0 volt drop splitter or current limiting voltage sensing relay?

[wipe_out]

Firstly that is bad battery management, you will generate sulphation and greatly reduce battery life, keep a 50% minimum capacity for normal lead acid. Secondly it depends on VSR specification and design as to overload, also the VSR will drop out due to low voltage. You could equally say my engine battery is flat, with a VSR you can press a button and start from the service bank, a splitter will do nothing to help, just depends on what problem you look at.

With high load drop out you are not protecting the VSR, you are protecting the alternator and charge cables from high loads, or any secondary charge source fitted to the service battery, from engine starting load. It's also not new, we introduced 25 years ago.

Brian

Thanks Brian.. Guess its time to start hunting down a VSR..

Thanks for all the comments from everyone.. Been a useful conversation for me..

 

[affinite]

Thanks Brian.. Guess its time to start hunting down a VSR..

Thanks for all the comments from everyone.. Been a useful conversation for me..

I had an X-Split on my last boat and it worked well.
Its totally encapsulated so I think the comment about electronics and salt are unfound.
I also would have thought that the actual ammount of energy dissipated through the heat heat sink is small compared to the power going through it so I think that losses are negligible with a diode splitter.
That said I was never totally happy that my batteries were getting a full charge so will be going through the same selection exercise as the OP this year.

I think that attention to connections,cable lengths, cable diameters etc are as important as the choice of splitting technology and Im going to pay more attention to that side when I deal with split charging on my new boat with 3 battery banks.
BTW - I am genuinely open minded about VSR's even though they instinctively feel like "old technolgy"

 

[nimbusgb]

I've had one of these fitted to my system for about 5 years now

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/2307...ixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla&crdt=0

Handling a bank of 280Ah and 110Ah starter, mains, alternator and solar charging.

Fit and forget.

 

[wipe_out]

Odd question but can relays be run in parallel to increase load handling capacity? So would two 100A relays wired in parallel manage a 200A load?

 

[halcyon]

Back in 1973 I took out a patent on a charging system to get round the volt drop problem with blocking diodes, which makes them a lot older than VSR's.

Brian

 

[halcyon]

Odd question but can relays be run in parallel to increase load handling capacity? So would two 100A relays wired in parallel manage a 200A load?

Why not fit one 200 amp ?

With two in parallel, they will not both operate at the same time, so one will / can carry all the 200 amp before the second one cuts in.

Brian

 

[wipe_out]

Back in 1973 I took out a patent on a charging system to get round the volt drop problem with blocking diodes, which makes them a lot older than VSR's.

Brian

I don't think the "new" alternatives affinite was referring to are the diode based options.. I think the reference is to the "new" electronic switching devices with more complex logic than just voltage level switching..

For example the Sterling device charges the both batteries and when one is full will actually disconnect it for a period so the alternator doesn't go into "float" mode meaning the second battery back is still being "charged".. Once the second battery bank is charged it will reconnect the other battery and "float" them both.. As power is used by either bank it charges and switches as it needs to.. So as theories go it would have faster charge rates than a relay but not quite as fast as the alternator to battery chargers..

 

[wipe_out]

Why not fit one 200 amp ?

With two in parallel, they will not both operate at the same time, so one will / can carry all the 200 amp before the second one cuts in.

Brian

The thought was just because lower current relays are significantly cheaper than the high current relays.. Also have 4 x 50A or 2 x 100A instead of 1 x 200A (assuming paralleling them works) means if one relay fails the system still works.. Sort of a built in redundancy albeit at a lower total capacity if a relay fails..

 

[halcyon]

For example the Sterling device charges the both batteries and when one is full will actually disconnect it for a period so the alternator doesn't go into "float" mode meaning the second battery back is still being "charged".. Once the second battery bank is charged it will reconnect the other battery and "float" them both.. As power is used by either bank it charges and switches as it needs to.. So as theories go it would have faster charge rates than a relay but not quite as fast as the alternator to battery chargers..

That's the same theory that we introduced in 1982 with the Powercentre range, and was the original theory for a VSR.

Brian