[sv_makai]

Due to a second faliure of our herat charger invertor makai has been switched to a invertor with a seperate charge. Though we never use the charger in a marina except to equalize the batteries.

After the failure and the cost to ship the charger to st martin for repairs and return it we decided to install a Prosine 1750 invertor (biggest we could get in the Caribe) for 455 US. In the US we saw 299 price tags. We have a shore power\ invertor switch that allow us to chose the source. At anchor which is mmost of the time we are on the invertor. it works well and has a fairly good overhead so the waste amps is only about 20%.

For the laptop we had a dc-dc 12 volt to 19 volt invertor made. It has even a lower over head as it plugs directly to the battery system. Huge losses occur when using the invertor to go from 12 to 110 and 110 to 19 volts (most computer charge rates). A good invertor losses 20 percent or more from 12 to 110 and then again from 110 to 19 volts.

Also the dependence upon the invertor to charge the computer batteries is eliminated. We would have been hosed as we were without an invertor for 8 months the first time and 2 months the second.