Sterling inverter/charger

[superboots]

I am thinking about getting a Sterling inverter (1500 watts) and combined battery charger (70amps). Anybody got experience of this unit, reliability, noise, inerference & use of the inverter. Will I be able to run a microwave?

 

[HaraldS]

Don't have any experience with the Sterling charger/inverter.
Have very positive experience with the Victron units.
Recommend you have a look at those too.

 

[AndrewB]

Large inverter. Can someone explain?

What are the implications of fitting a 1000w or 1500w inverter with a 12v supply?

I have a 200w inverter but would like a much larger one for occasional use with large 230v AC power tools. But that sort of output implies a huge battery draw, 80 or 125A respectively, presumably requiring heavy gauge connections. A normal battery bank (mine is 3 x 105Ah batteries) will be drained fast - possibly too fast for the health of the batteries?

 

[softop]

Victron are good units but expensive.Tale a look at the Sinergex 1500 in the Power Store ad they seem like good value and did well in the Motor Boats Monthly tests.

 

[HaraldS]

Re: Large inverter. Can someone explain?

You are right about the heavy cabling.
You would need a minimum of 35 mm2 for that, better 50 mm2. It also depends a bit on how close you can get to the battery. A 50 mm2 cable will "loose" aboy half a Volt on 12 meters at 125A. That's about 4%. The inverters are around 92% efficient, so another 8% loss. It is a good idea to keep the sum of the losses low, but you see in the 10% rage this not that significant. Also make sure you put a proper high Amp fuse in the cabling.
Your 3 batteries should do just fine for the occational use. Power tools only take their rated power when heavily loaded. You can drill a lot of holes with a 750W power drill, without the batteries taking notice. Even a 1500W grinder, cutting a steel shaft for 5 minutes would take out just 10 Amp hours.
Also running a 1000W microwave is in that range.
Don't forget that you can also back it up with the engine, your alternator would generally return more to the battery than you would be using, only peak demands may be more than your regular alternator.

 

[Nigelhg]

We have a sterling 80amp charger and a sterling psuedo sinewave 2500w inverter and find that both are superb. The inverter is very useful for us in that we can boil a kettle etc. without having to put the generator on. It runs our microwave as well. The only interference I noticed was a few dots on the tv screen when using an indoor aerial. Hope this info is useful. For your own information we had considered buying a combined unit but were advised that separate units were a better job.

 

[ccscott49]

I nave a 1500w inverter onboard, find it an valuable bit of kit, I also have seperate charger, I like it that way, so if one fails, I dont lose the other, when I have to get it repaired, I can do without the charger, as the engines will do that for me, but the inverter I need, as I have a mains freezer. I don't like combined units.