Hello,
On my boat I operate a Phoenix Smart IP43 12/50 (1+1) charger on a battery bank with 2x100AH lead batteries and a 70AH starter battery. When the boat is connected to shore power after docking in the harbour, the (10A) fuse blows regularly.
Even in winter storage (barn with 16A LS) this sometimes happens (although very rarely!).
The charger hangs behind approx. 5m of 2.5mm² cable with a CEE plug on the shore side and a Philippi RS692 coupling on the boat. On the boat it goes with approx. 4m 1.5mm² to an all-pole disconnecting RCD and two all-pole disconnecting 16A circuit breakers. From there with approx. 3m 1.5mm² cable to a socket where the charger is plugged in.
During our tests, all other devices were disconnected.
The behaviour is very annoying, as a call to the harbour master is always necessary when in doubt.
If the boat is connected first and then the charger is plugged in, the error occurs less frequently. We have not been able to establish any correlation between the battery charge status and the occurrence of the error. It usually works without any problems on the second attempt. Apart from the inrush current, the charger does its job perfectly!
Now my questions:
- Does the device have a fault, or are such high inrush currents normal for the design ?
- Could the problem be solved with a commercially available inrush current limiter such as an ESK2-6A or ESK2-10A (Einschaltstrombegrenzer ESK2-10A)?
Thanks in advance and best regards
Dirk