# Stacking inverters



## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Just wondering, I know inverters can be stacked but I dont know if they must be identical inverters or if you can stack say a heart interface with battery charge with a trace ? Thanks in advance if any of you wise and educated folks know. Sis


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

They must be identical, usually even to the same production series, and must be designed to be stacked. In other words, an old Sw4024 and a new SW4024 may require modifications or updates to one or both before they could be stacked.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

WisJim- this is certainly good to know! DH thought we could stack our heart freedom with any other inverter and I thought they had to be somehow matched...you have probably saved us a bunch of money in blown up inverters! sis


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

By stacking inverters, are you trying to get 220Volts AC output? 
Just curious, since with my electronics/ ham radio background I had never heard of this practice!!! I do use solar/ batteries, and an inverter for my backup ham radio equipment....


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Yes they must be designed to do so (stack).
Tieing the Heart and Trace together is just asking to release that big can of smoke.
On the *other brands* of inverters, tieing two together to attempt to get 220 your looking for trouble.
If the frequency and phase are off, your load (well pump?) will NOT like it.

For instance the Outback inverters must have a Mate and a Hub . . . . that *talks* to the inverters to keep everything in phase.

Be carefull . . . . some *wild* 220 will get real messy, real fast.


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## idahodave (Jan 20, 2005)

If you need more capacity, not 240 vac, you could split the loads and use different inverters to feed the circuits. 

A 120 to 240 transformer could be used if 120 inverter has enough power (watts) to operate the 240 load.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Was thinking of the stacking thing to get more power . Since the solar/wind power goes into the battery bank through the battery charger? I assumed that only one set of power out cables would be allowed. Am I understanding you correctly when you say I could have two different inverters connected to the same battery bank? That would get me an additional 20 amps or so into the house but we seem to be doing ok at the moment. TIA sis


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Yes you can run your second inverter from your batt bank. . . .
Is your batt bank big enough to support both inverters . .??

---IF--your inverters are called upon to start and run big loads at the same time then you'll be getting a voltage dip.

Like idahodave said, split your loads into two different boxes, and power each box with a different inverter


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## james dilley (Mar 21, 2004)

I have 4 differnt invertors and I know I can put them into series , I E all running 120 volts to power different units I never thought about stacking them in parralel to boost the volts,I have the Deep cycle batteries avalible for the invertors to run.I saw A fellow A few years ago reworking his invertors at home to run 240 but I was thinking he was goofing up..Thanks for the Advice..


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