Charger to battery wiring

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BobT

BobT

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Sep 29, 2008
239
Gulfstar 37 North East River, Chesapeake Bay
Getting ready to put on a solar panel. I've ordered a 65w panel & Morningstar controller with dual outputs for my two group 24 batteries, wired in two banks with the 1/all/2 switch.

The P.O. had installed a 110vac charger (Rayjeff 15-3) and ran the charging wires to the studs inside the selector switch. It would be mighty convenient to send my solar charge the same way but I haven't seen it shown in any examples I can find. So, how bad an idea was it? Of course the existing wires are not fused either.
 
heritage

heritage

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Apr 22, 2011
974
Hunter 27 Pecan Grove, Oriental, NC
If the PO ran the two ac charger wires to the #1 and #2 battery switch studs, the charge will always go to the two batteries regardless of the switch position. No problem there, it's just a convenient place to connect to the battery circuits. Your Morningstar controller with the dual output can follow the same path. You might find it more convenient to connect the solar controller in series with the battery charger to simplify the wiring.
 
jviss

jviss

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Feb 5, 2004
7,090
Tartan 3800 20 Westport, MA
heritage said:
You might find it more convenient to connect the solar controller in series with the battery charger to simplify the wiring.
Click to expand
I am curious to know why you would recommend this, why you think it would simplify things, and whether it would actually work.

I don't think it's a good idea, and I can't imagine why you would do that.
 
zeehag

zeehag

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Mar 26, 2009
3,198
1976 formosa 41 yankee clipper santa barbara. ca.(not there)
in my ericson i had the solar panels and controller wired to the breaker panel with their own breaker. i wish now i had that set up in this boat as sometimes i need to turn off my solar charging--and now i can only use a towel to shade them....
 
Maine Sail

Maine Sail

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Feb 6, 1998
11,760
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
zeehag said:
in my ericson i had the solar panels and controller wired to the breaker panel with their own breaker. i wish now i had that set up in this boat as sometimes i need to turn off my solar charging--and now i can only use a towel to shade them....
Click to expand
Why would you need to turn off your solar panels?
 
BobT

BobT

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Sep 29, 2008
239
Gulfstar 37 North East River, Chesapeake Bay
Right now the taps on the AC charger also feed an analog battery monitor that has a pointlessly small scale. I'm counting on the Morningstar monitor to be a large improvement.

I can't see a reason why not to feed the system at the switch with its beefy cables. It makes more sense than running more hot wires thorough bulkheads and into battery boxes.
I intend to fuse these wires as close to the switch as poss.
 
Ron20324

Ron20324

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Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
BobT said:
... and ran the charging wires to the studs inside the selector switch. It would be mighty convenient to send my solar charge the same way...
Click to expand
I mounted my Morningstar Solar controller in the nav panel, and wired in it at the breaker panel to the two heavy (#6?) wires that come from the batts to the panel. They're fused at the battery end. 6 is a bigger wire than would have added, had I done so, so it is a better plan.
 
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