Inverter for Hot water system

[widebody77]

MF795 Series 2 owners, has anyone installed an inverter that's capable of running the factory installed hot water system while not on shore power? If so what size inverter?

[alenka]

Heaters/Tanks come in all shapes and sizes so the wattage they require will be wide and varied.  No doubt you will find it will be on the heater element of your own tank.

The biggest problem is not the size of the inverter but the battery bank supplying it.

As much as I hate to say it you will get better results running the engine rather than hammering your batteries

[vasko]

I use my 2.5kw ( 5kw pick) inverter on a daily bases for hot water  - my battery bank is 280ah LiFePo4 ( cost about £750 for teh battery bank 2 x 150 amp BMS and one 60amp) 530w solars, 600w - wind and 50amp alternator , I also have aircon, desalinator and 20+ 2a USB sockets, wifi, 4g camera and boat-vitals monitoring system - 24h power usage is about 200 ah

[andreshs1]

Dec 9, 2021 11:26:06 GMT vasko said:

I use my 2.5kw ( 5kw pick) inverter on a daily bases for hot water  - my battery bank is 280ah LiFePo4 ( cost about £750 for teh battery bank 2 x 150 amp BMS and one 60amp) 530w solars, 600w - wind and 50amp alternator , I also have aircon, desalinator and 20+ 2a USB sockets, wifi, 4g camera and boat-vitals monitoring system - 24h power usage is about 200 ah

Hi vasko

would you mind listing the actual equipment you have?
what inverter?
what water maker?
aircon?
the water heater, is this the one that comes from factory or refitted one?


Cheers
Andres

[vasko]

Feb 24, 2022 15:29:02 GMT andreshs1 said:

Dec 9, 2021 11:26:06 GMT vasko said:

I use my 2.5kw ( 5kw pick) inverter on a daily bases for hot water  - my battery bank is 280ah LiFePo4 ( cost about £750 for teh battery bank 2 x 150 amp BMS and one 60amp) 530w solars, 600w - wind and 50amp alternator , I also have aircon, desalinator and 20+ 2a USB sockets, wifi, 4g camera and boat-vitals monitoring system - 24h power usage is about 200 ah

Hi vasko

would you mind listing the actual equipment you have?
what inverter?
what water maker?
aircon?
the water heater, is this the one that comes from factory or refitted one?


Cheers
Andres

In brief:

Solar Panels - custom order from lensunsolar with SunLower cells
MPPT - EPVER
Desalinatir - Katadyn
Aircon : Donetic
Heater: Sigmar
Wingen: Airbreeze type china made - with built-in mppt
LiFePo4 cells and BMS : Aliexpress
Start battery: shop.gwl.eu/LiFeYPO4-batteries-12V-1-1/Lithium-Battery-LiFePO4-12V-20Ah.html
Invertor : German brand new from ebay about £380 2.5kw pure sine with remote and 5kw peek

Personally I will never buy anything from Victron anymore after my experience with their support and warranty - when you bay the statement is buy the best model and it is good for life but the warranty is actually the minimum allowed by the law … and when a 12k setup goes wrong after 2 years and 1 month you do not get any help - Aliexpress has better service…

[andreshs1]

Hi Vasko

Thanks for the info, truly appreciated, I will look into the equipment you have mentioned. 


I switched to Victron as I was having issues with the EPever and their support did not revert to me. Let's hope that it works as advertised...

Cheers

[Trevor]

Hello Andres,

Victron has an interesting product sales and support structure. You can buy them on ebay or you buy them from a local distributer. In any case the support function is provided by the local distributer. If you are keen to learn about their products they have a lot of training videos that are really great to listen to. Also, if you have a query that you just want to quietly research you can access the Victron Community Forum here

community.victronenergy.com/index.html?page=6&pageSize=15&sort=active

They have an active group of enthusiasts who load beta software and provide feedback prior to the software being released. They also welcome software specialisation using various platforms for those who are keen. The virtual remote monitoring platform (VRM) is free and very handy for seeing what is happening to your boat remotely.

I have seen many times where Matthijs Vader, the CEO of Victron energy has personally answered queries on the community forum. In fact he has replied to my posts on occasion. I think when the Victron CEO answers questions from forum users they are at least trying to keep the client happy.

Trevor

[andreshs1]

Hi trevor

Yes, that is one of the reasons I went for Victron, as I have not been happy with the EPever. 
Also, the ability of the devices to communicate with each other

out of curiosity, what is your setup?


Cheers

[Trevor]

Hi Andrea,

My setup is pretty simple and not all Victron. I have 654watts of solar into a Victron MPPT regulator with the Bluetooth temperature and voltage sensor on 480Ah of AGM house batteries. I have a 120amp Balmar alternator using a serpentine drive belt with a Balmar external regulator. I have a Xantrex battery monitor soon to be swapped out for a Victron BMV712.

Start and thruster batteries are charged via a simple VSR each. I have a Xantrex 1.8kW inverter.

Nothing special on our boat but I do get involved with quite a few Victron installations on other boats using Quattro or Multiplus, Smartshunt or BMV712 battery monitors and CerboGX with touch 50 or touch 70 screens. They can be integrated into Garmin MFDs for a helm readout if required.
We use the VRM to send alarms on preset state of charge values and also sometimes configure generator autostart in case of low state of charge batteries. The CerboGX has great functions for auto gen start.

The Cerbo gx can also “see” via Bluetooth the Ruuvi temperature sensors so owners can see the state of their refrigeration through the VRM and get an alarm email if they want to indicate the fridge temperature is above their preset levels.

Some installation can become quite complex and occasionally software bugs do exist, but if feedback is provided to Victron they do try to address those issues on the next software release.

It is an interesting range of products.

Regards

Trevor

[andreshs1]

Thanks Trevor

Cheers

[ihsan]

I am also thinking to add a boiler to my serie 1 795 after seeing how the unit is placed  in serie 2.  However, a marin electrician told me once a 30 lt. boiler is fully charged  in the marina, it should suply first day hot  and  second day enough lukewarm water to the system before its connection to electricity. If this is the case, it may be enough to meet the demands of weekend campers, without serious additions.