Victron DC DC smart charger

[pauldowrick]

Hello Folks,

I currently have the following setup

Conventional alternator charges engine battery (Lead)
Alternator also feeds to input of Victron Orion DC DC smart charger
Output of DC DC charger feeds to Lithium house battery
Engine battery used to start engine

Since the current of the DC DC converter is limited to 30A and I would like to upgrade to a smart 120A alternator, I was wondering if I could do the following

Smart alternator charges house battery (Lithium)
Smart alternator feeds to input of Victron Orion DC DC smart charger
Output of DC DC charger feeds to Lead Engine battery
Engine battery still used to start engine in-spite of alternator rewiring.

The hope is that I can get 90A to the house and 30A to the engine.

Any thoughts

Thanks

Paul

 

[Boater Sam]

Hello Folks,

I currently have the following setup

Conventional alternator charges engine battery (Lead)
Alternator also feeds to input of Victron Orion DC DC smart charger
Output of DC DC charger feeds to Lithium house battery
Engine battery used to start engine

Since the current of the DC DC converter is limited to 30A and I would like to upgrade to a smart 120A alternator, I was wondering if I could do the following

Smart alternator charges house battery (Lithium)
Smart alternator feeds to input of Victron Orion DC DC smart charger
Output of DC DC charger feeds to Lead Engine battery
Engine battery still used to start engine in-spite of alternator rewiring.

The hope is that I can get 90A to the house and 30A to the engine.

Any thoughts

Thanks

Paul

I would ask Victron and get it from the horse's mouth.

 

[lektran]

The 90A charge goal seems a bit high for a 120A alternator. I have the same setup as yours currently and am upgrading to a 170A balmar and 3x 30A orions.

I could have charged the lithiums from the alternator and used the existing single orion to charge the starter battery, but it felt safer with only the house supply depending on the lithium batteries. If anything lithium related fails I can easily switch the house loads over to the starter or windlass batteries.

 

[HughClayton]

Your current set up sounds like a good design and before upgrading your alternator I’d suggest reviewing why you need to have the domestic battery being charged at more than 30A.

If your domestic loads are going to be drawing more than 30A for a longer period than the existing house battery can support then you might want to consider upgrading your entire power system. Running your boat’s engine to supply base load power is an expensive and noisy solution and you might also consider upgrading your house batteries, adding solar cells or adding a generator.

If you really do need to charge your house battery at more than 30A then you could use a suitable external alternator regulator with a suitable BMS on the house battery and use the Orion to charge your start battery but the Orion is sn over-spec’d solution to charge a lead-acid battery and the overall system reliability may be degraded due to the dependency on both the external regulator and BMS in ensuring that the charging system does its main job which is to ensure that there’s enough juice to start the engine when the sh!t hits the fan. This is particularly key in a system like this where this no other cranking battery.

 

[pauldowrick]

I tried to keep the description simple, but to expand...

I already have 3 x 160Ah lithium batteries that need charging, 4 x solar panels, and a wind geni coming soon.

My intention is to take this boat around the world. So, I would like everything to be belt and braces, hence the big alternator

 

[Poey50]

Hello Folks,

I currently have the following setup

Conventional alternator charges engine battery (Lead)
Alternator also feeds to input of Victron Orion DC DC smart charger
Output of DC DC charger feeds to Lithium house battery
Engine battery used to start engine

Since the current of the DC DC converter is limited to 30A and I would like to upgrade to a smart 120A alternator, I was wondering if I could do the following

Smart alternator charges house battery (Lithium)
Smart alternator feeds to input of Victron Orion DC DC smart charger
Output of DC DC charger feeds to Lead Engine battery
Engine battery still used to start engine in-spite of alternator rewiring.

The hope is that I can get 90A to the house and 30A to the engine.

Any thoughts

Thanks

Paul

Charging the LFP direct from the alternator is a great idea as you then get one of the main benefits from that chemistry - fast charging. But the usual way is to have the B2B (the Orion in your case) between the LFP and the engine start battery. There are numerous systems using this method. But perhaps you have a particular reason for your plan?

It is sometimes said that the Orion is overkill for maintaining the start battery. This is probably true but I have this system and it works very well. It does allow a redundancy of being able to instead charge the LFP from the start battery via the B2B with reversed cables and with the alternator charging the start battery rather than the LFP.

 

[HughClayton]

I tried to keep the description simple, but to expand...

I already have 3 x 160Ah lithium batteries that need charging, 4 x solar panels, and a wind geni coming soon.

My intention is to take this boat around the world. So, I would like everything to be belt and braces, hence the big alternator

If you want belt and braces then a separate generator will give you a solid system and, with the correct system design, redundant cranking batteries and redundant charging options. And if it was me I’d keep the existing alternator and take a spare.

 

[GHA]

I tried to keep the description simple, but to expand...

I already have 3 x 160Ah lithium batteries that need charging, 4 x solar panels, and a wind geni coming soon.

My intention is to take this boat around the world. So, I would like everything to be belt and braces, hence the big alternator

Very likely you'll need a clever regulator for the alternator as well, lithium will suck up all it can give & overheat the alternator. Balmar do one & another by Wakespeed.
Might be some useful info on here, haven't read every post.
On my fourth alternator....??