RUN DOWN BATTERIES

[cmeperform]

Dual battery charger?Don't think I have seen one of those.
Guess I will figure something out.Have a solar charger also.A generator.

[tangentair]

Dual battery charger?Don't think I have seen one of those.
Guess I will figure something out.Have a solar charger also.A generator.

West Marine has a pro sport line that we had on our other boat and it worked really well, since the boat was a dock side lounge most summer evenings as well as a dinner cruiser along the Chicago skyline the charger got a pretty good work out and it held up the house battery well - enough to run lights and other 12v devices with no problems.

[cmeperform]

Having good luck with batteries now.Just needed charging.I'm just using a cheap walmart charger for the time being.The west marine chargers look nice

[enufsed]

I just replaced my old batteries with new ones -- a starter battery for the motor and a deep-cycle battery for everything else. The old batteries were tested and would no longer hold a charge.

I have a concern that since I'll normally use the battery just to get the motor going, then motor a short distance and get the sails up, there won't always be enough engine use to repower the batteries fully.

I'm thinking of getting a solar charger from a local store, which would trickle charge the starter battery. I'd appreciate any advice on a good location and how/where to run the cables.

It's a thin panel that could attach with suction cups (I think). Maybe on a window? My batteries are under the seat just aft of the kitchen counter.

[kmclemore]

Please... enufsed..... use the SEARCH feature.

There are oodles of already existing threads on Solar Power, and 'how to set up a proper solar power system' has been hashed out ad infinitum. Please check there first, and if your particular question hasn't been answered, please post your question within one of the later Solar threads so it can be answered where folks will later look for it.

OK?

[cmeperform]

I now have an inverter.I'm playing with a new idea of using the inverter to also
run a battery charger right back into the batteries.The talk of doing this suggest a
3 stage charger.Any ideas?

[Frank C]

I now have an inverter.I'm playing with a new idea of using the inverter to also
run a battery charger right back into the batteries.The talk of doing this suggest a
3 stage charger.Any ideas?

Not sure I understand your post.
You're going to plug a charger into the inverter, in order to charge the batteries?
Sounds like a perpetual motion machine~!

[cmeperform]

New technology introduced to the R.V. industry.They are now using battery chargers running
off inverters to recharge the battery while the inverter is being used..

[Frank C]

hmmm ... need a link.
Better yet, need Moe's description of this voodoo!

[RickJ]

New technology introduced to the R.V. industry.They are now using battery chargers running
off inverters to recharge the battery while the inverter is being used..

Although it sounds bizarre, I can see some sort of logic in this.

The higher the load on an inverter, the more power it will draw from the battery, but there is a minimum amount of power it will draw even with no load. If you use an inverter for a very low load, e.g. a phone charger, the power draw from the battery may be disproportionate. It's possible that adding a trickle charger to the load may not increase the power draw significantly, but will allow some of the otherwise wasted power to be fed back into the battery. It would amount to moving the operation of the inverter to a more efficient point on its load curve without actually consuming more power in total.

However, trying to use an inverter for no purpose other than to charge the battery would be pointless. The power drawn from the battery must by definition be greater than the charge fed back. You can't defeat the laws of physics - conservation of energy in this case!

Cheers, Rick

[cmeperform]

It's being put into new R.V's..It seems a little off the wall , I know.It makes sence if you can
slow the discharge rate of the battery.

[Russ]

We ran our house battery down this week. The electronics all went dead and I realized it was drained.
The problem turns out that the battery combiner was wired to only charge while the AC powered charger was plugged in. This is fine if we had AC power at the dock. The engine was only charging the starter battery.
So, a little rewiring is in order this weekend after I brought the battery home and charged it up.

These battery combiners are pretty cool when wired correctly. It can combine the starter battery with house and vise versa if the jumpers are set correctly. Keeps both batteries charged while engine is running and keeps starting battery isolated from discharging by house usage.

[c130king]

Russ,

Very interested in what happened with your combiner set up. Can you explain how you had it set up incorrectly and how you will have it set up when you fix it?

I will be installing a Yandina Combiner, Blue Seas Systems 1-2-Both-Off switch, and two Group 24 Wet Cell batteries in December when I get back to my boat. I thought the combiner was connected to the positive terminals on both batteries thus no matter which battery is getting the charge from the alternator (depending on the position of the switch) the combiner will allow the alternator charge to flow to the other battery as well.

I will not have shore power or an AC charging system on the boat.

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Jim

[Russ]

Russ,

Very interested in what happened with your combiner set up. Can you explain how you had it set up incorrectly and how you will have it set up when you fix it?

I also thought the combiner connecting the positive terminals on both banks would combine no matter which battery is being charged. Apparently not so with the Blue Sea Battery Link ACR combiner.
This is the unit I have:
http://bluesea.com/category/2/productline/overview/386
The install instructions I found
http://bluesea.com/files/resources/inst ... s/6330.pdf

It was installed by the dealer along with an AC battery charger. When plugged into AC power it worked great. Battery A is house and B is starting. It was wired to combine starting battery when the house is being charged.
It senses when bank A voltage goes above 13.5 volts (charging) and then combines the batteries. Well, this works just fine with the battery charger, but since I don't have dockside power, I need it to also combine the batteries when bank B (starting) is charging so bank A (house) gets charged.

There are two solutions to this.

1) Reverse the poles so bank A is the starting and B is house. Then it will combine when bank A goes to 13.5volts.
2) Use a jumper wire from the combiner terminal 1 to bank B. This lets the combiner sense both directions and will combine when either bank is charging at 13.5 volts.

I think I'll use the jumper wire because that will allow batteries to be combined no matter which one is being charged.

Your combiner might work differently, so read the instructions. What's nice about this Blue Sea unit is that it's very configurable. By installing a 2 way switch you can even manually override automatic settings. You can force it to combine banks by flipping a switch or force it not to.
The Battery Link ACR also has some safety features that prevent batteries from being combined if the drained battery is too far below expected voltage levels, like a battery with a dead cell that would pull the good battery down. It also won't combine if voltages are too high (15 volts) preventing you from cooking both your battery banks by a faulty voltage regular or charger. These thresholds can be changed by adjusting the dial.

[c130king]

Russ,

Thanks. After I posted my question I did some more digging and I found the installation instructions on the Yandina website. It shows connecting the two positive terminals with the combiner. It doesn't get anymore specific than that. It even has a diagram. So with the Yandina it looks like (and I desperately hope) that it doesn't make a difference and will work "both ways"...so to speak.

Thanks again,
Jim