Battery bank configeration

[Firesec]

Hi,
I am currently looking at sorting out a bit of a mess with my batteries left over from the previous owner.

There is no shore power charging in place just solar and alternator.
I have two battery's in parallel feeding the inboard, fridge and windlass. This in itself is a concern due to the draw. Both banks are operating with deep cycle 12 Volt batteries. Both current banks have a three way battery switch in the system.

I am looking at maintaining a single battery for the engine and a single for the high power draw items such as fridge and windlass. The house bank would stay as is. The solar panels are regulated directly into the house bank. I would like to add a shore power charger to the system.

Now is they time to sort this issue out as both my engine batteries are dead and want too set things up properly.

My questions are:
Am I heading in the right direction in separating the engine and heavy draw items or just being over cautious?
Where would I input the shore power charger to charge all batteries?
VSRs between each battery/bank?
Does anyone have a schematic or circuit diagram for such a configuration?

Any assistance would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Stu Jackson]

Nope, you aren 't. Making any arrangement with dedicated batteries (for anything other than windlass and bow thruster) is not good engineering. The largest house bank you can make will provide the longest bank life with the same amount of lead.

Build a BIG house bank and run everything from it, separate reserve (or start) bank depending on how you want to to use it.

Basic Battery Wiring Diagrams This is a very good basic primer for boat system wiring: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6604.0.html

This is another very good basic primer for boat system wiring: The 1-2-B Switch by Maine Sail (brings together a lot of what this subject is all about)
http://forums.catalina.sailboatowner...d.php?t=137615

[Cap Erict3]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

Nope, you aren 't. Making any arrangement with dedicated batteries (for anything other than windlass and bow thruster) is not good engineering. The largest house bank you can make will provide the longest bank life with the same amount of lead.

Build a BIG house bank and run everything from it, separate reserve (or start) bank depending on how you want to to use it.

Basic Battery Wiring Diagrams This is a very good basic primer for boat system wiring: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6604.0.html

This is another very good basic primer for boat system wiring: The 1-2-B Switch by Maine Sail (brings together a lot of what this subject is all about)
http://forums.catalina.sailboatowner...d.php?t=137615

I like having a bit of redundancy. I have 2 starting batteries that also normally supply my bilge pumps (my critical systems) and a house bank for everything else. They can all be isolated or paralleled as I see fit with the alternator supplying anything connected to the starting circuit.




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Looking for another pretty place to work on the boat.

[Firesec]

[QUOTE=Stu Jackson;1901045]Nope, you aren 't. Making any arrangement with dedicated batteries (for anything other than windlass and bow thruster) is not good engineering. The largest house bank you can make will provide the longest bank life with the same amount of lead.

Build a BIG house bank and run everything from it, separate reserve (or start) bank depending on how you want to to use it.

Thanks guys:

Stu: Are you are saying dedicated windlass battery, house bank and start battery (1 bank and 2 dedicated) or run the windlass from the start battery as well (1 bank and one dedicated)?

Capt: Sounds a but like my current arrangement without the bells and whistles. Where do you run your windlass from?

[Cap Erict3]

I installed a manual windlass.


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Looking for another pretty place to work on the boat.