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hi everyone

jeff cote here with votingtechtalk.com

we've got a question about solar

charging with an alternator or even a

battery charger

what happens when they're all running at

the same time

and is that a problem probably one of

the most

common questions i get of all subject

matters

people worry about that and they have a

right to worry because in the past

having too many charging sources running

concurrently at one time

was a problem for sure it was and that

sort of fear that we have where we hear

from uh club members and voters that

have you know

lots of experience is definitely uh

relevant

but nowadays all the devices on our

boats are actually charging

and charging to specific target voltages

which means that they can actually be

running concurrently at the same time

so you won't damage your batteries by

having an alternator

on your engine turning and recharging

your batteries while also your solar

panels

are connected to the same battery via

solar controllers

and you can have them run concurrently

yes now there is a caveat

our alternators um are also deciding if

it makes sense to

run or not they're actually making a

decision and if your batteries are

completely full

it's very possible that your alternator

might say hey you know what i don't need

to do anything the batteries are

completely full

i'm actually going to turn myself off

and here's the challenge

the challenge is this is that a lot of

us on our boats

have our tachometer inputs on our boats

that actually come

from not actually the flywheel on the

engine but they come from an

alternator output so if your alternator

says hey i don't need to do any work

because you know the batteries are full

that's okay and that's

should that's good but then what happens

is your alternator is actually not

turning

and because it's not turning you're

actually not seeing your rpms

on your tachometer so you're thinking

you're looking at your engine pan you're

like what the hell my tachometer doesn't

work but my engine's running

obviously it's turning i can hear the

sound it's turning at about 2000 rpm or

1200 and we get used to knowing we get

the feel like i always close my eyes

when i'm actually turning my engine in

gear and i'm and i want to hear what it

feels like

at a certain rpm i want to know what it

feels like just from hearing alone

what my engine sounds sort of the geek

in me

but it's very possible that if you have

your solar panels recharging your

batteries and your batteries are full

your alternator might say i'm not

running and if it's not actually

outputting anything the tachometer

doesn't work

and so sometimes in those situations to

actually force the tachometer to

actually

give you a value you actually what you

have to do is you have to load up so you

like i've had that on my boat i'll turn

off some appliances on the boat that i

don't really need to be turned on just

so that the voltage drops a little bit

so the alternator says oh i got to help

and then it turns itself on because it

saw the voltage drop and now suddenly my

tachometer works

and that's generally going to happen if

i leave a dock and i've been at the dock

it's my home port and i've been there

and my batteries are charged if it's a

sunny day and i'm

motoring for a long period of time to

get to my next destination or anchorage

it's very possible that i might have to

actually turn on some lows on my boat

because my solar is actually telling my

alternator that doesn't need to do

anything

and it's not telling it but effectively

it is

and so i need to bring the loads a

little bit higher

so that my battery voltage drops and

once the battery voltage drops

then the alternate goes hey i should do

something about this it turns itself on

and it brings the battery back to where

it should be and in doing so

your tankometer starts working again so

don't worry about damaging the battery

it's just about the inconvenience of

potentially having your tachometer

on your boat not outputting because the

alternator is

doesn't feel a need to actually work so

that's a great question

and thanks for asking

thank you for watching this pys video if

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