Renogy 2000 Watt AC Inverter Review

Testing the Renogy 2000 Watt Inverter

In any project it's best to do the testing of your setup, and especially your products before you get stranded out somewhere and you have not put you system to the test in-house. To use in my electrical setup, I picked up a 2000 watt Renogy Inverter.

So with that I've been testing the entire setup for flaws. I plan to depend on an induction stove, crock pot/instant pot for cooking, a 5000 BTU air conditioner for cooling and an electric heater for cool nights.

Here is the basic level of draws of those appliances from my testing:

Air Conditioner (5000 BTU): 350 - 400 Watts

Instant Pot: 1200 watts 

Induction Hotplate: 500 - 1800 Watts

Heater: 800 - 1500 Watts

As you'll notice nothing is really close to 2000 Watts, the advertised output of the Renogy Inverter. But I've been having some problems getting the inverter to deliver on that.

At idle (no load) the Renogy draws 15 or so watts, but seems to consume as much as 250 watts under heavy load. At idle the voltage output seems consistent at around 115 AC volts, and even when under heavy load maintains 115 - 121 AC volts. In fact it seems to get higher under higher loads and I have measured the inverter putting out over 120 AC volts. I'm not sure what is normal here, I'm just testing.

In terms of my background with inverters, other than the 150 Watt inverter in the car, I've never used or tested any inverters hooked to large battery banks. 

The real problem is that whenever I get near 1600 watts, as measured on an AC watt meter the inverter shuts down. The image I have from the Victron BMV-712 Battery Monitor above shows that I am drawing about 1735 watts from the battery and that was just before the inverter shut off. I've done this test repeatedly and the same things happens. I've used a heater drawing ~ 1700 watts and an induction cooktop drawing ~ 1600 watts and the same outcome.

I am not sure what the issue is and am thinking about sending the unit back.

Overall I like the unit though. It is not too large and not too heavy. I would like to have seen some internal monitoring and bluetooth though. I am thinking that maybe I should get the 3000 watt version and a bluetooth shunt to monitor it.