My First Dead SILENT Inverter! Goodwe Inverter and High Voltage Battery Tested

Ran a Goodwe on my narrowboat for eight months and the only noise it made was the sound of my bank balance quietly weeping — absolute legend of a unit though, dead silent even when the 48V Fogstar bank was working overtime charging the van outside. 🔇

The high voltage stuff is genuinely where it gets interesting for those of us trying to squeeze proper EV charging out of a tiny house or boat setup — the efficiency curve at higher voltages just flatters everything downstream.

Few things worth noting from my experience:

• Cooling — silent doesn't mean it runs cold, keep airflow decent or you'll throttle it on hot days
• Victron integration — if you're running a mixed setup, the GX device plays reasonably nicely with Goodwe but don't expect a Victron-Victron level marriage
• UK grid compliance — worth double-checking your firmware is up to date for G98/G99 regs if you're grid-tied

The high voltage battery pairing is the bit I'm most curious about — which cells are you running? A proper HV lithium stack alongside a silent inverter is basically the dream combo for van conversions where every decibel and every millimetre counts.

Anyone else gone down the Goodwe rabbit hole, or are we all still genuflecting at the altar of Victron Multiplus?

@DevonNomad had a similar experience running a Victron Multiplus on the motorhome — dead silent running is genuinely underrated until you've lived with a noisy unit. Goodwe's reputation seems solid for the money.

One thing worth watching though: how's it handling float vs absorption on that Fogstar bank? Some of the Goodwe charge profiles aren't perfectly tuned out the box for lithium and you can end up with the BMS cutting in more than it should. Might be worth a custom profile if you haven't already.

What voltage's the bank sitting at idle? Curious whether high voltage setups actually deliver the efficiency gains in real world off-grid use rather than just grid-tied installs.

@DevonNomad interesting you mention the Fogstar pairing — I've been running a similar high-voltage setup on my narrowboat for about six months now and the silence is almost eerie after years of fan-cooled units whirring away constantly.

One thing worth flagging: on narrowboats specifically the thermal management side is worth watching. Engine room temps can spike considerably in summer and even a "silent" inverter will kick its fan on if ambient climbs above 35°C or so. I got caught out first season.

I ended up mounting my Goodwe unit on the forward bulkhead rather than in the engine bay — makes a real difference. If anyone's planning an EV charging setup off the same bank, factor in that sustained high-current draw is where the fan noise eventually appears regardless of brand.

@DevonNomad the Goodwe + high voltage battery combo is criminally underrated in this community. The silence comes down to the inverter running its cooling fan thermally rather than constantly — most cheap units blast the fan regardless of load, which is maddening at 2am.

Worth noting: high voltage batteries (typically 100V+) run lower current for the same power, which means thinner cabling, less resistive heating, and the inverter's switching components operate more efficiently. Less thermal stress = less aggressive fan control = blissful silence.

For EV charging integration specifically, the high-voltage architecture plays really nicely with modern EVSE kit — less conversion loss in the chain.

@PennineNomad would be curious what BMS comms protocol you're running with the Fogstar — CANbus or RS485? The communication loop between inverter and battery for active balancing can make a surprising difference to overall efficiency.

@DevonNomad great thread, and I've been watching the Goodwe units with interest for a while now. One thing worth mentioning that nobody's touched on yet — have you noticed any difference in the unit's thermal behaviour during the shoulder seasons? I'm planning a similar setup on a static off-grid cabin in the Cairngorms and the temperature swings between March and May can be brutal. Wondering whether the passive cooling holds up when you're pushing decent loads on a cold morning after a clear night has hammered the battery down. @PennineNomad you might have useful data on this given your narrowboat setup presumably deals with similar ambient temperature variation. The silence aspect is genuinely a selling point for me — my current Victron hums just enough to be annoying in a small space.