Two Battery Banks Correctly Charged?

[wrublewski]

Originally Posted by btrayfors

Before you spend the big bucks, I"d recommend that you spend a few bucks for an hour's time of a qualified marine electrician. He could check your setup and look at it in its entirety, rather than piecemeal thinking about this or that.

One thing right off: your 60A alternator is woefully undersized for the approx 730AH battery (house + start). Those batteries can suck a lot of juice when they're down aways...much more than your alternator can supply. The main danger here is burning out the alternator, since they weren't meant to supply near full capacity for an extended period, but were designed to maintain start batteries in cars (which requires very little charging).

Bill

That's sort of my feeling also, hence the idea of a 100amp HOA with ext. regulator. real question is since the regulator would be 3 stage and the house are charged via inverter/charger will that interfere with the 3 stage regulator? sort of a redundant system.

What might be an idea is to buy the balmar 100amp alternator with ext. regulator for 800$ and use the ext. reg. for the 60amp alt, and hook up a new 100amp alt to the house via inverter (there is a bracket for the d2-55 S/Y Regina - HOA to hook up the balmar 100amp)

I hear you on the electrician. just want to educate myself.

[btrayfors]

A 100-amp alternator with a good external regulator (like the Balmar MC-612) would certainly be an improvement.

There's no issue of conflict between the external regulator for the alternator and an inverter/charger. The charger part of the inverter only works when you're plugged into shore power or an onboard generator. It then takes the incoming AC, converts it to DC, and charges the batteries. Providing, of course, that the switch labeled "inverter on" in the diagram isn't open, in which case there'd be no charging going on and no inverting either if I understand the diagram correctly.

It appears that the alternator is now connected to an isolator, thence to house battery bank and to the start battery. A far better arrangement would be to lose the isolator, connect the alternator output directly to the house battery bank -- with an appropriate fuse near the batteries -- and to use an EchoCharge or DuoCharge to keep the start battery topped up. This is more efficient and, once properly installed, requires no further action on your part.

IMHO, the marine electrician is still a very good idea. Could save you lots of $$ and heartaches down the line.

Bill

[wrublewski]

Originally Posted by btrayfors

A 100-amp alternator with a good external regulator (like the Balmar MC-612) would certainly be an improvement.

There's no issue of conflict between the external regulator for the alternator and an inverter/charger. The charger part of the inverter only works when you're plugged into shore power or an onboard generator. It then takes the incoming AC, converts it to DC, and charges the batteries. Providing, of course, that the switch labeled "inverter on" in the diagram isn't open, in which case there'd be no charging going on and no inverting either if I understand the diagram correctly.

It appears that the alternator is now connected to an isolator, thence to house battery bank and to the start battery. A far better arrangement would be to lose the isolator, connect the alternator output directly to the house battery bank -- with an appropriate fuse near the batteries -- and to use an EchoCharge or DuoCharge to keep the start battery topped up. This is more efficient and, once properly installed, requires no further action on your part.

IMHO, the marine electrician is still a very good idea. Could save you lots of $$ and heartaches down the line.

Bill

The Inverter switch is "on" and there is a charge coming into the house batt as seen on the link 2000. on a regular basis, I've been seeing 60amps coming into the house when motoring at speed.

I know the wiring was done professionally in 2007.

Thanks for the thoughts on the EcoCharge

[Hyprdrv]

Excellent thread guys. I to have a (some what similar) problem.
My Electric cat has 3 house batteries that are charged via a 144v to 12v charger. It turns out that the Genset start battery is one of these. On starting the genset the nav equipment would shut down momentarily and then restart after the generator starts. I know this is not good on the equipment so plan on adding an additional battery at the Genset dedicated for starting it only and use the 60a Alternator on the motor to charge it. I'll get a small battery to match the Alternator and remove the 20+' cable back to the house bank and shorten the run to about 2 feet. I have a 6kw inverter so a small portable 120v/12v charger will be used to start the genset engine if I loose the battery. Does this sound like the way to go?

Thanks,
Steve in Solomons

[btrayfors]

Originally Posted by wrublewski

The Inverter switch is "on" and there is a charge coming into the house batt as seen on the link 2000. on a regular basis, I've been seeing 60amps coming into the house when motoring at speed.

I know the wiring was done professionally in 2007.

Thanks for the thoughts on the EcoCharge

Just wanna make sure you understand that the inverter/charger has NOTHING to do with battery charging while you're running the engine (unless you're still plugged into the dock). The power comes from the alternator, thru the isolator, to the house and start batteries. The position of the inverter switch is irrelevant with regard to charging the batteries using the alternator.

Bill

[wrublewski]

Originally Posted by btrayfors

Just wanna make sure you understand that the inverter/charger has NOTHING to do with battery charging while you're running the engine (unless you're still plugged into the dock). The power comes from the alternator, thru the isolator, to the house and start batteries. The position of the inverter switch is irrelevant with regard to charging the batteries using the alternator.

Bill

Yes. thank you.