Battery isolation whilst on shore power

[ukrizla]

Hi all, I have searched for this but cannot find anything. What I want to know is can I turn my batteries off/ isolate them whilst on shore power? We are live aboards.

Many thanks

[Machpoint005]

If your boat is anything like mine, some services will work on 12v regardless on connection to shore -- water pump, macerator toilet, most of the lighting... so no, you can't.

[Tonka]

Depends on how the battery charger/power pack is wired. On mine I can leave them off

[Machpoint005]

Depends on how the battery charger/power pack is wired. On mine I can leave them off

 

Fairy nuff. The OP will have to suck it and see, I think!

[by'eck]

Generally no, and why would you want to unless changing the batteries. Its actually desirable to leave batteries connected and a smart charger running continuously keeping them topped up in float mode and offsetting any DC loads whilst on shore power.

 

If its a must, suggest turning off any mains charger since some may be damaged if the battery connection is interrupted. Also as mentioned above, beware that most boats have a multitude of devices on board that won't work if you isolate the DC supply from your batteries.

[Pete & Helen]

As above, but it all depends on how your wired up. Batteries can act as a nice big capacitor which aids the smoothing from your charger, so disconnecting them could lead to some noise or ripple that could affect some of your electronics if they are particularly sensitive. But you will only find out if they are once you disconnect them.

Also your charger (depending on type) may give out a higher than normal voltage when the load is very low. .

[Robbo]

You more than likely find quite a few of your devices will use the battery so isolating the batteries will disable them!

 

If you have a multi stage battery charger it's safe and better to leave this on. If not multi stage then switch off after using (and get a multi stage one!)