Battery Bank - wire for 12v, 24v, or 48v?

ependydad wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
If you plan on a large inverter definitely jump to 48 volts. I'd pick Outback or Victron with a hybrid (load support) feature.

Mind me asking why? What's the benefit to the higher voltage?

Less wiring power/voltage loss, basically. First, the currents are correspondingly lower (for the same power consumption), which means one may use smaller wires safely. Second, the voltage drop in wiring is relatively less, i.e. a one volt drop is a smaller percentage drop.

It's the same basic reason, though on a different scale, that utilities use 7 kV or higher voltages to distribute electric power down the street rather than 120/240V. The wire costs much less, and the overall losses are much lower. It's also why it generally makes sense to mount an inverter near the battery and run a longer AC power line from it than to mount it near the device being powered and run a long DC power line.