Anyone else running a small inverter as emergency backup on their narrowboat?

by Ben Johnson · 6 days ago 74 views 0 replies
Ben Johnson
Ben Johnson
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5 posts
Joined May 2025
6 days ago
#8080

Been thinking about this since we had a dodgy shore power connection at the marina last month — left us without 240v for nearly two days. Got a Victron MultiPlus 12/1200 already handling main duties but wondering if a dedicated small backup unit makes sense or if that's overkill.

Currently sitting on a 200Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 bank. The MultiPlus obviously cuts over automatically but if that unit itself ever goes down I've got nothing. Thinking a cheap 300-500w pure sine inverter wired directly to the battery as a completely separate fallback — just for phone charging, a few lights and maybe the router.

Has anyone actually done this on a boat rather than a van? Space is tight and I don't want a rats nest of wiring under the gunwales. Curious what people are using and whether it's ever actually saved them.

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