I will try to make a long story short.
This is on my sailboat, I have two diesel engines, each has a 115 Amp alternator. I want to use them to charge three 240 AH Lithium batteries in parallel, used as house batteries in a 12 Volt system. What DC-DC charger can I use? The rest of the system is all Victron 3000 inverter charger.
If the engine systems are 12V then any Orion Smart 12/12 will do, but the Orion XS 12-12/50 is the most efficient.
If the engine systems are 24V then any Orion Smart 24/12 will do, but the Orion XS 1400 is the most efficient.
One per engine system, or perhaps multiple each to increase charging power but two 50A XS on a 115A alternator is already pushing it a bit
Thank you for that bit of information, it was very helpful. I just wanted to be certain I wasn’t overloading a 12-12/50 with the 115 A alternator.
Cheers Ed.
The alternator does not push current to the Orion, the Orion controls the current drawing only what it needs. It is entirely normal to have the Orion rated around 50% of the alternator capacity because most alternators can nor deliver their rated amps continuously, so an Orion at 50% of alternator capacity stops the alternator from overheating and getting damaged.