concern over battery banks

[davidbrady]

Greg,

Here's a Niehoff document that talks about the excessive load of AGM batteries and the availability of an alternator mounted thermal switch which can limit alternator current with heavy loads. I know my LXi lacked any thermal protection on it's 50DN, so I'd say owners routinely load their alternators beyond rated current capacity. How many times have you started your bus only to see the 50DN ammeter peg!

Hal,

The battery fuel gauge provided by your inverter depends on the ground shunt, so I think you want that house battery bank grounded at the inverter and thru the shunt. This way the inverter senses battery ampere-hour loads consumed thru inverting as well as those consumed by 12VDC loads, and it senses ampere-hour charging produced by the inverter's charger as well as those produced by the engine alternator.