So I'm finally getting close to finishing my 8x6 timber shed conversion into a proper off-grid writing cabin at the bottom of the garden. Got two 200W panels on the roof feeding into a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 MPPT, with two 100Ah 12V lithium cells wired in parallel. It's been a fun project but I'm now staring at inverters on Amazon wondering if I'm massively overthinking this.
The loads are pretty minimal — a laptop (65W), a small LED desk lamp, maybe a 40W fan in summer, and occasionally a travel kettle (roughly 1000W). I've seen people say a 1000W pure sine wave inverter is the sweet spot for setups like mine, but then I keep reading that you want to oversize them so they're not running flat out. Would a 2000W unit be overkill, or is that actually the sensible buy for the long run?
The one thing I'm a bit unsure about is the kettle. I know it's the biggest draw by a mile and I'd only flick it on once or twice a day, but I want to make sure whatever inverter I go for handles that short spike without complaining. Has anyone run a similar setup and found a brand that's held up well? I've seen the Giandel and MPP Solar names come up a lot but genuinely no idea if they're decent or just cheap Chinese tat dressed up nicely.