1 horsepower [international] = 745.69987 watts (at 100% efficiency. ) (and
one watt is one volt-ampere of course) (For the arithmetically challenged
that's about 62 amps at 12 volts and 53 amps at 14 volts.)

Nigel Calder has written a couple of very good books on the care and feeding
of battery banks. There's a lot more to it than just an on/off switch in
the regulator. You can spend really big bucks for a good smart regulator.

The salesman probably got the 3 hp in the same place they got the 12 hp
output rating, but remember, if it were 100% efficient, it wouldn't get hot.

Roger

http://home.insightbb.com/~derbyrm

"ray lunder" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 04 Aug 2006 10:33:37 -0400, Matt Colie
wrote:

snip
100A = 3hp. I don't know where he got this figure but there's a
formula for converting amperage to hp, I'm sure.