Surge Protection Question

[matt2]

I am concerned about surges from switching on and off heavy draw equipment affecting more sensitive instruments like radios, navigation equipment, computers etc.

I have an 1800 watt modified sine wave inverter, a 300 Amp hour battery bank and an 85 amp alternator. Some equipment llike a toaster, a vacuum cleaner and the anchor winch use a lot of amps and I was wondering whether the sudden demand in amps and the sudden stop when switching off a device might cause damaging power surges.

I suppose that there are two situations, one where the engine is running and the alternator is producing output to balance the current draw and another when the engine is off.

My guess is that the 300 ah battery bank operates as a sort of shock absorber, but I am not sure. Perhaps if the batteries were low they might not be so effective?

[Hartley18]

Matt, you didn't really say how it's all hooked up, but if everything is connected to your 300AH "house" bank then, yes, this will act as "a sort of shock absorber" (non-technical description) so, no, surge from turning things on and off is not likely to be a problem - and in practise rarely is on boats.

Surges that destroy expensive electrical equipment come from other things.. like lightning..