Hi Arno;

I think all of your questions and concerns are valid. We are going through the same questions as we plan our upgrade. You have to first really sit down and decide exactly what your optimum setup would be. You want to be sure that you do not go down a design path with certain assumptions and design criteria and find out at the tail end that you also wanted “X” that the current design cannot provide.

We are also considering Victron, but have the same concerns of size, weight, derating with increased temperature, compatibility with existing MasterVolt, etc. One suggestion would be to look at MasterVolt Mass Combi Ultra. Here’s the link https://www.mastervolt.com/products/combis-inverter-charger/

They are light (33.7 lb), compact, provide full capacity in higher temperatures, low power consumption at idle (4W),  have an integrated solar charge regulator, two AC inputs for shore power and generator and multiple units can be ganged up to increase power output. In our case, we are thinking about going with a single unit (3.5 KW) and adding another when we go to full Lithiums for 7KW of inversion. Eventually eliminating the 100A and 40 A charges and having one or both as spares.

The issue of supplying it with the DC power needed will depend on the existing equipment and wiring in the engine room, so running new wires can be avoided. We are also trying to avoid moving the inverters out of the engine room. We currently have the 2500W MasterVolt inverter, 100A Charger and 40A Charger. So we have wiring sufficient for about 250A of 24 volts coming to the engine room. This would theoretically be sufficient for about 6000W of inversion. This is most likely sufficient to power all systems on board, including our 150l/hr water maker that needs about 3KW. We just have to manage concurrent system usage to stay in a safe range of available power.

It is great to have all of these new options, however, we just have to sort through them and have an overall design that meets our requirements. As always, with more options come more decisions.

Happy Sailing;

Mohammad and Aty

B&B Kokomo

AMEL 54 #099