I am rennovating the electrical system on a Midship 25 (later known as the Parker Dawson 26). The boat electrical system has a house bank of 2 100ah batteries and a starter battery , all three batteries are wet cells. The batteries are attached to a "1,2,both,off " switch. The previous owner had an AC extension cord arrangement, an auto battery charger attachable to a single battery at a time with alligator clips and a .9 amp solar cell wired directly to the house bank. The boat has an electric start sailmaster 9.9 connected directly to the starter battery.
My plan is to add a proper AC power arrangement, hardwire an AC charger for charging the batteries at the dock and hardwire the solar panel with a disconnect plug. I plan to use the solar panel to keep the batteries trickle charged when the boat is on the trailer or when shorepower is not available.
I have purchased a Flexcharge PV7D for the solar panel that is capable of charging 2 battery banks and I am researching AC battery chargers. I am also contemplating an ACR or battery isolator to allow the outboard to charge the house bank when the starter battery is fully charged.
I am now scratching my head about how all this will work together. I have several questions I would appreciate feedback on from the collective wisdom of this forum:
1. if I get a high end AC 3 phase charger that also conditions the batteries periodically, will an ACR or battery isolator interfere with its proper function?
2. Would it be a big improvement to get an AC charger that charges the three batteries individually vs. treating them as two banks? Will it work on all three batteries even if the two house batteries are wired together in parallel?
3. I am actually solving the same problem three ways with my approach. The ACR, Flexcharge unit and the AC battery charger are all three monitoring battery voltage and distributing power to batteries that need it and (in the case of the flexcharge and AC charger) following a charging profile that promotes battery health. Is there some economical way to solve this problem once and feed the three sources of power to that solution? Or is that a big boat only, expensive alternative.
I have gotten alot of value from this forum and I will appreciate any advice you can give me.
My plan is to add a proper AC power arrangement, hardwire an AC charger for charging the batteries at the dock and hardwire the solar panel with a disconnect plug. I plan to use the solar panel to keep the batteries trickle charged when the boat is on the trailer or when shorepower is not available.
I have purchased a Flexcharge PV7D for the solar panel that is capable of charging 2 battery banks and I am researching AC battery chargers. I am also contemplating an ACR or battery isolator to allow the outboard to charge the house bank when the starter battery is fully charged.
I am now scratching my head about how all this will work together. I have several questions I would appreciate feedback on from the collective wisdom of this forum:
1. if I get a high end AC 3 phase charger that also conditions the batteries periodically, will an ACR or battery isolator interfere with its proper function?
2. Would it be a big improvement to get an AC charger that charges the three batteries individually vs. treating them as two banks? Will it work on all three batteries even if the two house batteries are wired together in parallel?
3. I am actually solving the same problem three ways with my approach. The ACR, Flexcharge unit and the AC battery charger are all three monitoring battery voltage and distributing power to batteries that need it and (in the case of the flexcharge and AC charger) following a charging profile that promotes battery health. Is there some economical way to solve this problem once and feed the three sources of power to that solution? Or is that a big boat only, expensive alternative.
I have gotten alot of value from this forum and I will appreciate any advice you can give me.