Electrical System
"Batteries 101" as offered by Jon Vez to the listserv, followed by other member information...
Here is my take on the optimal setup for the electrical setup for the 355. These observations are based on commonly accepted practices in the marine industry. Marine electrical systems are somewhat of a passion of mine and I have employed what I believe to be best practices on my last two boats and am in the process of finishing up optimizing the 355’s electrical system. I will not describe how to implement these suggestions in this post, however if anyone has an interest in that aspect, or want specifics to provide to a certified marine electrician, I will be happy to provide those details. Hopefully this is not to confusing!
For those of you who have an interest in this stuff, there are two excellent resources that are well worth checking out.
There is a wealth of great information on the Catalina 34 site, our Catalina Association hosts. This link is specific to this topic:
http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5977.0.html
Additionally, this is a site from someone who I consider the single most valuable resource when it comes to all things related to boat maintenance and I respect his advice more than anyone when it comes to electrical systems on a boat. He is simply the authority on this subject:
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/boat_projects
The 355 is typically shipped with 2 standard 4D batteries. If you have a bow thruster or generator, you probably have a 3rd Group 27 battery, however I will focus primarily on addressing the two battery setup.
The designation ‘4D’ refers to the physical dimensions of the battery, not necessarily the capacity. A 4D is typically rated around 200 Amp Hours. Although ours are not quite that, I am going to use 200 AH to keep the math simple.
1. Combine the two batteries in Parallel, creating one large 400AH house Bank—this will be referred to as ‘Bank 1’
2. Install a Reserve Battery (some would call this a starting battery, but you will see why I refer to it as ‘Reserve’)—this will be referred to as ‘Bank 2’. This should be a Group 27 battery.
3. Run *ALL* charging sources (shore power, Alternator, solar, wind etc) to the House Bank. (Bank 1)
4. Install Fuses on all Positive cables attached directly to the batteries
**NB: This is critical. Even if you do not make any of these changes, make sure any Positive (Red) wire running to your batteries are properly fused. I am not sure if Catalina is fusing the batteries out of the factory now, but my boat was not fused. I did see a new 355 at the New England Boat Show that was fused.
5. Although not critical, I would highly recommend installing a proper Battery Monitor to manage your electrical system. Although the digital Volt/Amp meters are nice, they are only reading real time information. This does not give you the information you need to determine the State of Charge and several other useful data points to properly manage your electrical system.
With this setup, your Battery Switch will operate like this:
This is the logic behind these recommendations:
1. One large Bank will provide much more battery capacity *and* charge more efficiently (even with the stock alternator—see below). Think of it this way:
--It is common practice to NEVER discharge your batteries below 50%. Doing so will severely limit their useful life, not to mention the risk of not being able to start the engine. So from a usage perspective, we now have in effect 200AH of useful capacity (50% of 400AH) for all house loads AND engine starting. Whereas if you use one battery for house loads and one battery in reserve to start the engine as it is currently set up, then you only have a useful capacity of 100AH for your House loads. So by combining the two Batteries, we have doubled our useable capacity, and;
2. The larger House Bank will have a smaller percentage of discharge and therefore be able to be charged more efficiently. The easiest way to conceptualize this is by considering this example:
If you discharge your single 200 AH battery by 100AH (50%), you will need to recoup 100 AH via your charging source (shore power, engine, etc) to bring your battery back to ‘Full’. If you discharge your new combined house bank by 100AH, you have only discharged the House Bank by 25% (300AH left of the total 400 AH capacity). The reason it is more effective to recoup the 25% that was discharged vs the 50% is due to the nature of battery charging curves. Without getting too much into the weeds, a battery will take an initial charge fairly quickly, but it takes a substantially longer period of charging to get the last 15% of the charge into the battery. Basically the deeper the discharge as a percent of battery capacity, the longer it will take to top it up. Additionally, deeply discharging batteries significantly reduces their useful life. I am only using the 50% as an example as I would not advocate bringing your batteries to 50% on a regular basis.
Even the stock, internally regulated alternator at a rating of 65 Amps will take care of charging your 400A house bank more efficiently than alternating between the two individual 200 AH batteries. A very common practice is to set the Battery Switch to ‘Both’ while under power to charge all batteries with the stock setup. The difference with the proposed setup is that your Switch setting of ‘1’ will now *always* be the 400 AH House Bank and your Switch Setting of ‘2’ will now be your Reserve Battery. If you set the Switch to ‘All’ you are now bringing all batteries on line. Another factor to consider when using the stock setup is that when you combine your 2 batteries to start your engine, the battery that is more depleted will immediately try to balance itself with the stronger battery. This presents the risk of draining your charged battery into the battery you have been using for house loads. When the batteries are fairly new, this isn’t a big deal, but over time you run the risk of draining both batteries and not being able to start your engine simply by switching to ‘Both’!
So what is the ‘Reserve’ battery for? Just that, it is an emergency backup should your large House Battery become discharged to the point that you cannot start your engine. It is only there for an emergency. So in practice, you leave the Battery Switch on ‘1’ for everything--that is, House Loads and Engine Starting. In the event you have a dead house bank, you switch to ‘2’ and you have a fresh, isolated battery to start your engine and get you home.
3. By connecting all charging sources to your batteries you are creating a more fail-safe setup. Your Shore Charger is already connected directly to your batteries, so this leaves the Alternator. The additional benefit of wiring your alternator directly to your House Bank is you eliminate the danger of blowing the diodes on your alternator by accidently turning the Battery Switch and disconnecting it from the batteries. This way, the alternator is bypassing the switch altogether and improving efficacy of getting all of those amps into the batteries (less resistance since you have a direct connection).
So how does one charge the Reserve Battery while motoring? There are several devices designed to do this. Basically an Automatic Charging Relayy (ACR) is a very simple device that is wired between the two batteries and is designed to automatically combine and disconnect the two battery banks as needed. They charge the batteries when a charging source is detected and isolate them when the charging stops. My preference is a device from Xantrex called an Echo Charger. Without getting into more detail on this topic here, if anyone is interested, let me know.
So that’s it. I’ve tried to describe the optimal battery management as clearly as I can. I realize that this can seem very complicated, and can make your eyes glaze over. It can get very involved, so apologize in advance if I just added to the confusion. But as I said, I’m happy to discuss any of this in greater detail with anyone who is interested.
If you do nothing else, simply combining your house bank and adding a Reserve Battery will go a long way in extending the useful life of your batteries AND providing you with more power to enjoy the toys on your boat. In fact, these changes will go a long way in negating the need for additional charging sources if you choose not to get into adding solar, wind or generator. Even if you have a generator, this setup will benefit you in that you will not have to run them nearly as long.
I will typically run my engine for an hour every other day when we are cruising. We typically cruise for 2-3 weeks at a time away from shore power and have not found the need for additional charging sources. I haven’t found a need for a larger, externally regulated alternator or Solar—yet. I do envision installing solar at some point in the future though…
Regards,
Jon Vez
Solstice #17
Brent Landry replied:
This is excellent. I like this type of work too.
For monitoring I installed a Xantrex LinkPro battery monitor. There are a few benefits that I like:
Using the Echo Charger or the Blue Seas ACR is a great idea. I added solar power, which I will get in to more in a moment, and I found numerous solar charge controllers that can prioritize a bank and then switch to a second bank. Perhaps this is redundant if you have an ACR installed. I don’t know the details of how an ACR is implemented. In my mind I think ideally you would want all your charging to be implemented the same way, and leverage the ACR.
I love having solar power. We used to run the engine every night to ensure a full bank for the night. Now we can go days without needing the engine to charge. The battery monitor provides the extra piece of mind that all is well. The silent bliss of free power from the sun is very much enjoyed by my wife. The cost of solar power is dropping every year so it is quite affordable now. Some people even use flexible panels that are snapped on to the bimini, with no frame needed.
Jon's reply:
Brent, I used the LinkPro on my last two boats and they do work great. I have become a big fan of the Victron BM though. It is an easier install with only one Ethernet like cable as opposed to those 10 little wires the LP requires, with the same functionality.
I’m curious as to where you installed the Shunt for your LinkPro? One of the things I don’t like about the boat is the limited space available around the Battery compartment. Also would be interested in your Solar Panel location. There is a company in Maine who will sew a panel into the Bimini—very neat installation, but not cheap…yet…..
The reason I prefer the Echo Charger over the ACR is because when the ACR combines the Banks, it provides the same voltage to both the large House Bank and the smaller Starting (Reserve) Battery. This tends to slightly under charge the large bank and slightly overcharge the smaller. To be clear, this doesn’t cause any real issues as I used one on my last boat for 12 years with absolutely no problems. However, the EC is a bit unique in that it will provide the proper voltage to the House Bank and basically trickle charge the smaller bank. It has the same combine/isolate capability as the ACR, however will only combine when the small battery needs it, and is easier to install. Either way, any of these devices are the only way to charge via one charging source and a great addition….
Brent's comment:
The solar panel uses “Pull the Dot” one way snaps to attach and remove the panel from the bimini. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utcyUCU62QI
I wouldn’t sew the panel on for a couple of reasons. If the panel needed maintenance you want to remove it. If you want to collapse/fold the bimini you need to remove the panel. The flexible panels roll up but will break if you try to squish them when collapsing the bimini.
One downside is that most of flexible panels have lower wattage per square inch compared to rigid panels. I get enough juice for my short trips, however if you are doing long duration passages that consume more sustained power loads you may need more. Make sure you know your consumption rates, and expected output of the panel(s). My experience is that I get on average 85% of the max published output during a bright day in Canada. Here is an example: http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products/rollable-portable-remote/r28
Mike Downs asked:
Jon, what do you think is the best location in our boats for installing the 3rd "reserve battery" in the optimal set-up? any tips on installing other than what you have already explained?
Jon replied (and sent photos - below): I installed mine where the factory would—that is in the space between the Hot Water Tank and the fresh water pressure pump under the starboard side settee. I installed an AGM Group 27. No worries about mixing battery types in this installation as the charging regimens for Wet and AGM’s are close enough where it is not an issue, especially the way the battery is used.
Note that this would not be the case with Gel batteries as these have quite a different charging requirement and can be ruined quite easily if not careful.
The reason I used an AGM is so I wouldn’t have to worry about building a proper battery box and I didn’t want the hassle of checking the water in the cells in that location. I used a Battery Holder from West Marine to tie the battery down—I used the base of the Battery Holder as the template to create a plywood base, which I glassed in. If you are interested in the specifics of creating the base, let me know.
In its simplest form, the wiring is quite straightforward. Take the POS from the Reserve Battery and attach it to either the “1” or the “2” post on the back of the Battery Switch (this is personal preference). I use “1” for the Reserve, “2” for the House to remind me that the House Bank is made up of 2 batteries. Remove the original wire that went from the “1” post to the House Bank. Now you have one POS from the Reserve Bank to post “1” on the switch and you leave the original wire as is for the “2”. When you are done, you will have one POS wire to each battery bank. Finally run a NEG from the new Reserve Battery to the House Bank. Done.
Even if you choose not to use an ACR/combiner or echo charger to automatically charge the Reserve battery, you can top it up once a month or so by setting your switch to ‘Both’ for a few hours either via shore power or the Alternator.
If you look at the POS stud in the picture, notice the Blue Seas MRBF fuses and holders. The holders simply attach to the battery stud. Since these are 2/0 cables, I use 300A fuses. These MRBF’s are a really great way to fuse your batteries. Hope this helps and let me know if you need any more info.
Here is my take on the optimal setup for the electrical setup for the 355. These observations are based on commonly accepted practices in the marine industry. Marine electrical systems are somewhat of a passion of mine and I have employed what I believe to be best practices on my last two boats and am in the process of finishing up optimizing the 355’s electrical system. I will not describe how to implement these suggestions in this post, however if anyone has an interest in that aspect, or want specifics to provide to a certified marine electrician, I will be happy to provide those details. Hopefully this is not to confusing!
For those of you who have an interest in this stuff, there are two excellent resources that are well worth checking out.
There is a wealth of great information on the Catalina 34 site, our Catalina Association hosts. This link is specific to this topic:
http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5977.0.html
Additionally, this is a site from someone who I consider the single most valuable resource when it comes to all things related to boat maintenance and I respect his advice more than anyone when it comes to electrical systems on a boat. He is simply the authority on this subject:
http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/boat_projects
The 355 is typically shipped with 2 standard 4D batteries. If you have a bow thruster or generator, you probably have a 3rd Group 27 battery, however I will focus primarily on addressing the two battery setup.
The designation ‘4D’ refers to the physical dimensions of the battery, not necessarily the capacity. A 4D is typically rated around 200 Amp Hours. Although ours are not quite that, I am going to use 200 AH to keep the math simple.
1. Combine the two batteries in Parallel, creating one large 400AH house Bank—this will be referred to as ‘Bank 1’
2. Install a Reserve Battery (some would call this a starting battery, but you will see why I refer to it as ‘Reserve’)—this will be referred to as ‘Bank 2’. This should be a Group 27 battery.
3. Run *ALL* charging sources (shore power, Alternator, solar, wind etc) to the House Bank. (Bank 1)
4. Install Fuses on all Positive cables attached directly to the batteries
**NB: This is critical. Even if you do not make any of these changes, make sure any Positive (Red) wire running to your batteries are properly fused. I am not sure if Catalina is fusing the batteries out of the factory now, but my boat was not fused. I did see a new 355 at the New England Boat Show that was fused.
5. Although not critical, I would highly recommend installing a proper Battery Monitor to manage your electrical system. Although the digital Volt/Amp meters are nice, they are only reading real time information. This does not give you the information you need to determine the State of Charge and several other useful data points to properly manage your electrical system.
With this setup, your Battery Switch will operate like this:
- Engine On/OffàON when using the engine, OFF when the engine is turned off
- 1-2-Both Switch:
- Set to ‘1’àFor all House Loads AND Engine Starting. This will be the setting you use for everything.
- Set to ‘2’àOnly use for emergency engine starting.
- Set to ‘Both’àUse only if you ever need to combine House Bank and Reserve Bank. You should never have to use this setting.
- If you keep your fridge, AC etc on when away from the boat, leave the setting at ‘1’; if you turn everything off, you can turn the battery switch to off and still charge the batteries via shore power as long as the appropriate circuit breakers are on for shore power.
This is the logic behind these recommendations:
1. One large Bank will provide much more battery capacity *and* charge more efficiently (even with the stock alternator—see below). Think of it this way:
--It is common practice to NEVER discharge your batteries below 50%. Doing so will severely limit their useful life, not to mention the risk of not being able to start the engine. So from a usage perspective, we now have in effect 200AH of useful capacity (50% of 400AH) for all house loads AND engine starting. Whereas if you use one battery for house loads and one battery in reserve to start the engine as it is currently set up, then you only have a useful capacity of 100AH for your House loads. So by combining the two Batteries, we have doubled our useable capacity, and;
2. The larger House Bank will have a smaller percentage of discharge and therefore be able to be charged more efficiently. The easiest way to conceptualize this is by considering this example:
If you discharge your single 200 AH battery by 100AH (50%), you will need to recoup 100 AH via your charging source (shore power, engine, etc) to bring your battery back to ‘Full’. If you discharge your new combined house bank by 100AH, you have only discharged the House Bank by 25% (300AH left of the total 400 AH capacity). The reason it is more effective to recoup the 25% that was discharged vs the 50% is due to the nature of battery charging curves. Without getting too much into the weeds, a battery will take an initial charge fairly quickly, but it takes a substantially longer period of charging to get the last 15% of the charge into the battery. Basically the deeper the discharge as a percent of battery capacity, the longer it will take to top it up. Additionally, deeply discharging batteries significantly reduces their useful life. I am only using the 50% as an example as I would not advocate bringing your batteries to 50% on a regular basis.
Even the stock, internally regulated alternator at a rating of 65 Amps will take care of charging your 400A house bank more efficiently than alternating between the two individual 200 AH batteries. A very common practice is to set the Battery Switch to ‘Both’ while under power to charge all batteries with the stock setup. The difference with the proposed setup is that your Switch setting of ‘1’ will now *always* be the 400 AH House Bank and your Switch Setting of ‘2’ will now be your Reserve Battery. If you set the Switch to ‘All’ you are now bringing all batteries on line. Another factor to consider when using the stock setup is that when you combine your 2 batteries to start your engine, the battery that is more depleted will immediately try to balance itself with the stronger battery. This presents the risk of draining your charged battery into the battery you have been using for house loads. When the batteries are fairly new, this isn’t a big deal, but over time you run the risk of draining both batteries and not being able to start your engine simply by switching to ‘Both’!
So what is the ‘Reserve’ battery for? Just that, it is an emergency backup should your large House Battery become discharged to the point that you cannot start your engine. It is only there for an emergency. So in practice, you leave the Battery Switch on ‘1’ for everything--that is, House Loads and Engine Starting. In the event you have a dead house bank, you switch to ‘2’ and you have a fresh, isolated battery to start your engine and get you home.
3. By connecting all charging sources to your batteries you are creating a more fail-safe setup. Your Shore Charger is already connected directly to your batteries, so this leaves the Alternator. The additional benefit of wiring your alternator directly to your House Bank is you eliminate the danger of blowing the diodes on your alternator by accidently turning the Battery Switch and disconnecting it from the batteries. This way, the alternator is bypassing the switch altogether and improving efficacy of getting all of those amps into the batteries (less resistance since you have a direct connection).
So how does one charge the Reserve Battery while motoring? There are several devices designed to do this. Basically an Automatic Charging Relayy (ACR) is a very simple device that is wired between the two batteries and is designed to automatically combine and disconnect the two battery banks as needed. They charge the batteries when a charging source is detected and isolate them when the charging stops. My preference is a device from Xantrex called an Echo Charger. Without getting into more detail on this topic here, if anyone is interested, let me know.
So that’s it. I’ve tried to describe the optimal battery management as clearly as I can. I realize that this can seem very complicated, and can make your eyes glaze over. It can get very involved, so apologize in advance if I just added to the confusion. But as I said, I’m happy to discuss any of this in greater detail with anyone who is interested.
If you do nothing else, simply combining your house bank and adding a Reserve Battery will go a long way in extending the useful life of your batteries AND providing you with more power to enjoy the toys on your boat. In fact, these changes will go a long way in negating the need for additional charging sources if you choose not to get into adding solar, wind or generator. Even if you have a generator, this setup will benefit you in that you will not have to run them nearly as long.
I will typically run my engine for an hour every other day when we are cruising. We typically cruise for 2-3 weeks at a time away from shore power and have not found the need for additional charging sources. I haven’t found a need for a larger, externally regulated alternator or Solar—yet. I do envision installing solar at some point in the future though…
Regards,
Jon Vez
Solstice #17
Brent Landry replied:
This is excellent. I like this type of work too.
For monitoring I installed a Xantrex LinkPro battery monitor. There are a few benefits that I like:
- it can monitor both banks
- it has a visual indicator for high/low voltage and a bunch of other programmable events
- it has a built-in relay and an option for additional relays. With the relays you can get creative to automatically mitigate power problems. Some people have the relays switch off equipment if the voltage gets too low. Some people use the relays to automatically start a generator. Some people use it for audible alarms. I only use it for an LED warning light.
- it monitors the overall health of the batteries
- you can clearly see the charge or discharge rate, and easily determine the load each piece of equipment uses
Using the Echo Charger or the Blue Seas ACR is a great idea. I added solar power, which I will get in to more in a moment, and I found numerous solar charge controllers that can prioritize a bank and then switch to a second bank. Perhaps this is redundant if you have an ACR installed. I don’t know the details of how an ACR is implemented. In my mind I think ideally you would want all your charging to be implemented the same way, and leverage the ACR.
I love having solar power. We used to run the engine every night to ensure a full bank for the night. Now we can go days without needing the engine to charge. The battery monitor provides the extra piece of mind that all is well. The silent bliss of free power from the sun is very much enjoyed by my wife. The cost of solar power is dropping every year so it is quite affordable now. Some people even use flexible panels that are snapped on to the bimini, with no frame needed.
Jon's reply:
Brent, I used the LinkPro on my last two boats and they do work great. I have become a big fan of the Victron BM though. It is an easier install with only one Ethernet like cable as opposed to those 10 little wires the LP requires, with the same functionality.
I’m curious as to where you installed the Shunt for your LinkPro? One of the things I don’t like about the boat is the limited space available around the Battery compartment. Also would be interested in your Solar Panel location. There is a company in Maine who will sew a panel into the Bimini—very neat installation, but not cheap…yet…..
The reason I prefer the Echo Charger over the ACR is because when the ACR combines the Banks, it provides the same voltage to both the large House Bank and the smaller Starting (Reserve) Battery. This tends to slightly under charge the large bank and slightly overcharge the smaller. To be clear, this doesn’t cause any real issues as I used one on my last boat for 12 years with absolutely no problems. However, the EC is a bit unique in that it will provide the proper voltage to the House Bank and basically trickle charge the smaller bank. It has the same combine/isolate capability as the ACR, however will only combine when the small battery needs it, and is easier to install. Either way, any of these devices are the only way to charge via one charging source and a great addition….
Brent's comment:
The solar panel uses “Pull the Dot” one way snaps to attach and remove the panel from the bimini. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utcyUCU62QI
I wouldn’t sew the panel on for a couple of reasons. If the panel needed maintenance you want to remove it. If you want to collapse/fold the bimini you need to remove the panel. The flexible panels roll up but will break if you try to squish them when collapsing the bimini.
One downside is that most of flexible panels have lower wattage per square inch compared to rigid panels. I get enough juice for my short trips, however if you are doing long duration passages that consume more sustained power loads you may need more. Make sure you know your consumption rates, and expected output of the panel(s). My experience is that I get on average 85% of the max published output during a bright day in Canada. Here is an example: http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products/rollable-portable-remote/r28
Mike Downs asked:
Jon, what do you think is the best location in our boats for installing the 3rd "reserve battery" in the optimal set-up? any tips on installing other than what you have already explained?
Jon replied (and sent photos - below): I installed mine where the factory would—that is in the space between the Hot Water Tank and the fresh water pressure pump under the starboard side settee. I installed an AGM Group 27. No worries about mixing battery types in this installation as the charging regimens for Wet and AGM’s are close enough where it is not an issue, especially the way the battery is used.
Note that this would not be the case with Gel batteries as these have quite a different charging requirement and can be ruined quite easily if not careful.
The reason I used an AGM is so I wouldn’t have to worry about building a proper battery box and I didn’t want the hassle of checking the water in the cells in that location. I used a Battery Holder from West Marine to tie the battery down—I used the base of the Battery Holder as the template to create a plywood base, which I glassed in. If you are interested in the specifics of creating the base, let me know.
In its simplest form, the wiring is quite straightforward. Take the POS from the Reserve Battery and attach it to either the “1” or the “2” post on the back of the Battery Switch (this is personal preference). I use “1” for the Reserve, “2” for the House to remind me that the House Bank is made up of 2 batteries. Remove the original wire that went from the “1” post to the House Bank. Now you have one POS from the Reserve Bank to post “1” on the switch and you leave the original wire as is for the “2”. When you are done, you will have one POS wire to each battery bank. Finally run a NEG from the new Reserve Battery to the House Bank. Done.
Even if you choose not to use an ACR/combiner or echo charger to automatically charge the Reserve battery, you can top it up once a month or so by setting your switch to ‘Both’ for a few hours either via shore power or the Alternator.
If you look at the POS stud in the picture, notice the Blue Seas MRBF fuses and holders. The holders simply attach to the battery stud. Since these are 2/0 cables, I use 300A fuses. These MRBF’s are a really great way to fuse your batteries. Hope this helps and let me know if you need any more info.
Start Battery Location Reserve Battery
When asked about the optimum location for the echo charger, Jon replied:
I put it on the wall next to where the starting battery is located. The device is only about 6”x6”, so I epoxied a piece of plywood against the bulkhead. If you notice the bundle of 12AWG wire in the photo I sent previously, this is for the EC. I would recommend running that wire at the same time you bring the battery cables over to the House Bank.
One of the things I’ve struggled with is finding an optimum location to put buss bars, shunts etc near the House bank. Because the battery compartment is such a form fit for the batteries, there isn’t an ideal location to locate electrical items. Has anyone found a place near the Switches/House Bank?
What does the NEG that you run from the reserve battery to the house bank connect to at the house bank? a NEG battery terminal? or do you take it all the way to the NEG buss up at the panel?
You connect the NEG to the battery terminal on the House Bank. It’s important to use the same gauge as the existing wire, so you want 2/0 AWG. Also, when connecting wires to your new Paralleled House Bank, you want to connect all charging sources to the Same POS terminal on the House Bank and all NEG to the same terminal on the opposite battery. This will ensure that all cells are getting evenly charged/discharged—basically wire it as if it were one big battery. This is why I am hoping to find a place to install Buss Bars; it would allow for a much cleaner installation….don’t hesitate to ask if you have further questions…..
When asked about the optimum location for the echo charger, Jon replied:
I put it on the wall next to where the starting battery is located. The device is only about 6”x6”, so I epoxied a piece of plywood against the bulkhead. If you notice the bundle of 12AWG wire in the photo I sent previously, this is for the EC. I would recommend running that wire at the same time you bring the battery cables over to the House Bank.
One of the things I’ve struggled with is finding an optimum location to put buss bars, shunts etc near the House bank. Because the battery compartment is such a form fit for the batteries, there isn’t an ideal location to locate electrical items. Has anyone found a place near the Switches/House Bank?
What does the NEG that you run from the reserve battery to the house bank connect to at the house bank? a NEG battery terminal? or do you take it all the way to the NEG buss up at the panel?
You connect the NEG to the battery terminal on the House Bank. It’s important to use the same gauge as the existing wire, so you want 2/0 AWG. Also, when connecting wires to your new Paralleled House Bank, you want to connect all charging sources to the Same POS terminal on the House Bank and all NEG to the same terminal on the opposite battery. This will ensure that all cells are getting evenly charged/discharged—basically wire it as if it were one big battery. This is why I am hoping to find a place to install Buss Bars; it would allow for a much cleaner installation….don’t hesitate to ask if you have further questions…..