BoatBanter.com - Inverter/battery bank question

On Jun 4, 4:28*pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 13:24:14 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
OK

I have a twin engine houseboat and want to add an inverter and battery
bank. I've been working up the plan but have some questions I hope
could be answered here.

First the boat as configured:

Twin gas engine (350HP Crusader)
7.5Kw Kohler Generator
3 Batteries - 1 Group 27 dual purpose for each engine (also run house)
and 1 Group 24 for Genset
ProMariner Tournament 150 smart charger (15A 3 output distributed
charging)
3000w peak 1500W continous inverter

I'm looking at adding a remote battery bank (30' from engine room)
with (4) 6v 220Ah batteries for a total of 440Ah at 12v. My thought is
to use a Blue Sea 7600 ACR feeding the power through 4G cable from the
engine room to the remote battery bank. The ACR has a current limiting
feature which will allow me to get by with the smaller cable since the
connection is only needed for charging. I'm not married to this
approach and am open to alternate suggestions. The output of the
inverter will connect into 2 Blue Sea 8366 (3 position + off) rotary
AC switch which will then feed into the existing breaker panels.

Now for my questions:

Is there any way to connect this so I can get the alternator output
from both engines to the remote bank? It would be nice to be able to
have either or both engines charge this bank while underway.

Any ideas how to build a system that will vent my remote battery box
during charging but not run when it's not being charged? Something
that turns on a fan when either the charger or alternators are
charging and then shuts it off when they stop.

What's the best way to terminate the cables? I know enough not to
solder them on, but hammer-type crimpers seem like they would be
difficult to work with in tight spaces while plier-type crimp tools
are EXPENSIVE. I found some 4g ring terminals that use a set-screw
system to clamp the wire but am not sure how well they would work.

There's probably more to conside but that's what I have for now.

In order to safely charge the inverter bank from the alternators you
need something called a "battery combiner". * The combiner is
basically a smart switch which will disconnect the alternator (and
starting battery) if the voltage drops to some predetermined level,
usually in the range of 13.2 to 13.6 volts.

Here's a couple of examples:

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|328|51495|606044&id=605576

http://www.blueheronmarine.com/Battery-Combiners/?gclid=CIKCye3G8ZoCF....

http://www.e-marine-inc.com/products/inverters/combiner.html- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks for the reply.

I looked into battery combiners and found they are not ideal due to
voltage loss. That's why I'm looking at the Blue Sea 7600 which is an
Automatic charging Relay. It connects the battery banks when there is
a charging voltage present and disconnects when it goes away.

My question surrounding the alternator setup is how I can get them to
BOTH charge the battery bank at the same time.