T&T: multiple battery banks

[Peter Bennett]

It seems to be recommended that you do not split the house bank as you
suggest, so I suggest you keep to a single house bank, even if the
batteries involved have to be some distance apart.  This will minimize
the depth of discharge of any battery, and it is the deep discharges
that are harmful.

If the batteries in a bank are widely separated, you should try to
arrange cabling so that you have equal length cables from the common
ground and positive points to each battery, to ensure that the two (or
more) sections of the house system will be charged and discharged
equally.

As another poster suggested, it is probably not advisable to put
batteries in the accomodation space - you will get acid fumes from the
batteries.  It may be acceptable to do this, if you can enclose the
battery compartment, and vent it outdoors.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008, 5:09:58 AM, Ekcine wrote:

E> The boat I'm looking to buy has a space for 2 8D batteries. I'd like more
E> capacity but there is no one large space for that. I can place a second bank
E> under the bed.
E> So I'm considering 2 house banks. There are chargers that can charge 3
E> separate banks.
E> Looking for suggestions on how to split the 2 house banks. Should I power
E> the refer off one and all other house needs off the other or should I run
E> everything off one bank one day and then everything off the other bank the
E> next day...or something else?
E> The first bank would be the starter battery and that will be different than
E> the first house bank but does the second house bank have to match the first
E> house bank in size or type of battery?



-- 
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI    Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Ennos 31 "Honeycomb"
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter 
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca