Blue Sky 1524iX - Charge Two Banks?

Maine Sail

Hi Guys,

I have a customer with a sailboat which has two banks of 8D AGM batteries in separate locations. I am installing a Kyocera 210 watt panel and have chosen the Blue Sky 1524iX MPPT controller.

The problem is the banks are normally charged via a diode isolater. I don't want to deal with the inherent voltage drop so was hoping there is a way to "sense" the voltage of one bank so the charge controller can overcome the volt drop through the isolater and charge both banks simultaneously at the proper voltage.

Any thoughts on how best to deal with this situation would be appreciated. I thought about the Morningstar digital duo but this is a 12V system and the 210W Kyocera has plenty of excess voltage to take advantage of the MPPT..

Would appreciate input on how best to deal with two banks with the 1524iX...

icarus

Re: Blue Sky 1524iX - Charge Two Banks?

I don't think you can do what you wish to do simply with the BS controller. That said, 210 watts of PV (on a boat no less) is hardly going to make a dent in charging the two battery banks.

Rule of thumb, off grid is take the name plate rating of the Pv divide by 2 to account for all cumulative system loses (PV to load!) then multiply that by 4 to account for the average number of hours of "good sun" one can reasonably expect on a daily average basis.

210/2=105*4=420WH/Day. A boat is likely to less than optimal solar orientation much of the time, even though it might get more sun than some land locales.

Tony

Maine Sail

Re: Blue Sky 1524iX - Charge Two Banks?

icarus wrote: »

I don't think you can do what you wish to do simply with the BS controller. That said, 210 watts of PV (on a boat no less) is hardly going to make a dent in charging the two battery banks.

Rule of thumb, off grid is take the name plate rating of the Pv divide by 2 to account for all cumulative system loses (PV to load!) then multiply that by 4 to account for the average number of hours of "good sun" one can reasonably expect on a daily average basis.

210/2=105*4=420WH/Day. A boat is likely to less than optimal solar orientation much of the time, even though it might get more sun than some land locales.

Tony

This system will only be used to take the banks from 80% state of charge to 100%. The boat resides on a mooring and is not used during the week giving plenty of time to top off the batts. The 210 amp alternator takes care of most of it. Heck my own boat has an 80W panel and the batts are back at 100% by Tuesday or Wednesday..


I suppose I can replace the diode isolator with a voltage sensitive relay but wanted to avoid that..