I have a yacht with twin diesel engines, each equipped with a 24V 50A alternator. I bought a 300Ah house battery to power my equipment. How can I connect the system to the batteries without damaging my 24V starter batteries or the alternators?
300Ah does not give any definite information in regards to your question.
I will assume (and you have to check if the assumption is correct), that your “house battery” is a 48V battery.
Now the question is what do you mean by “power your equipment”? Do you want to power all the 24V stuff on the boat with this battery while the engine is stopped, or do you want the 24V alternator from the boat to charge your “house battery”, and power whichever (boat independent) things from that battery?
For each scenario, you need DCDC chargers/converters at least.
Same applies, if your “house battery” would be 12V - DCDC chargers/converters needed. The exact stuff you need really depends on what exactly is there and what is the goal. One battery is usually just a fraction of what a system needs.
My apologies, I have two diesel engines, each equipped with a 24V alternator and a maximum output of 130A. Each engine requires two 12V batteries (connected in series) for starting. I don’t have a generator, as this is a rental boat (tours) and it burned out years ago. I want to install a 12V battery bank using three 100Ah batteries (300Ah total), since the fishing gear and sound system run on 12V. The engines are running approximately 45 minutes out of every hour. I want to set up this battery bank to power some 120V appliances, such as a refrigerator or a coffee maker. I was looking into the Orion 1400 to connect and charge the bank, but I have doubts about whether it will work, as this would be the first modification I’ve made to the boat in about 10 years, and I wanted to review everything I need to check before making a decision
I have a PC and a printer.
Now i bought some paper.
Write a book for me that i can then print.
Im sure many people are happy to help here when it comes to detailed question, and also the odd bigger design, even though designing entire systems is not the scope of this forum.
Have you looked at the example schematics that are available on the victron website? Im sure theres at least one that might fit your situation. Or at it would give you a basis to start asking detailed questions.
Personally i would stick with 24V and use a DC/DC converter for the odd 12V thing, but 12V works too, just doubles the current and thus the necessary cable gauges
A good read is also the wiring unlimited book
https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/The_Wiring_Unlimited_book/43562-Wiring_Unlimited-pdf-en.pdf
Can the Orion 1400 charge a 12v bank from a 24v alternator/start system - YES.
Can your 50A alternator put out 50A for charging and do the busines it is meant to on the boat? A lot less so.
Good news the Orion 1400 can also have its current limited in settings. So you could probably tune it down to what the alternator can handle on top of its usual jobs.
What would be a good first move it measuring, in amps, what the start battery and auxiliary systems draw during running. See if you have the head room to add the charger.