Shouldn’t the be a fuse on the cable running from the battery to the charger at the battery end?? The way it’s drawn you can be draining all the battery capacity thru a #2 or smaller wire
Mahalo
Mahalo
Converting 12v house to 'golf cart' 6v s..
- Thread starter MitchM
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Les,
The fuse should be at the power source, in the case of a charger the source is at the charger.
The fuse should be at the power source, in the case of a charger the source is at the charger.
Dave, regardless of where you may think the power comes from, in your case the charger, consider when it is off. Then you have this battery that is the SOURCE for large currents in the event of a short, usually in the wire. Les is right, fuse at the battery end. Most chargers have fuses inside them, too.
I got 4- T-1275 for my propulsion bank, they're the same height as my Duracell GC 6 volt house batteries.
Nope. The charger is self regulating (same as alternators) and if sized correctly can’t deliver more than the wire can take. That same wire can’t stand up to the 100’s of amps the battery can supply if there is a short
Mahalo
Stu, Yep, you're correct and my batteries are wired with a fuse at the battery end.
Actually I have 3 fuses between the battery and the charger. For some reason I thought Les was suggesting 2 fuses on the battery charger, one at the charger and on at the battery thus protecting the wire from both directions.
I know you clarified this above but I just want to reinforce where the dangerous current comes from...
A battery charger is considered a current limited source just as an alternator or solar array or wind generator would be. This means that in a failure mode it can't exceed its output capability. With properly sized wire your charger, alternator or other charge source can't fry the wires but the battery bank end sure can.
A typical marine house battery bank is capable of feeding multiple-thousands of amps into a shorted wire where a 30A charger might be capable of 32A -34A into the same short. A single Odyssey G-31 battery is capable of 5000A into a dead short, a bank of four is capable of approx 20,000A into a dead short....
Over-current protection for battery chargers, alternators and solar arrays always goes as the battery end of the positive cable. If you want additional fusing at the charger, alt or solar end that is up to you but the charging source end fuse will never trip, if sized correctly, so it just means more terminations, potential for corrosion and unnecessary voltage drop.