Wiring solar into Blue Sea switch.

[dnimigon]

I'm going to be upgrading our 1979 Cat 30 wiring. Much needed. Looking at the Blue Sea 7650 Add a battery setup. This includes the ACR. Now I assume the wiring setup will come with this but how do you allow for the solar that we have. We have house and start batteries but being the mess it is right now I believe everything is working off both batteries. I asked Blue Sea about this some time ago and didn't get a good response. I've just sent them another request on how I handle the Solar. We have the solar as we are away from the boat sometimes for months a. It's kept in the water so the solar keeps batteries up for bilge purposes. Other than that when we are out for long sails we have the tunes on and the solar keeps everything up and going. I realize the ACR switches between batteries depending on their demand I assume. Can someone post or send me to a link where there is a diagram on how this should be set up.

[jeepbluetj]

The ACR will trigger and connect (parallel) the batteries when the charge voltage of either of the battery banks rises above 13.0v. I.e. the ACR doesn't care what the charge source is, it just cares what the voltage is -- it's basically a voltage controlled relay. MainSail's site has some info on ACRs.


I'm a big fan of "main" and "aux" banks for boats like the C30. I've got a pair of CG6's under the chart table as "main" - do absolutely everything with em. Start the engine, etc... They're bank A on my switch.

I've got a G24 under the starboard settee that's the "aux" battery. It's B on the switch and it's maintained with a little trickle charger. (I'm plugged in most of the time)

The solar feeds a breaker on my panel and thus would charge whatever battery was switched to.

I never use the "B" bank. It's only purpose is to start the engine if I kill the main bank. So I get a much more available daily AH discharge capability (~120AH) than I could from a single battery. But I'm still able to start up if I kill the main.

[Stu Jackson]

If you haven't purchased trhe switch yet, consider keeping your 1-2-B switch and just wiring it properly.

AGM Battery Issues and the Blue Seas Dual Circuit Switch (from Maine Sail) "DARN AGM Batteries"
http://forums.catalina.sailboatowner...ght=darn%20agm

Basic Battery Wiring Diagrams This is a very good basic primer for boat system wiring: Basic Battery Wiring Diagrams

This is another very good basic primer for boat system wiring: The 1-2-B Switch by Maine Sail (brings together a lot of what this subject is all about)
1/BOTH/2/OFF Switches Thoughts & Musings | SailboatOwners.com Forums