Add 12v capacity and Inverter

I recently acquired a Sea Ray (39) and wish to add additional 12v battery capacity (i.e., a "house bank") and also a 12v to 110v inverter. Has anyone tackled one or both of these projects? If so I would very much appreciate your input and recommendations/suggestions. The battery addition is rather straight forward as to placement but there are options regarding combining with starting batteries or not, but the inverter installation is much more technical. Thanks for any help/suggestions you can provide.
Jim

Lots of discussion here:
http://clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/inverter-installation.3059/

Battery technology has improved greatly. We went with lead acid batteries but now I would consider others. Eclectic car batteries seem like an affordable alternative. We have 10 six volt golf cart batteries. They provide excellent ballast in the bottom of the boat.

I think the first thing you need to ask yourself is what do you plan to power with the inverter. If it's an AC unit....forget it. But if you are just looking to do a coffee maker or a microwave and/or a TV you should be OK with a properly sized inverter and battery capacity. If you are just wanting house batteries I recommend 6 volt golf cast (GC) batteries wired in series. Golf cart batteries are not too expensive and they are a true deep-cycle battery and will give you good capacity and they are rechargeable many times. On my 52' Motoryacht I had 8 GC batteries and a 3500 watt inverter and I had power all day recharging the batteries before bed with the generator.

On my '89 340da I had 2 GCs and a Xantrex 1800 watt inverter that powered my 4 cu. foot fridge and an LCD TV. I had no problems.

The last time I looked 6 volt GC batteries were available at Costco for $80-90.
Shawn

Here’s my installation. Works very well..

http://www.clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/inverter-install.89992/

We didn’t add an inverter, but do have one. The inverter charger is a Magnum Research pure sine 3.5kw powered by a house bank of two 4D AGM batteries. Other than AC, we can pretty much keep the same life we do on shore power. We have two fridges (one with ice maker capacity, the other with a freezer that can keep ice cream frozen), the TVs, stove top, water heater, and convection oven. If operated rationally we can pretty much go for a 24 hour period with a daily recharge. We do time the recharge for a period when there is heavy electrical use. Usually morning while prepping and cleaning up after breakfast, having our showers, etc. so the gen is handling the high demand stuff.