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#1
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Inverter/battery bank question
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. Marc "Fat Tuesday" |
#2
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Inverter/battery bank question
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#3
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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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. |
#4
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Inverter/battery bank question
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#5
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Inverter/battery bank question
"jeff" wrote in message
... snip I have a system that's similar: a catamaran with two engines, two starter batteries, a house bank with 4 6-volt golf batteries, a large Xantrax charger/inverter, and some solar panels. I also carry a small Honda generator so I can charge without running the engines. And your catamaran floats about a foot below designed LWL and won't get out of its own way because of all the crap you shipped. Idiots by catamarans because they have a good turn of speed and then proceed to load them up until they are slower than a monohull of similar LWL. Pretty dumb! Wilbur Hubbard |
#6
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Inverter/battery bank question
On Jun 4, 6:51*pm, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote: "jeff" wrote in message ... snip I have a system that's similar: a catamaran with two engines, two starter batteries, a house bank with 4 6-volt golf batteries, a large Xantrax charger/inverter, and some solar panels. *I also carry a small Honda generator so I can charge without running the engines. And your catamaran floats about a foot below designed LWL and won't get out of its own way because of all the crap you shipped. Idiots by catamarans because they have a good turn of speed and then proceed to load them up until they are slower than a monohull of similar LWL. Pretty dumb! Wilbur Hubbard Larry, thanks for the insight. I forgot to take voltage loss into consideration. Wilbur, Aren't you just a ball of sunshine... |
#8
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Inverter/battery bank question
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#9
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Inverter/battery bank question
On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:17:02 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote: On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 15:30:46 -0700 (PDT), wrote: 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. You are confusing two different products. Combiners have *no* voltage loss because they are essentially a switch (relay or solenoid). The product that introduces voltage loss is usually referred to as a "battery isolator". It uses diodes to ensure that one battery can not discharge the other but the diodes have a forward voltage drop which must be taken into account by the charging system. http://www.victronenergy.com/battery-isolators/argo-diode-battery-isolators/ The Blue Sea 7600 is a combiner; they just chose to call it something else. That whole "Ooo the diodes cause a voltage drop" thing is much over rated. I would assume that anyone who goes to the trouble of installing battery banks and connecting multiple charging devices is going to have a half serious charging regulator on the chargers. If so, simply connect the voltage sensing wire to the batteries. The regulators then sense the actual battery voltage. Cheers, Bruce in Bangkok (bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom) |
#10
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Inverter/battery bank question
On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:44:04 -0700, Peter Bennett
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. I would try to get the inverter batteries as close to the engines (charging source) as possible, and make the AC run longer. Doing this will produce less voltage drop in the 12 volt wiring while charging the batteries, possibly permitting a smaller cable. Hmm... I should have said "get the inverter and its batteries as close to the charging source as possible" You want to minimize the length of the high current, low voltage wiring, as any voltage drop there represents a significant power loss. The same voltage drop in the 120VAC wiring is relatively insignificant. -- Peter Bennett, VE7CEI peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca |
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