Charging Circuit

[Roy 845]

I recently acquired a 1977 22' O'Day with a shoal draft keel and am in the process of getting her ready for the 2017 season and have found a slip for her at a Marina on Long Island sound. There are only bits and pieces of electrical components and wiring inside so I am going to build a system from scratch. I have some knowledge of 12 volt systems having tinkered with cars since my younger days but I'm sure there are "rules" and "standards" that I probably am not aware of when it comes to doing boat wiring. I am going to purchase a Marine deep cycle battery and a power distribution panel and then the individual circuits from there. My real question is when she is tied up at her slip I want to leave her on shore power for bilge pump etc purposes. What chargers / maintainers are recommended that can be left plugged in while unattended for long periods that are designed to run pump etc and charge/maintain. Is there a connector that mounts somewhere for hooking shore power (extension cord from dock) to? The Outboard I have has a small generator built in, I think 5amps/60watts, that i'd like to tie in here also just in case. To make things a bit more complicated I'm considering a small solar charging system for while I'm actually on the water.
The nuts and bolts of it is that I want to motor out of the Harbor put up a sail or two find some where to put out anchor and relax with some music in a deck chair quietly with no phones or computers. The battery will be for lighting, sonar, fishfinder, gps, VHF, am/fm usb music not all at the same time, you get the idea. Is this the kind of thing I should be looking at? http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|328|2289962|2289963&id=2541139
If I have 3 separate sources, Engine alternator, Solar Panel or 120v Charger, for supplying input to the Deep cycle battery do they need to be isolated in some way and manually switched from one to the other? Or other? The picture shows us on the way home from Georgia 5 hours after I bought her.

Thanks for the input, Roy

 

[kloudie1]

Check out the store here.. something like this :
http://shop.sailboatowners.com/prod.php?5653/100+-+240V+AC+Input+ProNautic+P+Series+Digital+Chargers
Ya probably want it in the 15 ampere range for when you install another house battery..
Welcome aboard, Roy..
All the devices you reference for charging have diodes in the output so no need to isolate them unless the owner's manual tells you to..
Check out West Marine Advisor articles for hints, like this: http://www.westmarine.com/WestAdvisor/DIY-Installing-a-Battery-Charger
Also check out member, Maine Sail's "How To" section at his site , http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/boat_projects
He has notes on ABYC (American Boat and Yacht Council) requirements and some great pictures..
Here is a source for shore power cables and connectors: http://shop.sailboatowners.com/cat.php?2623
Again, Welcome!

 

[Roy 845]

Thanks for providing direction with this project! Now I need to ask my wife to grant me some weekends to do the work but I can actually do everything I need from that 1 article from west marine.

 

[njlarry]

Nice looking rig. Get a copy of Don Caseys book on electrical although I prefer Calders book for everything else. Also read the manuals online for every charger you are looking at. Don't go any bigger than the boats wiring can handle. Ten to twenty amps should be fine.

 

[Roy 845]

Thanks Larry, She cost $900.00 to purchase plus traveling expenses. I got her on E-bay so I really couldn't inspect before I bought but even if she was a wreck I still got a trailer. I see Casey's book on Amazon and its in my Cart!

 

[Jim 5757]

We have an older version of the Marinco charger you're looking at. We have similar setup with 1 deep cycle batt and a standard group 28 for starting. Added the marinco ACR last year. This has served us well for the last 10 yrs. Flooded batteries last 7-9 years so no complaints.

 

[Ritdog]

I have a 25 with a 9.9 outboard. - It was recommended to me to get a deep cycle for the house battery, and a starting battery for the outboard...two different batteries in how they are made and what they are for. The house is for slow discharge , the starting handles the surge of starting. Have a 14 watt Powerfilm connected directly to the house battery, with that in parallel to the starting one. We hang it in the window when not on the boat, and it keeps things up to charge.
Shore power is a whole another system, and you have to be VERY careful with that. You should be all right just using the motor to charge the starting battery.
I went to all LED lighting last year. Now with ALL the lights on, everything, the draw is less than running just one regular tungsten filament light. You probably have BA15-D (dual contact) bulbs, and you can get BA15 LED bulbs almost anywhere. I converted all the interior lights to high/low with a switch and use BA15D auto brake light bulbs for high/low lighting. They are about $10 at NAPA or O'Reilly.

 

[Roy 845]

Hi Ritdog,

The outboard I have is a Honda 8hp 4 Stroke and as far as I know it does not have electric start. There are no interior lights at all and a bunch of new parts still in the boxes came with the boat so yes I'll swap out all the bulbs with LED's. I'm considering my options for interior lighting. I may keep it simple and use LED strip lighting for now. Easy to mount and they provide a bunch of light. Yes I want solar to keep my batteries up while I'm out and about but I think that may come later on because there are just so many options out there to research that I only want to buy once. Hard panels are more efficient but pose a storage problem. I'm thinking something that I can simply hang on the rail during my outings and bring inside while at the slip.

 

[agprice22]

Try Nigel Calder's book.
He has diagrams.
Design your entire system detailing wire gauges, fuse sizes, buss bars, circuit breakers, lights, and other appliances, their wattages, and batteries, battery switch, chargers, shore power switch, amp meter, solar panel, solar power manager...
Know your expected load and amp hour requirement. Get it all on paper before you start. It will really help.
SBO sells a good lug crimper for cables from 0 down to 8, and you can get a nice kit of marine grade terminals with sealing shrink, crimper, and torch all in one big grey box. I love mine!
I mounted my busses, charger/inverter, shore power switch, and shore power fuses on a board on the inside of the cockpit footwell wall in the quarter berth. My boat is the 272, so it has a bit more room there. I mounted my batteries under the steps in the galley.