Hello,
on my catamaran I would like to get rid of the generator.
I will intall 2000W of solar, 1200 AH LiFePo4 batteries and two MultiPlus 3000 in parallel. But this is not sufficient for two reasons:
1) redundancy
2) weather impact (no sun)
As a backup I would like to be able to charge my batteries FAST!! with the two 57 HP Yanmar diesel engines. How do I do that?
Thank you + kind regards,
Peter
Why 2x 3000 MP in parallel ans not a Single 5000 ?
Voltage of the Yanmar Generators ...
Voltage and Current of the Solar Panels ... Size of the MPPT Conroller
I am assuming the Yanmar Diesel Engines have 12V alternators.
If your battery bank is 12V or 24V then you could just use 2x Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC Charger. 30A version for 12V and 17A for 24V. This would give you redundancy. This would charge your batteries from 0% to full in 40 hours. You could install 4 of them to charge at double the speed. 2 per engine.
But that is probably wayyy too slow. So you will want to get a Victron Buck-Boost DC-DC Converter 100A if your alternator can handle it. 2x 100A would charge your bank in 6hours.
If you bank is 48V, you will probably just want to get a 12V inverter and connected that to the motors battery and use the MultiPlus 3000 to charge the main bank from that AC supply.
Dear @shaneyake,
Thank you !!
Indeed I will hava a 12V system.
So if I understand you correctly it all comes down to the question of finding an alternator for the yanmar engines that can handle the load that the Buck-Boost DC-DC device would deliver?
Would you know any products that can handle such a challenge? Maybe the BALMAR devices?
Kind regards, Peter
Fit a second alternator kit to the yanmar. You could look at integrel which is quite a good system.
Otherwise balmar make good stuff. The balmar alternator with external regulator will be able to hook up directly to your batteries no need for the buck boost.
If you go for an extra alternator on both engines then a wake speed regulator with a balmar alt would be better as the regs can talk to each other via canbus.
On 5000 multi will be better than 2 3000s two wont give you redundancy as they need reprogramming to operate individually again. A single is far easier to install and will take up less room
Dear jwfrary,
thank you very much! I will follow your route of advice!
One curious question though: everywhere I look one the internet people install 2x3000 MultiPlus instead of just 1x5000 MultiPlus on their boats ... and I was always wondering why ... Does anybody have a clue?
