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Can I Use Solar To Charge Three Different Battery Voltages on My Boat? 12V, 24V and 32V?

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Transcript is auto-generated.

hi

jeff cote here with pacific out systems

we

are doing a boating tech talk and

what we're going to be talking about

we've got a question from a fellow

boarder michael

michael has a hatteras 70 uh lovely

powerboat

and he is based out of queensland

australia actually i've had a few of our

team members from queensland and it is

on my bucket list definitely want to go

there one day never been to australia

before even though i live on the west

coast of north america

it's going to happen though all right so

michael asked

jeff i've recently installed a solar

array of 600

or six 175 watt solar panels

okay so context we've got six solar

panels

i've and michael keeps going and he says

three of those

each so basically three panels are

feeding one controller so he's basically

putting three panels together to each

one controller so he has

effectively two solar arrays on that

boat right each solar array is

of three panels going to a single

controller and that's definitely doable

and we've done that

so he's got three panels each going to

control two solar rays so far so good

all right and those uh solar controllers

are recharging

one of their 24 volt house battery okay

pretty common

all right from these uh battery banks i

install the victron 24 to 12 dc to dc

charger or what i call a charging

converter so basically what that device

does is it allows

to have 24 volt battery bank charge a 12

volt battery bank

right and what's great about that is it

only does so when

the original battery bank the 24 volt in

this instance

has what's considered a charging voltage

so it's a little bit like some wealthy

people

are generous when they have a billion

right it's easy to be generous when you

have a lot

and so what we use the same philosophy

on boats and is we're saying well listen

if a battery is

undergoing charging then why not take

some of that charging voltage

right which let's say for example on a

12 volt battery might be considered

13 3 or 13 4 so at 24 volts you double

so that's 26 8 or 27 volts and saying

hey listen when i'm at 26

8 or 27 and again that's all adjustable

you know what i won't mind sharing some

of that charging voltage with other

batteries that might need it

in this case he's sharing the love or

the charging voltage

from his house uh batteries which are 24

volt to his starter batteries

uh to 12 to 12 volt batteries to stay

fully charged

now the system works very well so far so

good all normal

my question i would also like to connect

my two

32 volt cranking batteries

to also be fed for my solar array

now that's harder because although 32

volts

um and i heard through the rumor mill

and maybe someone can point that out to

me

i don't know it's never been

substantiated was actually apparently

invented on the west coast in north

america and there's probably a lot of

boats that have that over here and i've

seen it on all fishing trawlers and

birch rams used to have that and a lot

of boats actually that have 32 volts

and if you're wondering how do they get

32 volts you actually buy an 8 volt

battery

four cells and so you buy four

of these eight volt batteries and you

wire them literally in series to make a

32 volt

battery bank and i've worked on those

boats before and it's

not it's not common but it's not so

uncommon that we're unfamiliar with it

the challenges and this is a good

question from michael is like well it's

one thing to go from 24 to 12

but what if i want to go 24 to 32 and so

effectively you're looking for the same

thing

right you're looking for a dc to dc

charging converter that would go from 24

to 32

not sure if that exists never put one in

it might be

failing that i'm not sure what i would

end up doing to recharge those energy

batteries

you might have to put in a small solar

array just to do those batteries

also heard through the rumor mail never

tried again

people maybe want to comment i've heard

but never seen it and so that means i'm

always a little bit sort of

cautionary about it i've heard of

having one solar panel connected to two

controllers

don't know if that's possible

theoretically it might make sense i've

just never seen it done

but what i would do is probably install

a dedicated solar rate just for my

cranking batteries

and i would get a controller that

outputs 32 volts again i have never

seen it but it's not to say it doesn't

exist because my world is not the whole

world

so if any of you have seen a 32 volt

solar controller can you please post it

down below

and any of you that have seen a 24 to

32 or a 12 to 32 charging converter

which is a relatively new product please

post it down below

and help michael figure out how are we

going to get his

engine batteries which are 32 volts get

a charging voltage from either 24 or 12.

and it's a great question michael i just

have never come across that setup before

although it's not rare i understand that

it's not completely unique

but having three battery voltages on a

boat is certainly not without its

challenges and you're living them right

now

it's worth doing though because it's a

boat it's never easy

if you've got further questions on

inverter chargers or dc to dc charging

converters we've got a few videos on

that

and we're also going to be introducing a

new section just on that topic

so potentially look up on our products

it might be there and if it's not there

it's coming soon so just wait

and stay safe on the water and thanks

for asking michael i appreciate and

thanks all of you for watching

thank you for watching this pys video if

you've got further questions please

ask them below or send us an email via

the contact forms on our website

happy to donate my time to share

information with you you can support us

in keeping this channel

ad free by purchasing some merchandise

on our store

or by making a donation on paypal and

don't forget to subscribe

thanks again for watching

English (auto-generated)

About PYS

Day Two at the Vancouver Boat Show with Jeff Cote

Boating Tech Talk

How To Choose Solar For Your Boat - FREE Guide

Boating Tech Talk

What Is the Best Setup for Charging Multiple Battery Banks From an Alternator?

Boating Tech Talk

How to Charge a Lithium Battery House Bank and an AGM Starter Battery at the Same Time?

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