How to become fully inverted

Roger Hughes explains how he installed a powerful new source of silent AC power into his yacht

- Roger Hughes

When I bought my schooner Britannia, it only had a small 1,500W inverter that was not powerful enough to run the additional electrical devices I fitted as I modernised the 1977 yacht. She's American-built, so the AC electrics are all 120V, but the principle of an inverter is exactly the same for any output voltage.

Simply put, inverters work the opposite way to a transformer; they take 12V current from the batteries and miraculously convert it to run the AC devices on your boat (120V or 240V).

Even small boats with hardly any electronics can benefit from an inverter, provided they have adequate batteries, because it offers an easy way to be able to operate equipment like a laptop or to recharge a phone.

Small camper vans nearly always have inverters to run their appliances when on the road, especially if there's not room for a built-in generator. I even have a small portable inverter in my car to charge our phones and laptops while driving.

Britannia does have a big 6,500W diesel generator, so why did I want an inverter at all when, with the flick of a switch, we could have oodles of electricity to power the whole ship, without even blinking?

The reason is simple-silence. Even though it is well insulated under the cabin sole, we hated to run the generator for long periods, especially at night, because of the noise and possible annoyance to others anchored nearby. It was always nicer when we switched it off, but then there was no AC power anywhere, so this is where a good inverter comes in, to silently run all the appliances.