So my husband and I are proud new owners or a 2015 Sprinter with a 200Amp alternator. We are in the process of outfitting it as a camper, and I am in charge of the electrical system.
We have decided that we would like to charge our house batteries from the Alternator and forgo solar panels at this time. Our one main reason is that we are very serious ice climbers and the first 3 months of travel will consist of snow and ice in the Rockies. Short days and difficulties cleaning off the top of a high roof Sprinter doesn't seem to make sense for solar.
I have been reading a lot of threads on this forum and elsewhere about charging a house battery from your alternator. I am an electrical engineer who has spent her career designing control circuits for industrial settings. The concepts are not that hard (appropriate awg wire, isolation relays, etc), but one thing I have very little experience with are batteries.
Seems that many people are charging their AGM batteries directly from their alternator (with an automatic charging relay) as per this thread: https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36204&highlight=alternator
But I have also read quite a bit on charging batteries and multistage charging requirements. Will the system in the thread posted about fully charge a AGM battery without hours of driving? I assume that I would also need a some sort of multi stage regulator to charge an AGM battery to 100%?
We have decided that we would like to charge our house batteries from the Alternator and forgo solar panels at this time. Our one main reason is that we are very serious ice climbers and the first 3 months of travel will consist of snow and ice in the Rockies. Short days and difficulties cleaning off the top of a high roof Sprinter doesn't seem to make sense for solar.
I have been reading a lot of threads on this forum and elsewhere about charging a house battery from your alternator. I am an electrical engineer who has spent her career designing control circuits for industrial settings. The concepts are not that hard (appropriate awg wire, isolation relays, etc), but one thing I have very little experience with are batteries.
Seems that many people are charging their AGM batteries directly from their alternator (with an automatic charging relay) as per this thread: https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36204&highlight=alternator
But I have also read quite a bit on charging batteries and multistage charging requirements. Will the system in the thread posted about fully charge a AGM battery without hours of driving? I assume that I would also need a some sort of multi stage regulator to charge an AGM battery to 100%?