Wiring my chargers

tonyt
Member

Posts: 29

Wiring my chargers Dec 11, 2016 9:48:42 GMT

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Post by tonyt on Dec 11, 2016 9:48:42 GMT

I have been racking my brains over this for a while. I have a semi traditional with the domestic batteries in two banks of three in the engine compartment. I am just in the process of trying to tidy it up. The question is do I need to take the cabling for the solar and mains chargers independently back to the batteries or can I parallel them up and run one larger pair of cable back from the cupboard where the chargers live to the batteries.

Another question related to charging. If my solar is generating and my mains charger is on will they compete with each other? Does the mains charger see the bulk charge from. The solar and go straight to float or vice versa? I was thinking of installing an isolator on the panel side of the solar so when the mains is charging it can do it's job properly and go through all the stages.

Thanks

Gone
Long Standing Member

Gone

Posts: 1,314

Wiring my chargers Dec 11, 2016 13:58:18 GMT

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Post by Gone on Dec 11, 2016 13:58:18 GMT

As discussed in the other place, which ever charger has the highest voltage will tend to cause the other units to assume the batteries are fully charged and back off. Of course if the batteries are well down the voltage may be sufficiently low for all chargers to do a bit.

I don't think it matters which charges the batteries, as they will end up full, which is all you want.

smileypete
Long Standing Member

Posts: 834

Wiring my chargers Dec 11, 2016 18:25:29 GMT

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Post by smileypete on Dec 11, 2016 18:25:29 GMT

Some solar controllers are fussy (about getting disconnected from the batts) so I'd give them their own dedicated circuit.

Might be scope for sharing the DC domestic panel feed and batt charger feed in some cases, as the overall current requirement will net out.

I guess if you're starting from scratch and all the loads are close to each other but distant from the batts, one way may be to have a high current DC 'bus' protected by a very high value mega fuse at the batt end, which then feeds the solar, charger, dc panel etc all via smaller value midi fuses at the other end.

What I'd want to avoid is having a common fuse blow and the solar and batt charger end up feeding each other while isolated from the batts.

Last Edit: Dec 11, 2016 19:36:07 GMT by smileypete

smileypete Long Standing Member Posts: 834	Wiring my chargers Dec 13, 2016 22:58:45 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by smileypete on Dec 13, 2016 22:58:45 GMT Just been reading CWDF, an update for TB as well might be nice.

Post by tonyt on Dec 11, 2016 9:48:42 GMT

Post by Gone on Dec 11, 2016 13:58:18 GMT

Post by smileypete on Dec 11, 2016 18:25:29 GMT

Post by smileypete on Dec 13, 2016 22:58:45 GMT

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