Charger Cable Sizeing

[crayiii]

We're looking into moving our house batteries from the engine compartment on our catamaran to under one of the beds. The additional distance is about 10 feet.

The busbars are in the engine compartment, as are the solar chargers, wind gen chargers, and shore power chargers. Additionally, both alternators also connect to the busbar.

Can I simply run battery cables of the appropriate size from the new house battery location to the existing busbars or do all of the charging source cables need to be upsized to account for the longer cable run?

For example, if the existing alternator cable is 8awg to the busbar now, do I need to change that cable to 4AWG?

I'm hoping to be able to avoid relocating the busbars and running all new cables.

[smac999]

just run cable from battery to bus bar.

[rwidman]

If you have typical flooded cell batteries, they produce potentially explosive hydrogen gas when charging.

Putting these batteries under a bed would be "less than optimal" at best.

[crayiii]

Originally Posted by rwidman

If you have typical flooded cell batteries, they produce potentially explosive hydrogen gas when charging.

Putting these batteries under a bed would be "less than optimal" at best.

Thanks, they are Firefly Carbon Foam.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by crayiii

We're looking into moving our house batteries from the engine compartment on our catamaran to under one of the beds. The additional distance is about 10 feet.

The busbars are in the engine compartment, as are the solar chargers, wind gen chargers, and shore power chargers. Additionally, both alternators also connect to the busbar.

Can I simply run battery cables of the appropriate size from the new house battery location to the existing busbars or do all of the charging source cables need to be upsized to account for the longer cable run?

It will be sufficient to just upsize the battery cables running to the new location. But you might get a surprise when you find out the size of cable and the price of it. Remember the full extra path is 20 ft.

Do you have separate, dedicated start batteries close to the engine(s)? If so then maybe you can realistically use a wire gauge to the relocated house that is rated to comfortably carry the highest expected house load (include the inverter current on typical AC loads). And don't forget heavy loads like windlasses too. But if you want to be able to start the engines from the moved house bank, in the event that the start batteries fail, then you're stuck with heavier gauge, sized for starting.