Calypso came from the factory with Victron gear for charging but it had another brand of batteries. We replaced those batteries, upgrading to Relion Lithium batteries, not long after buying Calypso but the charging system itself was aging. Plus we wanted more functionality.
Calypso, like most boats, required AC power for several items to run. Hot water heaters, Air Conditioners, Washer and Dryer, etc all required either dock power or generator power to run. That means when it's roasting hot out at anchor, we'd have to run the generator at night in order to get AC. Which obviously shouldn't be left to run overnight as you slept. So we'd run it, cool the boat down and then shut it off right before bed. This method usually resulted in a gasping wake up at about 2am from the heat that's poured back into the boat from the tropics outside. We always hoped to get a system aboard that allowed running AC and other items off of battery power as well as AC power. That way we could, theoretically, run the AC all night...Flip on a hot water heater without needing to run the genset, etc.
Fast forward about 5 years and that's exactly what we've done!
If you're interested in hearing all about the new charging system and major upgrade then please head on over to the blog.
We've written a complete blog post in detail along with before and after photos to check out.