Stu,
Maybe you should finish that paper! I may not have a good understanding of electricity but reading your descriptions have been the most logical (to me). I think it's done similarly in Nigel Caldor's book.
This is my understanding;
1 Alternator output goes directly to house bank to charge.
2 Emergency or Reserve bank uses a combiner or echo charger for it's charge.
3 The 1, 2 ,both switch is used for output only and in most cases the house bank does everything including starting the motor. The reserve bank,(#2 in my case), will only be be needed if my house is totally dead which should never happen if you have a battery monitor.
If the alternator doesn't go thru the switch it doesn't make a difference in what position it's in because both banks will always be charging when the engine is on and there is no chance of frying the diode.
But if the switch is in both position then your house bank is really both banks.
This would be bad!:naughty: Your switch should never see both.
Is that correct in it's simplest form, layman's terms. This always seems to be a confusing subject.
Now the hard part....trace the existing wiring....fun.
