Adding wind charger feed to battery bank

[KAL]

Adding wind charger feed to battery bank already fed by solar

Hi all,

I have a twin service battery bank (2 x 110 Ah)cabled through a standard "one/two/both" switch.

Each battery has its own 10W solar panel, connected through individual solsum regulators. I turn off the electrics when I leave the boat, but the solar panels continue to do their job brilliantly.

I recently bought a Rutland generator (503) with a regulator. I would like to fit this to feed the battery bank as well, but I'm worried about connecting it to just one battery, as the other will feel left out! (actually, I don't want to give one a significantly more powerful charge than the other in case it knackers one or t'other over time...)

Is it OK for me to connect the rutland regulator to feed both batteries in parallel, or would this not be a good idea?

Any help/advice much appreciated.

 

[mcframe]

My money+time answer is:
Bin the old switch, fit a small dedicated AGM start battery, parallel the existing batteries, and add a BEB VSR to distribute all charge sources (alternator, solar & wind) giving the start priority - you may even have enough AH left to fit a fridge ;-)

Otherwise just pile the Rutland to both.

 

[KAL]

My money+time answer is:
Bin the old switch, fit a small dedicated AGM start battery, parallel the existing batteries, and add a BEB VSR to distribute all charge sources (alternator, solar & wind) giving the start priority - you may even have enough AH left to fit a fridge ;-)

Otherwise just pile the Rutland to both.

Thanks mcframe.

 

[William_H]

Battery charging

Well for my money a simple option would be to parallel both batteries and add wind gen.
I imagine the 2 solar regs will be OK in parallel as will the wind gen.
Regardless as the battery voltage rises the regulators will try to maintain their own 14volt output which will also be the battery voltage. So total charge will fall as batteries charge so don,t be surprised if charge current does not increase much if solar is also working.
good luck olewill

 

[BarryH]

I had a Rutland on the boat when I bought it. The manual was with the paper work. Looking at the output/windspeed graph in the back, I decided that it wasn't worth the bother putting new bearings in etc. I was surprised at how much wind you need for anything approaching a useable output.
I did, more for curiosity, strip the thing down. It is pretty worn and, to be honest, very basic. Theres sod all in there! How come they're so expensive? I would have replced repaired if the cost was worth the gains, I don't think it is. I could wait for a motorist to knock down one of the solar powered speed signs that abound around my locale. The wind jobbies on them seem to be similar to the Rutland!

Shopping around I got a 15w solar panel for less than half the price of having the Rutland refurb'd. In saying that my electrical system is very basic. The main draw will be vhf/plotter.

I changed all the cabin lights to LED's from halfords. Work brilliantly. The nav lights will get little use. I like to see whts around me so will choose to sail in daylight.