What kind of 12v battery charger should I get for my boat?
I understand if I buy a 3 bank battery charger, I can just plug it into the wall and run it off of 120 volt and it will charge my three new batteries. But what about using the altenator or solar power to charge the batteries? Can I have the battery charger hooked up to run off of 120v, solar power, AND the altenator? Or do I need a seperate battery charger for the solar panels and altenator?
I do live aboard. All three batteries are the same. Can I hook up a battery charger, the altenator, AND a 60 watt solar panel to these batteries. The idea is to be charging while hooked up to shore power, while running the engine, AND while sailing using the solar panel.
A quality three stage charger is the type to go for. Multiple output units are available, but they will not be designed to control other inputs such as wind/solar and alternators. These will have their own control systems, (although a solar array under 20 watts really doesn’t need more than diodes to prevent reverse power bleed at night as the input is so low – more a maintenance charge) most engine fitted alternators will not lift the batteries significantly over 70% charge levels without many hours of engine running as they are not designed to. You cannot combine different structure batteries in the one circuit, such as lead acid and GEL, or AGM types. These are built very differently and the internal resistances and capabilities are far too different to be charged from the same source.
You would probably not set up a system to use all types simultaneously – although there are (expensive!) ways of doing this with large control systems. Rather use the mains charger to get the batteries up to near 100%, solar to maintain and float charge at near 100% and the alternator for general power requirements on board while the engine is running with the batteries used as a fully capable back up when at anchor. Alternators are designed to supply base load power with the batteries used simply as a smoothing device, (like a capacitor) and to start the main engine – this is why a starting type battery is unsuitable for more than brief use without the engine running and certainly not for deep discharge.
If you have more than one type of battery construction you will need the charger to specifically be able to deal with different types at the same time. Most units can be set for different charge regimes – but few can do different types at the same time, so this must be checked carefully. It can be simpler to install individual units for each battery in some cases, C-Tek and similar quality units are designed to be mounted permanently on the machine and are very reliable.
Good luck.
A quality three stage charger is the type to go for. Multiple output units are available, but they will not be designed to control other inputs such as wind/solar and alternators. These will have their own control systems, (although a solar array under 20 watts really doesn’t need more than diodes to prevent reverse power bleed at night as the input is so low – more a maintenance charge) most engine fitted alternators will not lift the batteries significantly over 70% charge levels without many hours of engine running as they are not designed to. You cannot combine different structure batteries in the one circuit, such as lead acid and GEL, or AGM types. These are built very differently and the internal resistances and capabilities are far too different to be charged from the same source.
You would probably not set up a system to use all types simultaneously – although there are (expensive!) ways of doing this with large control systems. Rather use the mains charger to get the batteries up to near 100%, solar to maintain and float charge at near 100% and the alternator for general power requirements on board while the engine is running with the batteries used as a fully capable back up when at anchor. Alternators are designed to supply base load power with the batteries used simply as a smoothing device, (like a capacitor) and to start the main engine – this is why a starting type battery is unsuitable for more than brief use without the engine running and certainly not for deep discharge.
If you have more than one type of battery construction you will need the charger to specifically be able to deal with different types at the same time. Most units can be set for different charge regimes – but few can do different types at the same time, so this must be checked carefully. It can be simpler to install individual units for each battery in some cases, C-Tek and similar quality units are designed to be mounted permanently on the machine and are very reliable.
Good luck.
References :
What kind of boat? If you don’t live on it just let the alternator charge it like you would a car. There is no need to go over board here. You can buy a solar panel to charge batteries without a charger. The best idea is to disconnect your batteries when your done using the boat. Don’t think to much on this.
References :
you need a deep cycle charger for trickle charge/ and a regular fast charger for starting batteries, they come in combo chargers to do both batteries.
References :
NTB or Sears