Wiring advice

[Allan]

I want do some re-wiring on my boat and like some advice. I have Three batteries, one is a start battery which is seperate and charged from the engine only. The other two are connected via a 1, both 2 switch. I have a 913 turbine and a small solar panel, each with their own controller. In future I will fit larger solar panels and an electric bilge pump. I want to switch the batteries off when I leave the boat but leave these all connected, if I can do it safely. Any ideas?
Allan

 

[Csail]

Same set up as ours and no problems for last 9 years,

 

[Allan]

How do you connect everything without making a permanant connection between the batteries? I want to maintain the switch and, if possible, have both the batteries charged by sun and wind. The pump can come off only one battery.
Allan

 

[oldsaltoz]

+ -
Sun------- Battery----------I I----------Aux

+ - Switch
Fan------- Battery----------I I----------Aux

+ -
ALT------ Battery----------I I----------Starter

 

[wotayottie]

you could put diodes into the connecting wires but I wouldnt bother. If your engine battery is only ever used for starting the engine, then there is no issue in leaving that totally seperate. For the other 2 hard wire in the charger and solar panel and bilge pump since these batteries are the ones likely to need topping up.

Best system I ever had was on a Prout cat where the engine start battery was hard wired in to the engine and could not run any other kit. The leisure batteries were wired into all the other kit on board and could only ever power them, They had the solar panel attached. No bilge pump - it was a modern boat and completely dry. Then to allow engine charging of the leisure batteries there was a relay in the charge line activated only when the engine was on. Relay was from an Austin Mini.

 

[mainmarine]

I use a voltage sensitive relay made by BEP for this purpose, this is connected to the wind, solar and mains charger also the alternator/start battery via the relay the whole thing keeps all my batteries charged when I am away from the boat usually three weeks at a time. I have two BEP battery switches one for each bank, and a separate simple on/off switch to combine both banks if I need to. I have a permanent feed wired to the bilge pumps. If there is enough wind or solar the batteries get charged even with the battery switches off. Sounds complicated but is quite simple really.

 

[Tranona]

A neat solution is to do away with the old fashioned 1 2 switch and use a BEP Marine battery cluster which gives you separate house and engine plus a parallel and a VSR to split the charge. The solar and wind then go to the domestic bank (with diodes and regulator if needed). Bilge pump if you want it permanently live can then be wired to an "always on" fused module - as can the VHF and radio for its memory.

Merlin can design the circuits and put a package together for the installation. www.power-store.com Have done two boats this way and very satisfied.

 

[pappaecho]

I have exactly the same setup as you and an HRDX wind/solar controller for the Rutland 913. (There is a separate solar input )

The outputs from the controller go to either the engine bank or the domestic bank and are separate and are separately monitored by the HRDX controller. They are each connected to the +ve on each bank via a simple 3 amp fuse and the minus sides to the returns on both banks. The system is completely independant of the 1-2-all switch and the system has worked for 4 years needing no external supply for the last 4 years.

 

[Allan]

Many thanks to all of you, I am far too far down the bottle to sort out the detail but will look in the morning. One thing I should repeat is that the start battery is separate and I'm happy with that, it is just the domestic ones I want to sort. Again many thanks.
Allan