Power Pack to start Boat Engine - PART 2 !

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STATUE

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Thank you for all the responses to PART 1.

Now to come clean : my boat is wooden and will always require some pumping. I have installed an auto. bilge pump for when I am away.
Should said pump have had to work hard in my absence there is a distinct possibility of no 'umfp' to start engine.

ALSO PLEASE ADVISE ON : I have a domestic battery (ordinary type) and an AGM for the engine, all controlled with separate switches
- DOMESTIC - ENGINE - BOTH and linked for even distribution via a VCR/VSR (sorry name escapes me) , can using a power-packed harm this setup?
 
i have wired my automatic bilge pump direct to the domestic bank so it will work even with all the isolators off. Nowhere near the start battery so no chance of that going flat. That is the whole point of keeping the 2 banks separate and unless the engine battery is duff no need for the power pack. An AGM used solely for engine start will last for years - the one in my Morgan is now 19 years old - and give you plenty of warning when it does fade. Equally as I suggested on the other thread have a means of using the domestic bank to start the engine and you are unlikely to need the help of a passerby!
 
On my wooden boat I've got 2 batteries, each with an auto bilge pump connected. When I'm away from the boat, the batteries are isolated from each other, indeed from anything else, excepting their individual solar panels. The logic for this is that with the dribble of a leak that's present just now, and I'm unable to go to the boat for a while, 1 of the auto pumps will easily cope with any leak. If the leak becomes much greater, then the 2nd pump might be needed, which will hopefully keep the vessel afloat, which is the priority above the engine start.
I'm normally in a marina, so do have available power, if I needed it to recharge and run the engine.
 
Tranona said:
i have wired my automatic bilge pump direct to the domestic bank so it will work even with all the isolators off. Nowhere near the start battery so no chance of that going flat.
Click to expand...
In theory (and hopefully mr R will be along to dismiss my gibbering shortly) if you had a solar panel and VSR the voltage from the solar panel could cause the VSR To bridge the two banks so would allow the battery bank to go flat if the solar was outputting voltage but not enough current
 
lustyd said:
In theory (and hopefully mr R will be along to dismiss my gibbering shortly) if you had a solar panel and VSR the voltage from the solar panel could cause the VSR To bridge the two banks so would allow the battery bank to go flat if the solar was outputting voltage but not enough current
Click to expand...

To solve that potential problem, I've connected our VSR to the engine side of it's isolator, not the engine battery side.
 
With my own batteries, I've got 4X20W solar panels, of which 1 pair goes to one 'solar charge controller', and the 2nd to another, ensuring that each battery really is entirely separate from each other. Each battery has an individual isolator, as well as the engine being through another separate isolator.
Slightly off thread but I removed the 1,2,B,OFF in order to make it a much more deliberate action in isolating or activating each battery, having once turned it to OFF instead of 2 with the engine/alternator running.
 
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lustyd said:
In theory (and hopefully mr R will be along to dismiss my gibbering shortly) if you had a solar panel and VSR the voltage from the solar panel could cause the VSR To bridge the two banks so would allow the battery bank to go flat if the solar was outputting voltage but not enough current
Click to expand...
A solar panel if it is connected to a battery (even via a controller) will essentially produce voltage that is the battery voltage. In other words soalr pan el might show 20v no load but that voltage will fall with current flow. So solar can not provide voltage to operate a VSR unless it is also providing a current. ol'will being pedantic
 
The power bank should do no harm if connected to the engine battery so long as you match voltage - i.e. don't buy a 24V one if they exist. If it damages the VSR, said VSR was about to die anyway and better to find that out on the home mooring.


In winter I have only wind to the domestic bank. The controller tells me how many amps it has put into the batteries since last reset. This was very useful in highlighting a leaking stern gland hose last winter...

A rather backside about face way of monitoring bilge pump activity I know, but it worked.

Of course I had set the 0-1-2-B switch to 2 so the engine was also discharging , but that's another story.
 
Iliade said:
The power bank should do no harm if connected to the engine battery so long as you match voltage - i.e. don't buy a 24V one if they exist. If it damages the VSR, said VSR was about to die anyway and better to find that out on the home mooring.


In winter I have only wind to the domestic bank. The controller tells me how many amps it has put into the batteries since last reset. This was very useful in highlighting a leaking stern gland hose last winter...

A rather backside about face way of monitoring bilge pump activity I know, but it worked.

Of course I had set the 0-1-2-B switch to 2 so the engine was also discharging , but that's another story.
Click to expand...
I like this v much, cudos for the detective work. Is the controller similar to those used for solar?
 
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