BEP 716 Cluster

[Stemar]

A friend is preparing his boat for a cruise to an area where plugging in every night won't be an option. He's asked me for an opinion on the BEP 716 cluster http://www.bepmarine.com/home-mainmenu-8/product-278/ which has been recommended to him as a replacement for his currrent 0-1-2-both switch.

At close to £130, apart from profit for the supplier (who's making the recommendation) I can't see what advantage it has over keeping the switch and adding a VSR for change from £30. What, if anything, am I missing?

His boat has a 300AH sealed lead acid domestic bank and a 60AH AGM starter battery. Currently, he does everything off the domestics and keeps the starter for emergencies. I reckon he'd do better to keep the domestic side of things on the domestic bank and isolate the AGM with the alternator hard-wired to it, as battery 1 for normal starting, keeping the domestic bank as backup on 2, charging through the VSR. That way, the starter battery gets first dibs on alternator output so you can always (!) start the engine, and the domestic bank gets what's left. If he doesn't run the engine enough, he'll just have to live with warm beer.

I'm also going to suggest solar panels, but I doubt he'll be willing to fit enough to keep up with the fridge.

He will also be fitting an anchor windlass run from a battery in the bow. The same supplier wants to sell him a £150 15A 12v-12v charger (or a £300 30A one). I can see theoretical advantages, but what practical advantage would that have over simply charging it in parallel with the domestice or the starter battery through a schottky diode to stop back charging?

Any thoughts?

 

[sailorman]

A friend is preparing his boat for a cruise to an area where plugging in every night won't be an option. He's asked me for an opinion on the BEP 716 cluster http://www.bepmarine.com/home-mainmenu-8/product-278/ which has been recommended to him as a replacement for his currrent 0-1-2-both switch.

At close to £130, apart from profit for the supplier (who's making the recommendation) I can't see what advantage it has over keeping the switch and adding a VSR for change from £30. What, if anything, am I missing?

His boat has a 300AH sealed lead acid domestic bank and a 60AH AGM starter battery. Currently, he does everything off the domestics and keeps the starter for emergencies. I reckon he'd do better to keep the domestic side of things on the domestic bank and isolate the AGM with the alternator hard-wired to it, as battery 1 for normal starting, keeping the domestic bank as backup on 2, charging through the VSR. That way, the starter battery gets first dibs on alternator output so you can always (!) start the engine, and the domestic bank gets what's left. If he doesn't run the engine enough, he'll just have to live with warm beer.

I'm also going to suggest solar panels, but I doubt he'll be willing to fit enough to keep up with the fridge.

He will also be fitting an anchor windlass run from a battery in the bow. The same supplier wants to sell him a £150 15A 12v-12v charger (or a £300 30A one). I can see theoretical advantages, but what practical advantage would that have over simply charging it in parallel with the domestice or the starter battery through a schottky diode to stop back charging?

Any thoughts?

If he has a good quality 1 2 Both why change & have more connections to boot

 

[halcyon]

A friend is preparing his boat for a cruise to an area where plugging in every night won't be an option. He's asked me for an opinion on the BEP 716 cluster http://www.bepmarine.com/home-mainmenu-8/product-278/ which has been recommended to him as a replacement for his currrent 0-1-2-both switch.

He will also be fitting an anchor windlass run from a battery in the bow. The same supplier wants to sell him a £150 15A 12v-12v charger (or a £300 30A one). I can see theoretical advantages, but what practical advantage would that have over simply charging it in parallel with the domestice or the starter battery through a schottky diode to stop back charging?

Any thoughts?

Keep the 1,2,both switch for engine battery, run the service bank of a separate red flag type isolator, use position 2 to link engine to service bank for emergency starting, fit VSR to auto charge service bank.

Do not fit schottky diode, you are still dropping 0.5 volt, use another VSR to charge bow battery.

Have you thought of a solar panel forward to charge bow battery ?


Brian

 

[Keith-i]

If you want total convenience fit a MOSFET splitter e.g. Sterling Pro split R. This can have 3 outputs so will also satisfy a bow battery all from one alternator. All banks get charged but are isolated from each other when being discharged. Better than a VSR IMHO.

 

[VicS]

A friend is preparing his boat for a cruise

Any thoughts?

The BEP is to an excellent idea and if that is what he has his heart on I'd not try to persuade him to do otherwise.

I do have one reservation however. As shown in the wiring diagram the emergency linking switch intreconnects the batteries, "up stream" of the isolator switches. This means that the batteries can be paralleled but if one is totally defunct it cannot be isolated using the switches to enable all circuits to run on the good one only. Not insurmountable of course but IMHO it would be better if the BEP cluster was wired so that the emergency linking switch paralleled the circuits downstream of the isolators. Then everything could run from which ever battery is selected, leaving the dud one disconnected.

His idea of using the big battery for everything, keeping the small one as an emergency reserve and charged via a VSR is ITYWF the favoured way of doing things in the US and is described in Calders book.

 

[Chalker]

VicS
Absolutely right. That's how I wired mine. No-one at BEP seems able to explain why they prefer their recommendation.

You can use the BEP our way, just ignore their connection diagram.