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How To: Marine Electrical Seminar - Battery Combiners - Episode 10

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[Music]  you  [Music]  the problem with electrical is not so  much an electrical is unreliable is that  an operator will forget and leaving a  battery switch on all defeats the  purpose of a battery switch okay if you  have a battery switch and you put all  your battery switches on all you've  defeated the whole purpose of having  battery banks having multiple batteries  multiple output Chargers all this thing  you're saying you know what when I go to  war we put everyone on the line no  reserves no nothing no backup I put  everything on read 44 every time the  whole house and that might look like  more is better but I can tell you that  once you drain all your batteries and  your engine battery in your house  battery or drain to nothing and you go  start your engine whoever's on the boat  with you will not share your enthusiasm  for not being able to start the boat  when you want to leave and that will  diminish your interest or other people's  interest in a boating when the boat  doesn't start and you're stuck because  on the boat you're not always having the  luxury of leaving when you want  sometimes you have to go now  you can't wait and these devices make it  easy for us as boaters to share power to  other battery bags alright so we talked  about charger we talked about  alternators we talked about solar  controllers we talked about fuel cells  wanted to highlight DC generators we  talked about we could have a wind  turbine there we could also have a toter  bine but now we're gonna be talking  about combiners and notice it's a  bi-directional device and we'll talk  about a battery isolator so battery  combiners what are they they're a CRS  automatic combiner relay that's what  blue C's calls them  we have voltage sense relays that's what  BP calls I mean these are all just  marketing names right zan tracks calls  it echo charge doesn't matter it's all  one were multiple different words to say  the same thing it's a way of sharing  voltage automatically between one  battery bank to another so here you see  and this is very interesting you've got  an unwritten  known as that on switch distribution  which could be the battery post if you  only had one of them but because we like  modular and doing things right we put an  on switch distribution right here you've  got a fuel cell going in there maybe an  inverter charger or solar controller it  could be even a DC generator and how are  you gonna have those devices going to  your house battery or an alternator  you're going to your engine battery  sharing the charge with either side  right because they're connected to only  one device now some battery chargers  have multiple outputs but an inverter  charger the new ones don't have multiple  outputs they just have one output that's  it it's whatever's connected the battery  is what its gonna get in charge so here  we have and it all that could charge the  house this could connect the engine  battery how do you have when you get a  charge on your engine battery send it to  the house or vice versa well a battery  combiner does that for you  and what's nice about it is it's going  to combine your batteries at a certain  voltage you can buy them for different  voltages but let's assume 12 volts for  most of us 13.3 is times of plenty I am  always thinking about how very rich  people can be generous Bill Gates giving  40 some billion dollars to charity still  has 110 it's easy it's easy to be  generous when times are good battery  combiners are the same way they're  saying you know what I will share my  charged voltage with another battery but  only do so when I'm getting a charging  voltage meaning I got all the food on my  table sure you can have some food but  when times are hard and there's not a  lot of food on the table there's no  charge whole thing voltage is gonna say  you know what I'm gonna disconnect the  two battery banks and now the engine  battery in the house battery or each on  its own so that if you disconnect your  house battery your engine battery still  has a charging good high charge voltage  and this effectively takes out the  operator the boater yourself from  actually turning the battery switch from  you know one both to you don't have to  touch that switch anymore that's which  is now the charging the paralleling of  your batteries is done in the background  without your involvement  I have never ever seen one of those  devices fail  I have literally installed our outfit  has installed over thousands and I have  never never seen a failure of any kind  on a battery combiner so anybody that  says aw well they're gonna be unreliable  no black and white I mean no they're  awesome  and that device is about I don't know  120 bucks  depends Canadian right maybe 100 u.s.  something like that it's awesome awesome  and it's this big it's tiny you buy them  for the average that you're gonna put  out right you can buy them big amperage  small amperage bigger the amperage  bigger the cost they also now have the  ability think about what's really  comment on some boats a parallel switch  right like or a remote solenoid on the -  you know even some sailboats you know  for convenience right at the starting  you're like my batteries won't start I'm  gonna hold a momentary button to put my  two batteries in parallel that those  devices some of them will actually have  the ability to put your batteries in  parallel permanently like if you want as  well like not only does it do it  automatically like I'm working on a big  boat right now like 100 footer and we're  actually replacing the manual switch  down in the engine room which on a big  boat sounds like easy but you got to go  down levels to get to it and we're  actually gonna have it wired remotely so  they can actually put their battery  banks in parallel from any bridge on the  boat okay great device highly recommend  it they all have different marketing  names but basically they're their  combiners their solenoids if you want to  think about on all boats you hear that  clicking sound you don't hear a clicking  sound with these but that kind of  solenoid that actually like a starter  starter has a solenoid on it right how  do you put two things in parallel for a  period of time this does it for a period  of time as long as the chargeable things  you charge voltage is there you really  want to see that's the more expensive  version right here  you want to make sure obviously that you  fuse a little bit like the charger  you're not gonna have a hundred and 25  amp you want to make sure that you fuse  four appropriately on both sides of the  circuit so you don't have nuisance  tripping very important all charging  voltages have to be unswept I'm not  going to go into why but I can promise  you that if you want pain on your boat  and you want magic do it on the switch  side and then your boat is going to be  mysterious and magical if you don't want  mystery and magic do it on the N switch  side it's up to you and the other  implication about battery combiners and  a limitation is that sometimes if the  battery banks are too uneven and you've  got a large battery bank and a small  battery bank you might have this thing  coming on and off as soon as it in  parallel the voltage drops too much and  then they disconnect they come back up  again and you'll have the solenoid  constantly clicking not literally but it  could be on and off so it's important  that you size that device for battery  banks that are similar in size or  there's a large alternator rule number  one nothing is ever easy so it looks  magical in some ways but there are  certain implications of putting a device  like that okay I've seen problems in the  real world where it's not for every  application so notice on switch  distribution all charging voltages have  to go to an uncertain  black and white no exception period  question  is my house bank is down at 12.1 and my  engine battery probably around 12.30 but  she only gets used for 15 seconds and so  when that thing kicked in all of a  sudden correct good question we're  talking about either battery banks that  are at much uneven levels or we're  probably your house bank is much bigger  right that's going to be a problem the  next slide is going to talk about a  truly magnificent device we know each  other so yeah it does so it looks bad  but it's not bad no platica when she's  here today okay it has its application  you know you've got a Grady white a  Boston Whaler a sailboat with - like my  boat originally - four DS perfect  similar size battery banks you own your  alternators really good size as a  function of the battery bank size good  application but like I said rule number  one nothing is easy you got to consider  what are the implications of a battery  combiner okay it works but notice it's  also bi-directional right so we can go  from here to there or there to there and  then sometimes there's situations where  if the battery banks are too big or  you're putting it on a thruster and then  one battery is weak the fuses blow and  then you don't know it my life is full  of horror stories that's all I hear  right that's that's what people text me  in the middle of the night on Saturday  afternoon Sunday morning like the  problems never end so I could that's how  I know this stuff it's not because I'm  insightful it's because I get the text  messages all the time about things not  working and they were like well how is  that possible and then you figure it out  you're like oh right yeah we you know  that's makes sense and then there's a  solution so there's a device for that  but it's not the perfect device it has  its place any other questions on battery  combiners  no you would never put your switch on  both ever you'd leave it on one or on  two never both that's right but if you  put it on both you're forcing it on both  all the time so this device becomes  redundant yeah yeah but thrusters are  complicated because Slusser banks  thruster load could be four five six  hundred apps you have that type of load  for example we had a boater battery bank  the operator was using the thruster  enthusiastically and I say I'm not a  sales guy right that is code for overuse  of a thruster battery bank goes down  like crazy so now the pool is empty  there's nothing like some people are  doing one battery bank for it and after  us or a same time for 30 seconds like  this is not a hybrid propulsion system  right this is a thruster it's supposed  to touch and go like touch stop okay  chaos whatever it happens it's the end  of the world you're moving your boat  with thrusters you know what I got it  now the battery bag goes down completely  there's an ACR that's combined with that  battery bank because the engine is on  and the alternator is working but if  your battery bank is completely empty  have you ever thought about connecting  putting yourself in between a dam a high  point and a low point what's happening  in the flow that's what's happening with  hydroelectricity right I mean that's  what it is there's a term I on the  bottom there like you got 200 feet on  one side you got zero on the other that  turbine is gonna move the bigger the  difference between the two sides of  water though faster that turbine is  gonna go well if you've got an empty  battery bank and a full battery bank the  rate that's going to go through that  pipe is going to be more than the  alternate route puts more than your  inverter outputs more than you could  ever think as possible and I've seen  applications where that combiner is now  pulling not pulling it's going through  it 400 500 amps well it doesn't do that  why because we put switch battery fuses  the fuses blow unrelated my battery  get her charge well it's because you  know so it's a domino effect right so  that's why battery combiners are not the  perfect solution for everything but  they're very useful we put lots in boat  slots there's eighty percent of the time  it's great    

Boating Tech Talk

I Am Adding a Second Battery, Should I Use a Battery Combiner or a Battery Isolator?

Boating Tech Talk

One Outboard to Charge Two Batteries

How To: Marine Electrical Seminar

How To: Marine Electrical Seminar - Battery Isolators - Episode 11

How To: Marine Electrical Seminar

How To: Marine Electrical Seminar - Fuses & Cricuit Breakers - Episode 17

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