I’m looking at making a basic system with a starter battery and a dedicated house battery. The idea is that the alternator charges the starter battery and a DC to DC charger will then charge the house battery. I realise that there are plenty of ways to achieve this, is this a feasible way of approaching this (image below). Any help greatly appreciated.
Yes, that is how the DC to DC and Smartshunt should be connected. Do not forget to have proper fusing on the positive cables on the input and output of the DC to DC close to the battery and one on the load output to the master switch on the house battery.
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I always put the alternator to the house battery not the starter. Reason is the house battery will almost always be the most depleted and require the most charging.
A starter battery is almost never below about 90% charge, the house battery could be as low as 50%.
Plus I always used VSR to connect the batteries much simpler and cheaper.
What VSR do you like to use?
How does this work when you are charging LFP? I assume you mean when the house battery is lead acid.
Didn’t see mention of LFP
Yes the diagram is fine and in that case I wouldn’t use a VSR.
He didn’t mention LFP. I just assumed that since 9 out of 10 times that what is used these days. Things were definitely simpler in the days befor LFP and the mixing of battery chemistries.