The holy grail of marine power management TY so much!! A company this generous with its hard earned expertise should be everybody's first choice when it becomes mod or refit time.
This is clearly a question on a lot of people's minds ! My question is - in a setup with a lithium house bank and an AGM starter battery connected by a DC-DC charger (Victron Orion in this case) relying on an alternator for charging, why does one want to charge the Li house bank through the AGM starter battery vs the other way around ? Only so much charging output is available to the Li bank from a DC-DC charger configured in this fashion, diminishing the benefit of the lithium bank's bulk charging rate, versus using the DC-DC to charge from the house bank to the starter battery, where the starter battery is unlikely to benefit from anything more than the 20 to 30A that the DC-DC charger provides. I understand that you will need to protect the alternator with a Sterling or Balmar APD for protection against a load dump from sudden cut-off or reduction in Li house bank charging, but this configuration seems to retain the benefits of fast Li bulk charging, and provide plenty of charge to keep the AGM starter battery healthy.
Hi Jeff, Thank you for getting into this subject in such detail. What comes To my mind is that you connect the battery isolator right after the alternator and then from that battery isolator can you connect an external regulator to charge lithium batteries. You do not connect anything else to the lead acid batteries as they charge through via standard alternator charging profile. Of course as you mentioned you have to replace the stock alternator for the overload.
Interesting, but i've haven;t seen this done before. From my understanding the external regulator drives the output of the alternator as opposed to modifying the output of the alternator.
I would recommend changing over to one house battery when the switch I’d made to LiFePo, after market alternator with controllable external regulator and charge the start battery with a DC/DC charger from the house bank.
This is what I did this year on our willard trawler. While cruising the balmar alternator charged the lead acid starter battery. And from the starter battery a renogy DC to DC charger 40 amp charged our 600 amp hour lifepo4 house battery bank. We were cruising from. Virginia to Florida keys and back . This worked well. Very happy with it.
@@dansweeney4167 Why would you not do the opposite as the LiFePo4 batteries can take the full amperage outlay of the great alternator? I'm sure it worked well but seems that it could work substantially better. That said, if you are happy with your setup well then keep the happy trawler cruising along!
@@atxsailor452 I used the starter battery to protect the alternator . I've researched what you suggested but found that if the lithium bms becomes satisfied it will shutdown the charging and that could possibly ruin the alternator. This way the battery and DC to DC protect the alternator from the power shutdown. It worked well the alternator never had to work hard to charge at a high amp draw. I agree there is other ways to do the same thing. This seamed to be a safe way.
We use 600 watts solar with 300 amps LifePO4 house. 3 x50 amp AGM in parallel for engine and windlass, 70 amp alternator , DCDCMPPT Charger & 1 40 amp MPPT charger, & Honda EU2200 gennie as backup and 3KW inverter charger.Been cruising on our 42 foot sailboat for 6 months and no issues. SOK batteries and Renogy controls!
Hi Jeff, I tend to use the smart BMS CL12/100 and CL/12/200 from Victron (along with some other devices) and the starter battery and alternator are both connected to the input of this device and on the output side which goes to the Lithium bank, you use a Mega Fuse as a shunt to limit the output of the alternator and these values are stated in the manual of the CL12 as to what fuse rating gives you the max output from the alternator,so you select one that wont roast your alternator. And because the alternator and the engine starter battery are always together, when the CL12 device disconnects and switches off the output side when the Lithium is charged (by using the remote ‘H’ input) the alternator is totally safe as it’s connected to a standard lead acid battery. It’s more work than adding the DC-DC but you don’t have the restriction of the 30A max charge current.
Hi Jeff, long time fan! I may have missed this but I don't often see you recommend having the alternator charge the house bank(s) directly, and using a DC-DC charger to charge the starter, which seems to offer the best of both worlds. It let's the bank that drains the most (house) absorb the full power of the alternator, and use the relatively low Amp DC-DC chargers to trickle charge the starter, which will normally be near full. Is the perceived lack of promoting this configuration due to a concern of this config or just the more complicated rewiring necessary for many DIYers?
Matt, I totally agree. I’ve been searching the web for an answer to this with no joy. I can not see a problem with your idea but any one with the knowledge seems to avoid the question. What are we missing here?
Here's the challenge with this setup (high output alternator (with external regulator) directly connected to lithium house battery). If your alternator is outputting... and in the unlikely event your lithium BMS decides to disconnect the lithium battery, then your alternator might get damaged from suddenly losing the battery connection.
@@PacificYachtSystems gotcha, that makes sense for Lithium. I have a Firefly house bank with a Balmar 170 Amp connected to it. And use the Xantrex echo charge to charge my battery. Hopefully no concerns with my setup that I've overlooked!
@@PacificYachtSystems If the lithium batteries did shut down the alternator would still be connected to the AGM’s through the dc/dc charger(Victron Orion 30) and absorb the load dump. For extra protection as a alternator protection device like a Sterling alternator protector for under $100 or something similar. As for electronics being damaged in the worst case scenario proper fusing should protect them.
Thanks Jeff. We bought a sailboat with a house bank of LifePo4 batteries (2) and a lead acid starting battery. The boat was not wired correctly and we are reworking it. We plan to use a balmar 614 regulator for the 100 amp alternator charging the lead acid starting battery with two 18 or 20 amp DC to DC chargers to charge the Lithium from the house. We are adding a bow thruster and will probably add another lead acid battery to run that and the windless at the bow. What advice would you have for connecting and charging that third battery bank?
Wish you were here in Sint Maarten where we are needing to replace our house bank and taking the opportunity to go lithium. Unfortunately, getting confused and conflicting opinions about two aspects of system design. We’re a catamaran w house bank and two starter batteries, two chargers for house (40&60amp programmable), 2 -70amp alternators, 2,600w solar, 2000w inverter (sufficient at present) and 13.5kw Genset. 1st issue is AC-DC charging which needs to be increased to efficiently charge 1200ah lithium bank when solar falls behind. Do we add another charger(s) in parallel to existing or scrap existing and go w larger combination inverter/charger? 2nd issue is charging both lithium house and starter batteries . Plan to add external regulators to both alternators but installers disagree after that. One says charge lithium then use DC-DC charger (need more than one?) to charge starters from house while another advocates using some sort of relay to direct charge between the two. SOO CONFUSED!
Hey Jeff when I have an agm start and a lithium house 100 ah a victron orion isolated 12 12 18 btb question is will the lithium charge when I am hooked up to shore or do I need a different charger? Thanks so much
I just bought an old boat and trying to figure out the electrical system is overwhelming. It stresses me out wondering how I am going to troubleshoot anything if something quits working. I'm pretty sure it has an engine and house bank. I have two alternators, generator, solar, wind, a Freedom 3000w inverter charger, and I just found a smaller charger in the engine room. I have no idea what is charging what. I'll eventually get it all figured out. There's a lot of components I've never seen before.
I am putting in a 300 Ah Lithium house bank . I have an 105 Ah agm engine battery and 160 Ah bags bow thruster bank. I plan on having 2 30 amp dc-dc chargers for the house bank being fed from the battery isolator. Feeding the the isolator is a 120 Amp alternator and a 100 Amp charger. The isolator also supplies the 2 age banks. Is that a reasonable setup?
Hey Jeff, have recently purchased dual lithium hybrid cranking batteries i am planning on running in parellel for house and starting purposes. Still tossing up the best way to wire these up to the alternator? Any thoughts, thank you.
A question. I have a 96v, 10amp solar panel system charging a 48v lithium ion battery bank via a charge controller that takes in only 66 volt from the panel system. Is it technically possible to charge a 12v house battery bank with the same panel system by adding a 12v charge controller?
If customer had endless money I would 1) 200 amp alternator with serpentine kit with external regulator charging the house bank with most loads. 2) DCDC 10 amp for Starter 3) the two house battery banks charged with battery combiner. Pick house bank with the largest loads for alternator. 4) take me on the cruising adventure. 😂
This is the same thought I had exactly, a LiFePo for each electric drive motor and a good house battery and the starter battery would be a small temporary load on the house battery as needed
I've purchased a new Pontoon boat with a 90 Hp Mercury out board with one starter battery. I also have two deep cycle batteries for a 24v setup for my 70Hp trolling motor. Obviously the motor is charing the starter battery. How can I use the motor to charge the two deep cycle batteries? They are all led acid batteries.
The sailer that have agm and lithium together. Can you make us a video on this.???? Many wondering how you can put this together. And the sailer says it works and it can be done. How is that possible?? I have VW lithium 10 11kw pack. And 2 x 9.2 kW agm enersys powersafe topp of line agm batteryes. Will it combine ? And how ?? If you see here in TH-cam and see after lithium and agm together, you only find 1 of them i do belive
Hi, A bit late to the party, but your videos are extremely informative years and years after they have been published. I have watched so many of them several times in order to make sure I understand. The result is often that I understand that I understand very little :-) An inspiration to learn more of course! Would it be possible to have a solution where you have an argofet 1:3 where one output goes to the starter battery and where you connect a DC to DC charger directly on the two other outputs from the argofet and then to the lithium battery banks? The DC to DC chargers could then be set to a lithium charging profile and the charging would be ok. The DC to DC charger would also limit the amps drawn from the alternator.
im about to commision a similar system, but the third bank is 24v and the other 2 are 12. victron orions are my solution for alternator charging, using software to manage total amps draw and solar to supplement both house banks. the 24 volt is lithium the 12 is agm
Could you go from the Alternator to an isolator (FET Combiner) from there to a DC to DC converter then one going to Lithium batteries and the other to charge the Engine start battery ?
Trying to find a video.. but can’t. Anybody know if you can have two different battery banks ( different brands ) but have a battery selector down line from solar charger . And then another selector between the two banks to inverter? So you can switch between battery banks both inputing and outputting?
I was sitting here thinking about the wiring for a battery charger and fuses. The wire going from the battery charger to the battery should be fused I think. There is a fuse at the charger to the battery but there is no fuse at the battery connection for that wire. It’s a straight wire to the battery charger. What happens if something happens to that wire? There is nothing protecting it in the reverse direction. Should there not be a fuse at the battery from the battery charger?
QUESTION: Will a DC to DC charger in a system get messed up if I have a digital on board battery charger plugged in when the boat is back at the house (110v AC into the charger)? The digital battery charger is for the deep cycle batteries. Would the DC to DC charger work backwards and charge the start battery, or would it be a mess? Thanks for any advice.
Hi Jeff, I have been reading on the Victron site and it appears they claim you can run multiple DC to DC chargers in parallel. That might be a way for him to go. Or maybe adding a second alternator with a lithium charging profile.
Stock alternator is too small for even one continuous 30A charge. So to get more energy from alternator, it needs to be upgraded anyway. In my opinion, it would be best to add some high output second alternator with lithium profile like Balmar to the system, as you said. Then there is no need for DC to DC conversion, start battery would be charged from stock alternator and Lithium would get full output of second alternator. But that also needs some safety guard, when Lithium decides to disconnect due the over charge, over temperature or other reason. There are devices like Sterling alternator protector, but it is more like additional guard not like only guard. Best way would be some kind of external BMS or even Lithium battery with external communication port that could send message to alternator to stop charging before battery is disconnected.
Could one use a lead starter dc2dc converter to a mosfet splitter then to two LiFePO4 bat banks? I have this setup in mind if I ever decide to add a second bank to my house.
I am currently on the market for a 40 foot sailboat. It is being hard to find one that fits what I am look for in the current market with a generator. What are the alternatives to run a 16 BTU air conditioning without a generator while not connected to shore power? Thanks for any information that you can provide
You'd need a huge lithium battery bank and then a massive solar array, some catamarans can pull it off because of the solar array size, but it's a real challenge for monohulls.
When he makes the switch, he would be better getting rid of the FLA on the crank and changing to AGM . He could pick up a MV plus 12/3/75 and a straight DC profile for now, then when he makes the change, create user a defined profile, and set it up as a DC to DC charger off the alternator for on board charging. Set the float at 13.8 for shore charging, no?
Hey Guys! So I have a question that follows on with this thought process. I too am getting ready to make the move to a live aboard Lifestyle. I wanted to charge my house bank from the alternator. Then have the house bank keep my start bank topped off. Is my process wrong? I don’t want to let the smoke out of any components. House bank is 6, 12V 100 Amp Lithium LifePo batteries. Start bank is 2 AGM 12V, both are in parallel. I have upgraded my Alternator regular to a Balmar 60-YP-MC-120-K6 at 12V - 120 amp with a Balmar AMP-12 Alternator Protection Module for 12 volt system. Then from the Lithium house bank to the Orion TR Smart 12/12volt - 30 amp Isolated charger. That will keep my start bank topped off. Best Reguards David L Houston
I’m about to do the same thing in my 33ft sailboat. So only 1 house bank and 1 start battery. In order to get the most out of the generator (will be replaced with a Balmar 100A generator with external regulator (of course with the voltage measured at the battery 😉) and if I can fit it, a fan with a duct to the outside to get cool air to the generator. I was thinking. The starter battery hardly needs any charge compared to the house bank, so why not have the generator charge the house bank, and a dc-dc charger to charge the start battery? In my mind that would be a better way of getting more out of the Lithiums ability to use the generators output.
No No No. Solution is far simpler. Have your alternator charge your starter battery + add a voltage activated relay isolator and hook up an AC pure sine wave inverter to relay isolator, then run standard 15AMP outdoor extension cords to your battery chargers, have separate smart chargers designed for battery types. You will only use about 3.5A AC so standard extension cords will do. Most of those relay isolators kick in when you alternator voltage reaches 13.8v so inverter will only be powered up when alternator is running.
Uh, urls not allowed in comments? The links I added to my comment are not sponsored or affiliate links. I spent half an hour composing my comment and it got deleted. 😖
Thank you for sharing about the urls and links. We didn't delete the comment, it appears that "The only comments with links allowed will be from moderators, and approved users" - according to TH-cam.
The holy grail of marine power management TY so much!! A company this generous with its hard earned expertise should be everybody's first choice when it becomes mod or refit time.
Thanks David, glad to help.
This is clearly a question on a lot of people's minds ! My question is - in a setup with a lithium house bank and an AGM starter battery connected by a DC-DC charger (Victron Orion in this case) relying on an alternator for charging, why does one want to charge the Li house bank through the AGM starter battery vs the other way around ? Only so much charging output is available to the Li bank from a DC-DC charger configured in this fashion, diminishing the benefit of the lithium bank's bulk charging rate, versus using the DC-DC to charge from the house bank to the starter battery, where the starter battery is unlikely to benefit from anything more than the 20 to 30A that the DC-DC charger provides. I understand that you will need to protect the alternator with a Sterling or Balmar APD for protection against a load dump from sudden cut-off or reduction in Li house bank charging, but this configuration seems to retain the benefits of fast Li bulk charging, and provide plenty of charge to keep the AGM starter battery healthy.
As usual, a great video with outstanding information and instructions.
Well done!
Thanks Leon!
Hi Jeff,
Thank you for getting into this subject in such detail.
What comes To my mind is that you connect the battery isolator right after the alternator and then from that battery isolator can you connect an external regulator to charge lithium batteries.
You do not connect anything else to the lead acid batteries as they charge through via standard alternator charging profile. Of course as you mentioned you have to replace the stock alternator for the overload.
Interesting, but i've haven;t seen this done before. From my understanding the external regulator drives the output of the alternator as opposed to modifying the output of the alternator.
I would recommend changing over to one house battery when the switch I’d made to LiFePo, after market alternator with controllable external regulator and charge the start battery with a DC/DC charger from the house bank.
This is what I did this year on our willard trawler. While cruising the balmar alternator charged the lead acid starter battery. And from the starter battery a renogy DC to DC charger 40 amp charged our 600 amp hour lifepo4 house battery bank. We were cruising from. Virginia to Florida keys and back . This worked well. Very happy with it.
@@dansweeney4167 Why would you not do the opposite as the LiFePo4 batteries can take the full amperage outlay of the great alternator? I'm sure it worked well but seems that it could work substantially better. That said, if you are happy with your setup well then keep the happy trawler cruising along!
@@atxsailor452 I used the starter battery to protect the alternator . I've researched what you suggested but found that if the lithium bms becomes satisfied it will shutdown the charging and that could possibly ruin the alternator. This way the battery and DC to DC protect the alternator from the power shutdown. It worked well the alternator never had to work hard to charge at a high amp draw. I agree there is other ways to do the same thing. This seamed to be a safe way.
That’s why I would install a Sterling Power alternator protection device to the setup I suggested.
@@atxsailor452 as Dan Sweeney is using the start battery to protect the alternator would this still be the case in your set up?
Hope you can make a video about agm and lithium together in 1 big bank. Ups and Downs. And how
We use 600 watts solar with 300 amps LifePO4 house. 3 x50 amp AGM in parallel for engine and windlass, 70 amp alternator , DCDCMPPT Charger & 1 40 amp MPPT charger, & Honda EU2200 gennie as backup and 3KW inverter charger.Been cruising on our 42 foot sailboat for 6 months and no issues. SOK batteries and Renogy controls!
Thanks for sharing, glad it's all working for you.
Hi Jeff, I tend to use the smart BMS CL12/100 and CL/12/200 from Victron (along with some other devices) and the starter battery and alternator are both connected to the input of this device and on the output side which goes to the Lithium bank, you use a Mega Fuse as a shunt to limit the output of the alternator and these values are stated in the manual of the CL12 as to what fuse rating gives you the max output from the alternator,so you select one that wont roast your alternator. And because the alternator and the engine starter battery are always together, when the CL12 device disconnects and switches off the output side when the Lithium is charged (by using the remote ‘H’ input) the alternator is totally safe as it’s connected to a standard lead acid battery. It’s more work than adding the DC-DC but you don’t have the restriction of the 30A max charge current.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Jeff, long time fan! I may have missed this but I don't often see you recommend having the alternator charge the house bank(s) directly, and using a DC-DC charger to charge the starter, which seems to offer the best of both worlds. It let's the bank that drains the most (house) absorb the full power of the alternator, and use the relatively low Amp DC-DC chargers to trickle charge the starter, which will normally be near full. Is the perceived lack of promoting this configuration due to a concern of this config or just the more complicated rewiring necessary for many DIYers?
Matt, I totally agree. I’ve been searching the web for an answer to this with no joy. I can not see a problem with your idea but any one with the knowledge seems to avoid the question. What are we missing here?
If the lithium bms disconnects, the alternator goes poof, as can your electronics, due to the voltage 'spike'
Here's the challenge with this setup (high output alternator (with external regulator) directly connected to lithium house battery).
If your alternator is outputting... and in the unlikely event your lithium BMS decides to disconnect the lithium battery, then your alternator might get damaged from suddenly losing the battery connection.
@@PacificYachtSystems gotcha, that makes sense for Lithium. I have a Firefly house bank with a Balmar 170 Amp connected to it. And use the Xantrex echo charge to charge my battery. Hopefully no concerns with my setup that I've overlooked!
@@PacificYachtSystems If the lithium batteries did shut down the alternator would still be connected to the AGM’s through the dc/dc charger(Victron Orion 30) and absorb the load dump. For extra protection as a alternator protection device like a Sterling alternator protector for under $100 or something similar. As for electronics being damaged in the worst case scenario proper fusing should protect them.
Thanks Jeff. We bought a sailboat with a house bank of LifePo4 batteries (2) and a lead acid starting battery. The boat was not wired correctly and we are reworking it. We plan to use a balmar 614 regulator for the 100 amp alternator charging the lead acid starting battery with two 18 or 20 amp DC to DC chargers to charge the Lithium from the house. We are adding a bow thruster and will probably add another lead acid battery to run that and the windless at the bow. What advice would you have for connecting and charging that third battery bank?
Wish you were here in Sint Maarten where we are needing to replace our house bank and taking the opportunity to go lithium. Unfortunately, getting confused and conflicting opinions about two aspects of system design. We’re a catamaran w house bank and two starter batteries, two chargers for house (40&60amp programmable), 2 -70amp alternators, 2,600w solar, 2000w inverter (sufficient at present) and 13.5kw Genset. 1st issue is AC-DC charging which needs to be increased to efficiently charge 1200ah lithium bank when solar falls behind. Do we add another charger(s) in parallel to existing or scrap existing and go w larger combination inverter/charger? 2nd issue is charging both lithium house and starter batteries . Plan to add external regulators to both alternators but installers disagree after that. One says charge lithium then use DC-DC charger (need more than one?) to charge starters from house while another advocates using some sort of relay to direct charge between the two. SOO CONFUSED!
Hey Jeff when I have an agm start and a lithium house 100 ah a victron orion isolated 12 12 18 btb question is will the lithium charge when I am hooked up to shore or do I need a different charger? Thanks so much
And I Wonder is there any ac belt driven dynamo that charge not dc power but ac 220volt ??
I just bought an old boat and trying to figure out the electrical system is overwhelming. It stresses me out wondering how I am going to troubleshoot anything if something quits working. I'm pretty sure it has an engine and house bank. I have two alternators, generator, solar, wind, a Freedom 3000w inverter charger, and I just found a smaller charger in the engine room. I have no idea what is charging what. I'll eventually get it all figured out. There's a lot of components I've never seen before.
It's a process Tracey, electrical was scary for me too when i started. The first step is to be curious... slowly but surely you'll get more familiar.
I am putting in a 300 Ah Lithium house bank . I have an 105 Ah agm engine battery and 160 Ah bags bow thruster bank. I plan on having 2 30 amp dc-dc chargers for the house bank being fed from the battery isolator. Feeding the the isolator is a 120 Amp alternator and a 100 Amp charger. The isolator also supplies the 2 age banks. Is that a reasonable setup?
Hey Jeff, have recently purchased dual lithium hybrid cranking batteries i am planning on running in parellel for house and starting purposes. Still tossing up the best way to wire these up to the alternator? Any thoughts, thank you.
You'll either need a alternator with external regulator or you'll need a DC to DC charging converter.
@@PacificYachtSystems thanks very much. Leaning towards dc to dc
A question. I have a 96v, 10amp solar panel system charging a 48v lithium ion battery bank via a charge controller that takes in only 66 volt from the panel system. Is it technically possible to charge a 12v house battery bank with the same panel system by adding a 12v charge controller?
If customer had endless money I would
1) 200 amp alternator with serpentine kit with external regulator charging the house bank with most loads.
2) DCDC 10 amp for Starter
3) the two house battery banks charged with battery combiner. Pick house bank with the largest loads for alternator.
4) take me on the cruising adventure. 😂
This is the same thought I had exactly, a LiFePo for each electric drive motor and a good house battery and the starter battery would be a small temporary load on the house battery as needed
Thanks for sharing.
how do I charge my AGM DUAL PURPOSE battery and AGM DEEP CYCLE house battery with solar and one 20a controller?
I've purchased a new Pontoon boat with a 90 Hp Mercury out board with one starter battery. I also have two deep cycle batteries for a 24v setup for my 70Hp trolling motor. Obviously the motor is charing the starter battery. How can I use the motor to charge the two deep cycle batteries? They are all led acid batteries.
The sailer that have agm and lithium together.
Can you make us a video on this.????
Many wondering how you can put this together.
And the sailer says it works and it can be done.
How is that possible??
I have VW lithium 10 11kw pack. And 2 x 9.2 kW agm enersys powersafe topp of line agm batteryes.
Will it combine ? And how ??
If you see here in TH-cam and see after lithium and agm together, you only find 1 of them i do belive
Hi, A bit late to the party, but your videos are extremely informative years and years after they have been published. I have watched so many of them several times in order to make sure I understand. The result is often that I understand that I understand very little :-) An inspiration to learn more of course! Would it be possible to have a solution where you have an argofet 1:3 where one output goes to the starter battery and where you connect a DC to DC charger directly on the two other outputs from the argofet and then to the lithium battery banks? The DC to DC chargers could then be set to a lithium charging profile and the charging would be ok. The DC to DC charger would also limit the amps drawn from the alternator.
Belt Generator to motors for use in boats
im about to commision a similar system, but the third bank is 24v and the other 2 are 12. victron orions are my solution for alternator charging, using software to manage total amps draw and solar to supplement both house banks. the 24 volt is lithium the 12 is agm
Why yellow wires for the negative?
Could you go from the Alternator to an isolator (FET Combiner) from there to a DC to DC converter then one going to Lithium batteries and the other to charge the Engine start battery ?
Trying to find a video.. but can’t. Anybody know if you can have two different battery banks ( different brands ) but have a battery selector down line from solar charger . And then another selector between the two banks to inverter? So you can switch between battery banks both inputing and outputting?
I was sitting here thinking about the wiring for a battery charger and fuses. The wire going from the battery charger to the battery should be fused I think. There is a fuse at the charger to the battery but there is no fuse at the battery connection for that wire. It’s a straight wire to the battery charger. What happens if something happens to that wire? There is nothing protecting it in the reverse direction. Should there not be a fuse at the battery from the battery charger?
Good observation, one should definitely fuse the battery charger connections at the battery.
QUESTION: Will a DC to DC charger in a system get messed up if I have a digital on board battery charger plugged in when the boat is back at the house (110v AC into the charger)? The digital battery charger is for the deep cycle batteries. Would the DC to DC charger work backwards and charge the start battery, or would it be a mess? Thanks for any advice.
Hi Jeff, I have been reading on the Victron site and it appears they claim you can run multiple DC to DC chargers in parallel. That might be a way for him to go. Or maybe adding a second alternator with a lithium charging profile.
Stock alternator is too small for even one continuous 30A charge. So to get more energy from alternator, it needs to be upgraded anyway. In my opinion, it would be best to add some high output second alternator with lithium profile like Balmar to the system, as you said. Then there is no need for DC to DC conversion, start battery would be charged from stock alternator and Lithium would get full output of second alternator. But that also needs some safety guard, when Lithium decides to disconnect due the over charge, over temperature or other reason. There are devices like Sterling alternator protector, but it is more like additional guard not like only guard.
Best way would be some kind of external BMS or even Lithium battery with external communication port that could send message to alternator to stop charging before battery is disconnected.
Yep, we run up to 3 DC to DC charging converters in parallel.
Could one use a lead starter dc2dc converter to a mosfet splitter then to two LiFePO4 bat banks? I have this setup in mind if I ever decide to add a second bank to my house.
No experience with this setup. In the past, we've seen dedicated DC to DC charging converter per battery bank, in your case, they'd be two.
Just have a charger for each bank. Easy.
I am currently on the market for a 40 foot sailboat. It is being hard to find one that fits what I am look for in the current market with a generator. What are the alternatives to run a 16 BTU air conditioning without a generator while not connected to shore power? Thanks for any information that you can provide
You'd need a huge lithium battery bank and then a massive solar array, some catamarans can pull it off because of the solar array size, but it's a real challenge for monohulls.
Nice to see your success into the boating business. I really enjoyed you in Deadpool but my favorite was Waiting. Classic American pop culture film.
You noticed that he's lost some weight and is looking good!👍😁
Cool, thanks
When he makes the switch, he would be better getting rid of the FLA on the crank and changing to AGM . He could pick up a MV plus 12/3/75 and a straight DC profile for now, then when he makes the change, create user a defined profile, and set it up as a DC to DC charger off the alternator for on board charging. Set the float at 13.8 for shore charging, no?
Thanks for contributing Roger!
Hey Guys! So I have a question that follows on with this thought process. I too am getting ready to make the move to a live aboard Lifestyle.
I wanted to charge my house bank from the alternator. Then have the house bank keep my start bank topped off. Is my process wrong? I don’t want to let the smoke out of any components.
House bank is 6, 12V 100 Amp Lithium LifePo batteries. Start bank is 2 AGM 12V, both are in parallel.
I have upgraded my Alternator regular to a Balmar 60-YP-MC-120-K6 at 12V - 120 amp with a Balmar AMP-12 Alternator Protection Module for 12 volt system.
Then from the Lithium house bank to the Orion TR Smart 12/12volt - 30 amp Isolated charger. That will keep my start bank topped off.
Best Reguards
David L Houston
Make sure the external regulator is set to a Lithium charge profile.
I’m about to do the same thing in my 33ft sailboat. So only 1 house bank and 1 start battery.
In order to get the most out of the generator (will be replaced with a Balmar 100A generator with external regulator (of course with the voltage measured at the battery 😉) and if I can fit it, a fan with a duct to the outside to get cool air to the generator.
I was thinking. The starter battery hardly needs any charge compared to the house bank, so why not have the generator charge the house bank, and a dc-dc charger to charge the start battery?
In my mind that would be a better way of getting more out of the Lithiums ability to use the generators output.
No No No. Solution is far simpler. Have your alternator charge your starter battery + add a voltage activated relay isolator and hook up an AC pure sine wave inverter to relay isolator, then run standard 15AMP outdoor extension cords to your battery chargers, have separate smart chargers designed for battery types. You will only use about 3.5A AC so standard extension cords will do. Most of those relay isolators kick in when you alternator voltage reaches 13.8v so inverter will only be powered up when alternator is running.
Uh, urls not allowed in comments? The links I added to my comment are not sponsored or affiliate links. I spent half an hour composing my comment and it got deleted. 😖
Thank you for sharing about the urls and links. We didn't delete the comment, it appears that "The only comments with links allowed will be from moderators, and approved users" - according to TH-cam.