Regulated

I have finally, after 18 months, gotten around to installing the smart alternator regulator that has been sitting in a draw all this time. This replaces the standard alternator regulator on the house alternator and allows for more efficient charging, proper float voltages, and other goodies like equalisation charges.

In true Kamalii style I have gone over the top on the installation and installed the regulator in an IP-rated stainless steel housing with a set of control switches and indicator lights, so you can see what is happening at a glance and easily switch modes.

Just need to add some decals so you know what it is you are looking at. And yes, that is a solid bronze watertight bulkhead it is mounted to - well spotted.

The internals. It all gets a bit complicated once you start hooking the temperature sensors, oil pressure cut-in switch, remote controls, etc, etc.

While doing the install I also took the chance to fix up something that has always annoyed me. The main house alternator is a 150A 24V unit which requires some fairly heavy cabling. In order to keep the cable runs short "they" have hooked up the alternator directly to the batteries without going through the battery isolator switch (same thing for the engine start bank and alternator too). This means if you isolate the battery bank the alternator +ve is still live - as I found out early on in the piece in California. I have now installed a separate isolator switch in the +v line between the battery and alternator, which is actually a nice set-up since I can now isolate the alternator if I want without shutting off the house supply.