Inverter/charger

[goodies]

We have recently bought a 52ft yacht, I want to get the electrics sorted right the first time, it currantly has three 120a/hr 12 volt starting batteries combined for house and start, 70amp main engine driven alternator, full ac circuit for shore power. I intend to keep one battery for starting, and buy six 6volt deep cycle batteries for house use, as many solar panels as i can fit on the top of the deckhouse, and eventually a wind generator, if I get an inverter charger I believe I could connect the solar, wind and alternator to it to charge both banks of batteries automatically is that correct? I would need aprox 4 kw from the inverter, any recommendations on make?

 

[PDS77]

the 6V golf cart type batteries would be a good choice for inverter use. you may however need quite a few to run a 4kw inverter for any length of time. if you look at the size of charger the unit comes with and x 10 that would give you a sensible battery bank size. a better way to get up to this capacity would be 2V cells as you wont need any parallel strings.

adding batteries will impact on the existing system and you should look at increasing the alternator to about 1/4 the size of the battery bank. the alternator will have its own regulator as will the solar and wind. they do not connect to the inverter charger. The Victron Quattro http://www.barden-ukshop.com/victron-quattro-12v-3000a-120-5030-inverter-chargercombi-unit-2722-p.asp works well for marine use and has a main charging output for the domestics and a small trickle charge for the starters. If you have a look at Bardens they also do solar & wind too.