I’ve just installed an off grid solar system on my narrowboat; it uses a Conversol 5kW inverter from a company called Voltacon in Coventry.
It does everything I need but I was wondering whether it’s best to switch off the inverter when I’m not on the boat ( and batteries fully charged) or keep it turned on… any help greatly appreciated.
Hi Max.
Not that I’m an expert at all but I’d expect that you would leave the inverter active.
The point being that your batteries will have a specific self discharge rate (although this may be small) by leaving the invert on it will manage the batteries, allowing a small amount of discharge before being the voltage up again…
The inverter specs do say that it will manage the batteries to give longer life but it doesn’t say how it does it and I can’t figure out how it can just dump charge into nowhere. I went down one internet rabbit hole which mentioned dump loads and I might set up one of those using an immersion heater to heat water in my tank. That way, I’ll have hot water produced whenever the batteries reach a certain charge level.