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Alternator Paralleler Circuit

chris w

By chris w
in Living Afloat

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pistnbroke Collaborator

pistnbroke

Posted
Posted (edited)

no job is ever finished on a boat....

I was looking on Virtual Village today and found some 3 phase 80 amp bridge rectifiers with built in heat sinks about 20 quid with post.......( up to 150 A available for a few more quid)

 

Now if you brought 3 wires out from your starting alternator stator to the 3 inputs on the rectifier and connected your house battery to the + and - you would have a true add on system using both alternators to charge the house . one battery could not discharge into the other .house battery could not hold down the starting battery ,no total re wires required etc etc

 

Shame its so difficult to post photos our you would just see a box with 5 wires to connect

 

Now you all have nice day and try not to be so rude you are getting the boating community a bad name

Edited by pistnbroke
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pistnbroke Collaborator

pistnbroke

Posted
Posted (edited)

oh well seemed a nice cheap and easy solution ...will put my brain back into 4 mph mode and accept the canal sarcasm and lethargy

Lets keep up The canal world ethic of Arrogance Sarcasm Intolerance and pig ignorance

 

I trust no one ever tries to help you. ( though always willing to help anyone just PM)

Edited by pistnbroke
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pistnbroke Collaborator

pistnbroke

Posted
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perhaps the moderator should consider if a post going to 600 + is of any use to anyone with the information so burried...it needs reducing to about 10 relavent posts which give the solutons available and supporting information..

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Gibbo Veteran II

Gibbo

Posted
Posted
perhaps the moderator should consider if a post going to 600 + is of any use to anyone with the information so burried...it needs reducing to about 10 relavent posts which give the solutons available and supporting information..

 

Good idea. It will leave the original post, Snibble's solution and nothing else.

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pistnbroke Collaborator

pistnbroke

Posted
Posted

well that would be more use than what we have now ......snibbles and the 3 phase from 100 posts back that covers those who want to strip the alternator and those who dont. And perhaps some reference to where you can get the bits

 

If you have influence with a moderator go for it

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Smelly Veteran

Smelly

Posted
Posted
Don't forget the solution I proposed in this post (clicky)

 

cheers,

Pete.

 

I've been powering the contactor solely from W since we did this and the contactor doesn't open when the voltage at the other alt rises above the domestic alt. As I'm now charging Vince's sealed batteries it will be difficult to replicate the .4V difference but, trust me, it's never opened, even when I've gone to the pub and forgotten the alts are paralleled for a couple of hours.

 

Also a drawback is that, certainly with my setup the tacho is driven from the service alt's W and if it stopped working surely the tacho would stop counting.

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smileypete Veteran II

smileypete

Posted
Posted
I've been powering the contactor solely from W since we did this and the contactor doesn't open when the voltage at the other alt rises above the domestic alt. As I'm now charging Vince's sealed batteries it will be difficult to replicate the .4V difference but, trust me, it's never opened, even when I've gone to the pub and forgotten the alts are paralleled for a couple of hours.

If you want to get it working, it might be best to meet up with someone else from the forum who is good with this sort of stuff, and work on it as a team.

 

cheers,

Pete.

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Smelly Veteran

Smelly

Posted
Posted
If you want to get it working, it might be best to meet up with someone else from the forum who is good with this sort of stuff, and work on it as a team.

 

cheers,

Pete.

 

For me at least, better than trying to go step by step...

 

But seriously, and with all due respect, there are buried within this thread concerns from mightier authorities than my humble self that W won't stop working...

 

Can I hand you up this shovel now. :lol:

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Loafer Veteran

Loafer

Posted
Posted

Hi everybody

 

I'm a brand-new poster, but not a new boater, living on them for 9 years. I'm very interested in all these posts about alternator parallelling, but would like the panel's opinion on my VERY simple arrangement which has worked for ages now.

 

I have two banks, eng and dom. Dom is 5 batts, eng is one similar. Eng is isolated from all except starting stuff. I simply connected a big relay from eng positive to dom positive. This relay is energised from alt D terminal so it closed whenever the engine is running.

 

Both my alterators are permanently paralleled, with just a single charging cable to the doms. Doms are always charged (Engine, or batt charger and genny), but Engine battery only gets charged if I start the engine.

 

What am I missing?

 

Sincere apologies to the learned if I missed a previous topic on this method! I've only been here a day!

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by'eck Veteran

by'eck

Posted
Posted

Surely this is just a method of split charging with the flaw that you can't charge the starter battery without the engine running.

 

Nothing to do with the most efficient way of paralleling alternators which is covered comprehensively by this long thread.

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Loafer Veteran

Loafer

Posted
Posted

I agree with you By'eck, but there's not what I'd call a flaw - all motor vehicles only charge their starter batteries when they run their engines. It gets run often, since we are proper CCs doing about 700 miles a year.

 

I simply thought that this was 'an efficient way of parallelling alternators' and wondered why your learned colleagues here felt it necessary to have all sorts of failure-prone electronics to monitor it. My 2 alternators are always parallelled and it only took a few minutes (and a few quid) to sort.

 

I was merely asking what I was missing in case there was some reason one shouldn't do what I did!

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Loafer Veteran

Loafer

Posted
Posted

Thank you for those settling words Sir Nibble. A fan of Rowan Atkinson maybe?

 

I remain a little curious though: Why should there be a risk of overcharging the Engine battery when parallelled to our Dom bank?

 

Shurely (hic) the stuff all balances out once connected, even if the eng battery doesn't need much charge, whereas the doms do? Maybe the eng batt actually helps charge the doms a bit. If so, then shurely (hic) thats no worse than our eng batt doing a bit of work for once?

 

I didn't think it was possible to overcharge a wet battery with a voltage-regulated source held below 14.8vDC - although I am aware that years of previous experience can easily be a target for any self-respecting electronic engineer!

 

I await indignant fury, still under cover! And if my opinions are rubbish, I do have others...! Groucho Marx

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Sir Nibble Veteran II

Sir Nibble

Posted
Posted

Many boats employ one or other of the various charge boosters jacking voltage up to high levels and then backing off to lower levels and ultimately float (there's an ambition). Engine batteries don't in normal use get discharged. I calculated that a serious 10 second crank at a silly 350A takes less than 1Ah. So the pretty well fully charged engine battery which would rather like a float charge now if that's ok is getting belted with a charge voltage intended to supply a massive and extended bulk charge for the sake of the much flatter domestic batteries.

If you are, as many seem to be, determined to give your batteries as easy a ride as you can then it can just get more and more complex. I repeat, I would probably do the same as you and fit a manual switch to de couple the batteries when the voltmeter and I felt like it.

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Loafer Veteran

Loafer

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yep. Concur.

 

Your switch is a good idea tho. Presumably on the D wire feeding the relay. Maybe only switch it on after a couple of hours cruising?

 

My arrangement doesn't seem to be damaging the eng battery. Dropper readings still good in each cell and its older than my doms.

 

We wouldn't all like the same boat, would we!

Edited by Loafer
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smileypete Veteran II

smileypete

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yep. Concur.

 

Your switch is a good idea tho. Presumably on the D wire feeding the relay. Maybe only switch it on after a couple of hours cruising?

 

My arrangement doesn't seem to be damaging the eng battery. Dropper readings still good in each cell and its older than my doms.

 

We wouldn't all like the same boat, would we!

If it's working well enough for you then why not stick with things as they are.

 

Maybe add a cheap panel voltmeter to monitor the start batt, get an idea of how it's holding charge and working under load.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited by smileypete
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