full time solar, maybe?

servitrike wrote:
am i correct in understanding that in a solar set up, everythin runs off a DC battery(yeah, like there is an AC battery) thru an inverter. and the goal of the solar array is to supply a DC charge to resupply the batteries at a rate, equal to and well above the recharge rate of the batteries, so as to power the required devices while recharging the batteries?

Inverters change DC to AC, I think you mean solar controller or Charge Controller or CC.

CCs supply DC power (amps if you like) which is first used for house loads and if any amps remain they charge the battery. If the house amps exceed the CC capacity then the additional amps come from the battery.