Solar + alternator questions

[unicutie]

Hey all, hope yall are enjoying the rtr!

I just got a 100w solar setup. I already have my house battery hooked into the alternator via a battery isolator relay. It's a starter battery that matches the one under my hood.

I'm going to pick up a couple of 6v's to replace it.

I want to know what the story is on using an alternator to charge golf cart batteries. As well as hooking up the house bank to both alternator and pv charge controller. My understanding is that it's basically fine to just attach both to the battery? The alternator side is already well fused, i'm gonna guess i should also put a breaker on the solar controller - > battery wires as well.

Does anyone have info on this?

I have the renogy 20a rover mppt.

Thanks

 

[Weight]

Every battery positive needs a fuse on the cable connected there. At the battery end. An exception is often made for starter connections. The other connections should have cables large enough they do not need fuses. The exception is more than two solar panels connected in parallel. In that case each panel needs a fuse. Example; i have a charge controller rated at 45 amps. The cables to the battery are 2 awg, good for more than 175 amps without melting insulation or having fire. The controller will never reach that safety margin. No fuse at the controller. The battery can exceed thousands of amps, MUST have fuse at the battery, 100 to 150 amp.

 

[unicutie]

Thanks, yea, I don't have a fuse for the controller yet, I'll have to pick one up when I get terminals for the new house bat's

Here is the thread I was looking for https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?tid=10614 I couldn't find it but my post brought it up under recommended. I'm off to find more information about 6v batteries

 

[frater secessus]

I want to know what the story is on using an alternator to charge golf cart batteries. 

Alternator + solar is an excellent combination.  

100w of solar by itself would be too little to keep 2x golf carts happy;  it'd be about right for the starter battery you are using as the house battery now.  If you are driving a bit a few times a week the alternator will make up the difference nicely.  

Don't know how flexible your time is, but the optimal scenario would be to do your driving errands in the morning so the alternator could jam as much current into the overnight depleted batteries as possible.  Then even small amounts of solar will take it from there as the sun gets higher in the sky.  

As well as hooking up the house bank to both alternator and pv charge controller. My understanding is that it's basically fine to just attach both to the battery? 

Yes, hook them both up to the battery.  It will work fine.  

I have the renogy 20a rover mppt.

I think you'll like it.  You can use the Flooded setting for sensible defaults or dial it in to the battery manufacturer's specs with the custom User mode.  There is free software to do that.  Here's the manual (pdf) in case you lose yours.

 

[unicutie]

Thanks

Yea well right now I'm putting in about 600 mi/month, i work most days so I am not just sitting around boondocking. So I figure at this rate the combo I have could keep up with a larger bat bank. My house bat got pretty beat up this summer. So I'm gonna get these gc bats. It looks like my controller can handle another 150w panel so that's my next upgrade I think will make for a pretty nice system for my next trip to the boondocks