justsomeguy
New Member
Hey guys,
I'll start off by saying I don't have a huge amount of knowledge in building more intricate systems, I understand many of these questions have been answered in various ways previously and I think I have a grasp on how I want to do things... But I'm not sure if this is the most optimal way.
So here it goes. We bought a sailboat we plan to live on, it has a starter battery (80ah) and a house battery (120ah) both lead acid. The previous owner put in a Victron Cyrix to split the two batteries, so alternator charges starter battery then charges house battery. This system also charges from 220v shore power through a Victron controller (we're currently in the EU). This is the previous owners setup.
We've been given 6 40ah AGM batteries from a friends work, they all tested well. We are also on a pretty serious budget, so we would like to just use the batteries we already have. Our energy needs are low, we work from our laptops, boats electronics are all 12v low consumption, 12v fridge, some fans... Max consumption is around 300-400w all in (but usually well under 100w). But we would like to put in a 2000w inverter for things like blenders or electric kettles, occasional wired power tool maybe.
We plan on setting up two separate solar arrays, one on the spray hood and one off the transom, these will have separate victron MPPT charge controllers going into the AGM battery bank. But we would also like the AGM bank to charge from the alternator and shore power, and the house batteries from solar. For this I was thinking of using a Sterling bi-directional DC-DC charger. And finally add a Victron BMV-712 to monitor.
I'm not sure though if we for example have shore power and solar power at the same time, if the DC-DC charger and MPPT controllers monitor the total input to the battery bank or if this will cause overcharging? Or if there's a way more optimal way to set the whole system up. Sorry if these are pretty simple questions.
Thanks in advance,
Max
I'll start off by saying I don't have a huge amount of knowledge in building more intricate systems, I understand many of these questions have been answered in various ways previously and I think I have a grasp on how I want to do things... But I'm not sure if this is the most optimal way.
So here it goes. We bought a sailboat we plan to live on, it has a starter battery (80ah) and a house battery (120ah) both lead acid. The previous owner put in a Victron Cyrix to split the two batteries, so alternator charges starter battery then charges house battery. This system also charges from 220v shore power through a Victron controller (we're currently in the EU). This is the previous owners setup.
We've been given 6 40ah AGM batteries from a friends work, they all tested well. We are also on a pretty serious budget, so we would like to just use the batteries we already have. Our energy needs are low, we work from our laptops, boats electronics are all 12v low consumption, 12v fridge, some fans... Max consumption is around 300-400w all in (but usually well under 100w). But we would like to put in a 2000w inverter for things like blenders or electric kettles, occasional wired power tool maybe.
We plan on setting up two separate solar arrays, one on the spray hood and one off the transom, these will have separate victron MPPT charge controllers going into the AGM battery bank. But we would also like the AGM bank to charge from the alternator and shore power, and the house batteries from solar. For this I was thinking of using a Sterling bi-directional DC-DC charger. And finally add a Victron BMV-712 to monitor.
I'm not sure though if we for example have shore power and solar power at the same time, if the DC-DC charger and MPPT controllers monitor the total input to the battery bank or if this will cause overcharging? Or if there's a way more optimal way to set the whole system up. Sorry if these are pretty simple questions.
Thanks in advance,
Max
