Inverter/house bank wiring

[On The Rocks]

As you can probably tell from my other posts I'm doing some rewiring, moving things around and cleaning up old/non-marine wire. My 3000 watt inverter is wired to the house bank with 4/0 cable. The wires going to the 12 volt house panel (pos) and engine block (neg) are the boat's original 1/0 wire. My question is should the wire all be 4/0? Seems like at least the ground from the batterys to engine block should match the inverter wiring?

 

[kchace]

If the inverter is wired directly to your house bank with 4/0 (both Pos and Neg sides) then the supply wiring to your house panel only needs to be big enough to support the house loads there. If the inverter shares some of the cabling from the battery to the house panel, then yes all wiring involved should be at the heavier gauge.

Ken

 

[On The Rocks]

Thanks. Yes the inverter is wired directly to the bank with the house panel wired seperately. So it sounds like the smaller wire size for the panel and ground is OK. That will save me some $ for sure.