Re: What type of house battery is best?
Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:23 am
Thanks for the comprehensive reply Dean.
I think we can get Optima batteries here under the Century brand and a crusing buddy an electrician also suggested Optima. I picked up that 14V is about the maximum sensible voltage for charging so I can set the regulator on the alternator to that fairly easily. But as there are times when we are motoring for 12 hours or more I have some worries about over charging. Essentially I am looking to maximise the rate of charge in order to minimise engine use when the engine is run purely for charging house batteries. It seems that a high rate of charge can be achieved by stepping up the voltage for a time but there must be some means to reduce or stop the charge when the batteries reach full charge. In the system I have, after a minute or two running the engine, both the start and windlass batteries will be fully charged and the VSRs will have switched the charge to the house bank. I am not sure if the VSRs switch off the charge to the start and windlass or whether it just parallels the house batteries for charging. Assuming the former, the solution might be to place a "smart" charger in the circuit, supplied from the VSR that switched to the house bank, and utilise this to charge only the house bank. Does this make sense? Am I getting somewhere near a workable solution?
Thanks,
I think we can get Optima batteries here under the Century brand and a crusing buddy an electrician also suggested Optima. I picked up that 14V is about the maximum sensible voltage for charging so I can set the regulator on the alternator to that fairly easily. But as there are times when we are motoring for 12 hours or more I have some worries about over charging. Essentially I am looking to maximise the rate of charge in order to minimise engine use when the engine is run purely for charging house batteries. It seems that a high rate of charge can be achieved by stepping up the voltage for a time but there must be some means to reduce or stop the charge when the batteries reach full charge. In the system I have, after a minute or two running the engine, both the start and windlass batteries will be fully charged and the VSRs will have switched the charge to the house bank. I am not sure if the VSRs switch off the charge to the start and windlass or whether it just parallels the house batteries for charging. Assuming the former, the solution might be to place a "smart" charger in the circuit, supplied from the VSR that switched to the house bank, and utilise this to charge only the house bank. Does this make sense? Am I getting somewhere near a workable solution?
Thanks,