solar and wind battery charger?

System

Hi,
I have a boat with windgenerator (Superwind350) already installed. Now I want to add up with solar panels (thinking of Kyocera 3x130W). I was advised I can use diodes to make two battery chargers working onto the same battery bank, but they involve a voltage drop. As I need a new charger anyway I would like to know whether there is a battery charger on the market which suits my needs:
battery bank: 12V, 495Ah
windgenerator: 12V, up to 350W, needs dump resistors in case batteries are charged
solar: planned: 12V, up to 390W

As the voltage with solar is usually higher I want to buy a MPPT charger anyway, but is there a model which has two inlets and is smart enough to disregard the power from solar panels (as far as I know they don't need permanent load) but transfers the power from the windgenerator to the dump resistors once the batteries are charged?

Thankful for any advice,
Hanno

crewzer

Re: solar and wind battery charger?

Hanno,

It’s not at all unusual for the outputs of two or more controllers to be connected to the same battery bank. Each controller will operate according to its settings and the sensed battery voltage. There’s no need for isolation diodes in this type of configuration.

I’m not aware of a single charger than can simultaneously handle multiple inputs from different energy sources. I also doubt that there’d be any significant benefit to using an MPPT controller on a boat (primarily warm/hot weather = reduced module voltage) and an array rated at 390 W STC.

I believe that a pair of Morningstar TriStar TS-45 controllers would meet your need. One unit would be used with the wind generator as a charger and diversion controller, and the other would be a charge controller for the PV array. Perhaps a third unit could be carried as a spare.

See: http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/TriStar/index.shtml
And: http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/FAQ/#14

It would probably be worth checking with Morningstar technical support to confirm this suggested application.

See: http://www.morningstarcorp.com/forms/tech_support_request.shtml

HTH,
Jim / crewzer