OK Kids, I have a small problem, on the house boat we have a solar system setup to charge the battery bank for all the DC and AC electrical junk.
It's working fine, the problem I am running into is the battery for the stand by generator, (used on real cloudy days, or big party times) when the generator has not been used for some time it's starting battery goes flat, I do have a portable jump starter for this problem but the battery is very hard to get to.(the generator is in a sound proof enclosure)
To and fix this dilemma I tapped into the down leads for the solar panels and used a second solar charger, this worked for a time but one day I tried to start the generator,(scheduled monthly test) it didn't start, I go and look, and found that the starting battery (a small one) was bloated up like a football, I disconnected it (big job) I then tested things out, it looked like the solar charger went fubar, and was putting out +17.5 VDC on the charging side, it should have been 13.5 VDC.
So before I go out and spend some more money on another solar charger am I doing this right?? Is the fact that the generators charging circuit affecting things?? Is there a charger that will handle this setup, with out affecting the battery??
I cant find anything on this at most web sites selling these things.
Any one have any info??
Terry