alternator regulator or battery charger?

[dkenny64]

ok.
I've been thinking about how alternators and regulators work...


in my case I have 3 battery banks.. how is a single source alternator
to charge the 3 banks properly? ideally using 3 stages??


but lets change the thinking..
use the alternator as a source.. something like a solar panel..but not quite..
then use separate regulators for each bank.. yes. in my case 3 separate 3 stage chargers.. hum..should be able to remove the isolator...the regulators isolated the outputs.. sure we need an alternator regulator to provide the power.. but that should be easy..even with temperature compensation on the alternator output..


am I off my rocker?
thoughts?
-dkenny64

[john61ct]

You should only have one big house bank. All significant charge sources direct to that.

Voltage following ACR/VSR etc good enough for starters.

If another expensive finicky bank exists for some reason, could put in a DCDC charger. Another reason for that is too long a wire run, fat wiring impractical, avoiding voltage drop.

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by dkenny64

ok.
I've been thinking about how alternators and regulators work...


in my case I have 3 battery banks.. how is a single source alternator
to charge the 3 banks properly? ideally using 3 stages??


but lets change the thinking..
use the alternator as a source.. something like a solar panel..but not quite..
then use separate regulators for each bank.. yes. in my case 3 separate 3 stage chargers.. hum..should be able to remove the isolator...the regulators isolated the outputs.. sure we need an alternator regulator to provide the power.. but that should be easy..even with temperature compensation on the alternator output..


am I off my rocker?
thoughts?
-dkenny64

I think you are overthinking the fix. Instead of trying to figure out how to get an alternator to charge 3 separate banks (with potentially different charging profiles depending on DoD) Fix the 3 separate banks problem and convert to 1 larger bank, or tie the 3 banks to gether with switches to form 1 large bank and then use the alternator to charge the one large bank.

[dkenny64]

I agree I might be over thinking this.


I do have battery switches to tie the bank together.. sounds like a quick easy solution.


I have 3 banks. 1 is the engine/generator starting battery. the other 2 banks are not located together..at least not for now. I do like have the house banks separate.


-dkenny64

[john61ct]

Lower overall capacity, thus shorter lifespan.

Faster voltage drops too.

See Peukert

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by dkenny64

I agree I might be over thinking this.


I do have battery switches to tie the bank together.. sounds like a quick easy solution.


I have 3 banks. 1 is the engine/generator starting battery. the other 2 banks are not located together..at least not for now. I do like have the house banks separate.


-dkenny64

I would leave the 2 house banks tied together normally. It extends the life of the batteries a bit (spreading the DoD across more batteries is better) . If you want the house and engine to stay isolated, then just wire the alternator to the house bank and install a battery combiner between the house and engine start. This way when you start the engine it will "see" the deper discharged house bank and charge it. Once the voltage of the house bank gets above a certain point, the combiner will temporarially tie the engine start to the house bank and that battery will also be charged. Once the engine is stopped and the alternator is no longer charging, the combiner will again seperate the house from the engine start battery.