My boat has a house bank and a starting battery with an ACR controller so that
the ‘banks’ are ‘equalized’ when a charging source is available—shore power or
engine alternator.
I added a solar panel to maintain the batteries without the hazards of leaving
the boat on shore power charging when I am not on board.
Per local advice, I ran the solar power output controller (MPPT) current thru
my cigarette lighter(with the appropriate circuit breaker in the ‘on’ position)
and it appears to be working since my house bank (which powers the cigarette
lighter) looks like it is 100% charged per my Victron battery monitor after 9
days without a battery charger or running the engine.
OTOH, my starting battery voltage sagged over these 9 days of this test to
about 90% of maximum per the Victron battery monitor.
My understanding of the ACR is that it should distribute charging current to
keep both battery banks ‘equalized’ so the lower charge state on the starting
battery doesn’t make sense to me.
My questions to the list are:
1. Should the ACR be equalizing the charging source current as I discuss above,
even when this current might be significantly less than my shore power Xantex
40?
2. If so, why is my starting battery ‘down’?
3. If not, what am I doing wrong? I could hook up the solar directly to the
starting battery but with the ACR, this seemed unnecessary (if I understand how
an ACR works.)
Charlie Nelson1985 C&C 36XL/kcbWater Phantom
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