I'm in the process of planning and
purchasing parts to redo a lot of my
electrical charging system. Hopefully, I'll get some answers about simple questions first and more detailed ones as I go along. There are a bunch of really experienced (and well trained) folks here that I trust.
I have a Xantrex Freedom 30 inverter/charger for
shore power charging. It is connected to a Link 2000. I have three
solar panels into a BZ
MPPT controller. And, a
Balmar series 6
alternator through a
Balmar ARS-5 controller. Finally, my house bank is 3 12v Optima Blue top (D34M)
batteries and my starting
battery was the same but it just failed and I'll be replacing it as part of this
work. I was convinced to buy a Balmar Digital Duo
Charger a couple of years ago with the idea that I'd put it in to improve the charging system. So, that will be part of the final design.
The first question is: Should I wire all of the charging devices to the house bank and then only charge the starting
battery through the Duo
Charger? There seems to be some differences of opinion with some people charging the starting battery with their
shore power charger as well, when on shore
power.
Second: I am probably going to have to use at least one positive buss bar to distribute the
power from my house bank. And, I will probably need two negative buss bars (connected together with 2/0 cable?) to be able to fit things into available geometries. I've seen buss bars made by Blue Sea (
https://www.bluesea.com/products/cat...sBars/PowerBar and
https://www.bluesea.com/products/cat.../PowerBar_1000) I think I'll only need 4 studs per Buss. And I've seen Marinco Buss Bars (
Busbars | marinco) I kind of like the Marinco 5 stud version 'cause it gives a little expandability. But does anyone have any experience or suggestions on these?
This is just the start. I'll be drawing my
wiring diagram soon and will post it for comments and corrections.
Thanks to everyone in advance. I hope this thread can help others who might add or rework some of their
wiring.
Bill