggest regret was that he didn’t run the original generator more. He was convinced that lack of use contributed to his having to replace it.
Inverters are nice, but run that genny too.
We usually run it several hours a week while on the hook for the day. Like NorCal, I like to be courteous so I ask the boats that raft up to me to tie up on the opposite side of my boat from my generator when possible.
 
I have a 2800 W MagnaSine inverter and a 7.6 kw diesel generator. This will be the first season with both on board, but I installed the inverter to augment, not replace the generator. The biggest issue for me is that I have a 3 cylinder Westerbeke that was pretty noisy ( I added a dual stage muffler in the off season) and vibrates a noticeable amount. For me there is no financial consideration as to the cost of the inverter vs using the genny. I wanted and installed both to be used for a specific reasons.

I intend to use the inverter to run the coffee maker and microwave (and sized the inverter to run both simultaneously) mornings and late nights in quiet coves/anchorages, simply out of wanting a quiet existance on the lake and the fact I'm usually the first up by along shot and starting the genny would definitely upset the wife and daughter. I intend to use the generator morning and evening to do heavier cooking and air conditioning duties and of course charge the battery banks.

I documented my installation on this site and Ttmott did a similar install and has schematics on how to accomplish with very minor (and reversible) modifications.

One thing you need to be aware of, you have a modified sine wave inverter and it may not play nice with things like microwaves and small motors and AC compressors. Additionally, that inverter in not intended to be hard wired into the electrical system.
 
We have both and I can say that we have the inverter mainly for peace and quiet on the hook and nothing to do with the 3/4 GPH fuel burn.
Second is if we want to go ashore for the day it’s safer to run the boat on the inverter than the generator.
We’ll cycle the gen in the morning and dinner time to top off the batts.
 
We have both. This setup works well for us. Not quite as large an inverter. PO had a system put in and it is only a 750w with a 1250w surg. We use it primarily to run small 120v appliances - TV / blender / fans / portable tool chargers / etc. Works great for that. Being it has limited watts, we can leave it on all day on the hook and not have to worry about running our batteries down. It runs on my 3 bank strb setup of AGM31s. It is situated with auto disconnect so that when I either start the genny or plug in to shore power it disconnects from the system and turns off. Although it will not power hot water, ac, microwave and larger loads, we use the genny for those loads. If I unplug or shut down the genny it will reconnect to the system automatically so long as its power switch, the fwd acces switch, is online. Really NICE set up. Pretty much turn it on and it knows when to supply power and when not to.
A bunch of batteries are costly, heavy, take space, require maintenance, etc. Like having a couple of extra small adults on board all the time. (more weight = more fuel burn).
 
NorCal Boater said:
I agree with that 110%. I "exercised" my generator, with a load, every time I was on the boat which was usually weekly. And I ran it for an hour or so. Often times, due to being courteous to my neighbors while anchored out or at a place with no power, I used the invertor. While underway I didn't need to run the genny as I had massive battery storage (thank you PM) and a 3.5K inverter/charger. It was mounted in the engine room but it was diesel boat and it was rated for engine room placement. The most important thing, IMHO, is to not go cheap on the batteries and do not use an inverter from Harbor Freight.
Click to expand...
Whats wrong with harbour freight? Lol
 
dtfeld said:
I have a 2800 W MagnaSine inverter and a 7.6 kw diesel generator. This will be the first season with both on board, but I installed the inverter to augment, not replace the generator. The biggest issue for me is that I have a 3 cylinder Westerbeke that was pretty noisy ( I added a dual stage muffler in the off season) and vibrates a noticeable amount. For me there is no financial consideration as to the cost of the inverter vs using the genny. I wanted and installed both to be used for a specific reasons.

I intend to use the inverter to run the coffee maker and microwave (and sized the inverter to run both simultaneously) mornings and late nights in quiet coves/anchorages, simply out of wanting a quiet existance on the lake and the fact I'm usually the first up by along shot and starting the genny would definitely upset the wife and daughter. I intend to use the generator morning and evening to do heavier cooking and air conditioning duties and of course charge the battery banks.

I documented my installation on this site and Ttmott did a similar install and has schematics on how to accomplish with very minor (and reversible) modifications.

One thing you need to be aware of, you have a modified sine wave inverter and it may not play nice with things like microwaves and small motors and AC compressors. Additionally, that inverter in not intended to be hard wired into the electrical system.
Click to expand...
How do I find that post you said you documented?
 
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