Shore Power

[Shannon C.]

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a great weekend. I have a couple of questions. Full disclosure, the generator was removed by the previous owner, the boat is a 2005 30 Marlin.

1. With the A/C main on I can power everything on the A/C side but when I want to power the D/C main I have to turn the batteries on.
2. I turn the batterie charger on the A/C side and turn the batteries on to charge them, is that ok?
3.Do I need to turn both batteries on to run the D/C side.

Well I guess I had more than a couple questions, still learning the boat.

Thanks,

 

[RussGW270]

Howdy!

I will let the experts chime in, but wanted to say hello. I always leave the charger on when I am plugged in, no matter what. I generally move around the boat at the house checking on the Garmin stuff etc, and I never turn the battery charger to off. When doing that, I usually just turn both batteries to "both". Never had an issue. The one time I turned the charger off and forgot to turn it back on, I came back days later and the batteries were dead because I left something on so.. heh, I always leave it on

But, if I am doing it wrong, someone will chime in too

R

 

[seasick]

Shore power does not supply any 12 volt power. So of course you need to have at least one battery on (the one that the accessory feed is connected to), At the same time, shore power with a charger can supply charging power to the batteries. Your onboard charger can only produce a smallish amount of current. If you run one or more devices that draw more than the output of the charger, the battery will run down. Depending on the actual loads, the time that things run OK will vary

 

[wspitler]

On my 330 on a lift I leave the (smart) battery charger (30Amp 4 bank Protournament) on all the time. To power the DC side I only need the starboard battery switch on (1, 2 or both). Starboard battery switch runs the house load through the cabin DC panel. My charger is designed to look for the highest loaded battery bank (theoretically up to 30 amps) and provide as much amperage to the bank as possible. It is designed to not overcharge but be in float mode most of the time. I see 12.8 - 13.1 VDC most of the time and my batteries seem to last about 5 years. The only caution is it may not be a good idea to have the battery chargers powered when the engines are running as it may confuse the smart charger circuits. The charger should pick up any reasonable load from your DC side (thru the batteries) and keep the batteries topped up. Older chargers are not as "smart" and can overcharge and run the batteries dry. They need to be monitored and used to recharge only or help the batteries maintain a load for limited periods.

 

[Legend]

My Sailfish has a battery operated refrigerator that runs constantly when on shore power and the batteries are always fully charged. Some of the newer refrigerators have a dual power capability so they switch automatically from DC to AC. Either type of unit you have, the batteries can handle it when connected to shore power with the charger on

 

[Shannon C.]

Ok, thanks guys..