Using inverter on board

[tonyjh63]

Anyone know about inverters? Here's the situation: we're going to be in a Christmas boat parade in a couple of weeks in our little 18' bowrider. I was told by one past participant that he uses a 750 watt inverter on his boat and lights up thousands of LEDs on his boat during the parade. That sounded fine, so we got a 800 watt inverter and planned on lighting up several hundred LEDs. But I've since gotten the idea of running a portable snowmaker on board during the parade. It uses 650 watts. My question is: will this be sufficient to run what we're planning?

 

[al1026]

For bit more you can get more watts and run other items drills fans , micro waves coffee pots and have alternate power off boat
I had a 3000 watt Harbor Freight ( not best qualaity that was used on my cabin cruiser Think it cost me $ 140 bucks , Refused too spend 8 grand rebuilding a Kohler gas generator too use once a year , Generator was too run A/C away from dockside , Power inverter ran everything else , kids used too go into cabin fans tv NO ISSUE
SPEND THE FEW BUCKS AND LIGHT UP

 

[Horigan]

You will likely need more margin between your 650W load and your 750W inverter. A 1000W would be better, especially if you still want to run lights.

Have you done the math to determine if you have enough battery power to run the inverter? To run a 650W inverter you're going need about 60 amps from your batteries. How many amp-hours of battery capacity do you have? You'll need to limit your usage to 50% of your amp-hour capacity if you have lead acid/AGM batteries.

 

[Scott Danforth]

For all the holiday parades that my buddy had his sailboat in, he simply used a honda 2kw inverter duty gen set on the deck. powered the lights, the amplifier for the guitar and a group of inflatable lawn decorations

 

[bruceb58]

For 800W you will need this mounted directly to the battery. Make sure you are always running your engine when the inverter is on. If you are anywhere close to 800 watts, you will be over 70A draw

 

[Wave34]

To minimise voltage drop, the inverter will need to be mounted near the batteries. But, most inverters state in their instructions, 'not to be installed in a boat bilge' because it is not explosion proof.

So, if in the bilge you can be ok with 6 awg wires, if you locate it further in the cabin, you may need to go with 4awg or welder cables $$$.

Me, I would try to borrow a 2KW generator if it's only for the parade.