GL: Battery-inverter-charger questions

[Ken Bloomfield]

My suggestions are based on what I have, and they are very cost effective 
and work very well:

1.)  Inverter bank is 8 golf cart batteries, yielding 880 amp/hours. Cost 
was $85 x 8 = $680
2.)  Inverter is Tripp-Lite PV2400FC for about $450 (2400 watts continusous, 
4800 for 5 minutes).
3.)  Charger is Iota Engineering DLS-90 with 90 amps charging current. About 
$400
4.)  Switching relay system Potter and Brumfield contacter about $45.
5.)  Wiring time was about 1 full day.

This gives me a very robust system, with good holding power for an evening, 
and breakfast with lots of stuff running.  (Albeit no hot water tank heater 
or air-conditioning, but everything else).

My refrigerator is a Samsung and it is wonderful.  I wrote up the 
installation in the MTOA magazine.  The system uses totally discrete 
separate cooling systems for the freezer and the refrigerator sections. 
When defrost is needed, it dumps the heat from one section to defrost the 
other, thus very efficient.  The power used on AC is less than 3 amps 
running and less than 30 amps through the inverter off the batteries.  The 
efficiency is very good and the capacity is 18 cubic feet, not a 12 volt toy 
'fridge.  We LOVE it.

As CCC always points out, YMMV.

Cheers,
Ken Bloomfield
MTOA# 2062
AGLCA 3529
M/V Tellico Lady, 50' MT-Walkaround