We have an older Hatteras yacht with a 32v electrical system. There are two banks of 4ea 8v batteries. Each bank serves as a starting bank for the 12-cylinder engine on that side of the boat. Additionally, one of the banks serves as the “house” bank for DC loads. All charging is handled via a Sterling Power AC to DC charger.
I would like to install a shunt on the bank that handles house loads, but I’m unsure how to do the since it also handles starting the engine, which is in the neighborhood of 1000A when it happens. I see the Lynx system has a 1000A fuse…would that be a good starting place?
Hi @adt2
If you’re talking just a Shunt (rather than a ‘bms’), then many of the Victron shunts come with a range of Amp choices. An example… https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-SmartShunt-EN1.pdf
The Lynx unit is really designed to fit within the Lynx wiring system, and may not suit what you want to do. See the full range on the Victron website.
Look under Battery Monitors, but they can be set up as plain meters too.
If you want to monitor currents only for the house loads section, then install the shunt only “towards” that part of the circuit, without including the starter after it. The starter will take its negative directly from the battery - and before the shunt - as it is now.
Actually, on both sides, the batteries connect directly to an ancient dual battery switch and then run to the starters and other loads. It’s kind of a big scary looking piece of kit, and even when the switches are off there’s still a few things that get DC power - which is one of the things I’m trying to decipher.
I assume the easiest solution is to install a new switch and shunt between the batteries and the existing switch gear, but I’m not sure how I’d break out the starter functionality.
