T-Pain Is On A Boat: Re: [Electric Boats] Multiple source charge controller?

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Re: [Electric Boats] Multiple source charge controller?

I disagreee. I've seen several charge controllers that would take multiple inputs and I'm guessing most of them will. I don't think they care where the electrons are coming from. Might be some issues if you have wildly varying voltages from the different devices and I'd keep the nominal inputs consistent. I know I have several different panels from different manufacturers all feeding into one Flexmax 80 without any problems and I've seen many schematics before that show solar panels, wind turbines and microhydro all feeding into the same charge controller but they where all going to one battery bank. Be careful not to exceed the capacity of the charge controller though.

However, I've never seen a charge controller that would charge multiple battery banks and I studied a lot of different models from different manufacturers before I decided to go with the Outback FM80 for the Arc. Since the charge controller takes its cues for what mode to be in from the battery, you'll need a separate controller for each bank. That's the way every system I've ever seen was set up.

But you can feed a controller from different sources for sure.

Carter

http://www.archemedesproject.blogspot.com/

From: Kevin Pemberton <pembertonkevin@gmail.com>
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 2:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] Multiple source charge controller?

I don't think you will find one controller for all devices. What you need is a controller for each source. They will work together so no problem.

Kevin

On Jul 24, 2013 6:06 PM, "qgold77" <qgold.77@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello - an old lurker here, but have a quest I'm sure a wise person in this group can help with. I'm looking for device that will take inputs from multiple power sources such as wind/water/solar/shore power/on board generator etc and control the the charging of a couple of battery banks. Can anyone give me a lead?

Thanks - Nick