Couple of questions on fitting a Forgen 500...

[Iain C]

I took a Forgen 500 off my old boat and was going to put it on my new one and I have a few questions. I know they don't give much output, I'm just using it as a simple trickle charger.

Firstly, it's already sat on the top of a plain s/s pole which in turn I want to attach to my pushpit. Can anyone point me towards a cheap, simple bracket system that allows this? I basically want something to go around the upper and lower horizontal rails with U-bolts or similar to go around the generator mast.

Secondly, my house batteries are a bank of two pretty chunky batteries...I assume it's as simple as putting the +ive croc clip on to the +ive terminal of the first battery, and the -ive croc clip on to the -ive terminal of the second battery?

Thirdly, I have a 20W NASA solar panel that I intent to fit too. It gives a formula for when you don't need a controller, and as my panel output is well under that percentage compared to the capacity of the house battery bank, I wasn't planning on fitting one. However, if I just fit the solar panel onto the battery bank as well as the Forgen, am I going to end up with some bizarre solar powered windmill contraption and flat batteries or will it all just do it's own thing as intended?

Thanks in advance!

 

[VicS]

Maybe you will find the brackets/ fittings you require on Seascrew website. https://www.seascrew.com/browse.cfm?ONLINE-CATALOGUE&l=TOP

Just connect the panel ( with fuse local to the connection to protect the installation from the massive current the battery could supply in the event of a fault) to the same points as the circuits the battery supplies


In addition to the 10W per 100Ah rule it is usually recommended that panels over 10 watts should be connected via a regulator
A PWM regulator will give you better results than a basic on/ off controller.
A MPPT regulator will extract the max possible from the solar panel but for a small panel is overkill



No you wont end up with some solar powered windmill any more than you would get a battery powered windmill without the solar panel The diodes in the Forgen will prevent that even if the design of the Forgen would allow it ... which it does not