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Wayne.B Wayne.B is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,536
Default Charger - House Bank Sizing

On Tue, 2 Oct 2007 13:37:52 -0700, "Lew Hodgett"
wrote:

A wet cell battery can accept an average of 15% of it's AH capacity as
a recharge rate over the charging cycle.

Thus, a 400AH bank will accept 60A recharge average over the recharge
cycle.


Yes but it will accept 25% during the bulk charge phase which is where
most of the amp-hours are replaced.

I think it depends on how you use the boat and how you use the
batteries. If your only objective for the charger is to keep the
batteries topped up at dockside and supply house power, 30 to 40 amps
of charging capacity should be plenty. On the other hand, if you have
a generator and want to top the batteries up quickly while anchored or
underway, you need a charger that can put out 20 to 25% of your house
bank capacity.