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Hi Alex,
After living off grid for about 8 years I went down the12 volt path and finally came around to 48 volt.
It gives you so much more flexibility and less copper needed and that voltage drop thing with 12 volt over distance.
Most inverter chargers will take 48 volts and now most panels are 24 volt.
The 24 volt panels are so much cheaper than 12 volt ones.
The panel total voltage is 120v (3x40v in series) so a MPPT gets good voltage even when there's a little cloud.
Also i ran a step down transformer to a 12 volt system for lighting and charging.
When I had only the 12 volt system I was always running stuff at 11.8v or less because of wiring distances.
A 12 volt system will not deliver a constant 12v especially if you have distance. I wired everthing with 4mm initially and its still not enough to cover voltage drop.
Those 2v agms are good but its pretty expensive to get 24 of them.
48v at 420A is a pretty good system and at 240 volt its about 105A.
Take off 50% at least for longevity of the batteries (75% recommended) thats still a toaster on for 5 hours
By the way you are right about the volts amps thing.
Also tell him Watts=Amps X Volts
Cheers
Andy
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