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sam-carleton avatar image
sam-carleton asked

Is a smaller inverter worth adding to my system?

I have a travel trailer w/ 50A line. I am going to be living full time in it and the goal is to stay off grid as much as possible and to run a generator as little as possible.

At the moment the travel trailer has two Multiplus inverters. Most of our AC needs are going to be small loads: running computers, monitors, Starlink, PoE switch, etc. It seems to me running there is extra overhead in running two Multiplus all the time.

Q: How much power does the Multiplus really take when idle? When I go into the Cerbo and shut it off, what type of power consumption does it have to enable it to turn back on?

From my last build I still have the Phoenix 800 that I could install in the system to run those light loads. My #1 concern is in the extreme conditions in the winter when I don't see the sun for 2 weeks.

Q: What type of saving would I see if I ran the light loads on the smaller inverter and only turned on the big ones when a large load was needed?

multiple inverters
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2 Answers
derrick thomas avatar image
derrick thomas answered ·

Are the multi's in parallel or split phase? If in parallel you could shut down the slave and reconfigure the master to stand alone. I have done this on a few occasions when I needed to plug into a 15a outlet. (In the USA)

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sam-carleton avatar image sam-carleton commented ·

In parallel. A few things with disabling the slave: The RV is a 50amp RV that has two legs, when I go to turn on the multiplus inverter(s) I don't want to try to figure out which outlets to use. Also, I didn't set the initial system up so I don't have a MK3-USB yet.

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derrick thomas avatar image derrick thomas sam-carleton commented ·
If you have 2x120 multi's and they are in parallel then it doesn't matter what outlets are on what leg. One inverter in stand alone or both inverters in parallel will feed the entire panel. I would definitely suggest getting a mk3 even if you don't decide to use the stand alone method. It can be very valuable for any future troubleshooting you might need.
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sam-carleton avatar image sam-carleton derrick thomas commented ·
Sounds like I do need the mk3.
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kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

The data sheets/manuals give the numbers you need.

I did this for my boat, but you end up with more complex wiring.

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sam-carleton avatar image sam-carleton commented ·
Was it worth the time and effort on your boat?


I’ve hear the Cerbo only shows one inverter group, so it would be another DC load and I would have to wire it into the Lynx BMS‘ load disconnect.

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