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Post by moonshadow on Jan 12, 2019 18:23:03 GMT
I have been cruising for a while now in the Bahamas and thought I should share my findings on battery/charging/electric usage. My boat is a 2014 SO 469. Open lead acid batteries 5x105 amphours as the house battery supply. Equipped with 7.5 kw genset (Cummins-Onan) and two factory solara solar panels, I believe 105 watt each. Two Vristwc 40 amp battery chargers all wired through a confusing array of isolators and “smart” charger relays. It is midwinter with good sun but only ten hours or so per day usable. I do not motor much and I have not had shore power in months. Basically this system is way under what is needed. I am using the refridgerator and the freezer as well as usual electronics minimally. The solar does not come close to even meeting the refridgerator and freezer needs. These alone are about 140 amp hours per day. It seems to me that to keep up the batteries need engine or genset power 5 hours per day. For a while I did not realize this and was way undercharging and wondering why my battery voltage was low. On most mornings it takes about 2.5 hours of bulk charge before starting the float charge profile. At 4 gallons of diesel per day @ $5.25 US per gallon it doesn’t take long to get a good payback for more solar and/or a wind generator. The boat is still fairly new to me and I did not understand all this when I began this trip. Live aboard and learn! Anyone thinking of a similar setup should consider adding more charging capability in my mind. I am not an electrically knowledgeable boater, yet, so any other thoughts are appreciated. I hope this info is helpful to someone.
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Post by rene460 on Jan 13, 2019 3:28:18 GMT
Hi Moonshadow,
That’s a great report on the real life operation of your system. Unfortunate that it does not quite meet your needs. But as you say, get on board and try it out is the best way to learn. You can only do so much with theory before hand. However, you asked for comments, so here goes. It will be interesting to see what you and others think. Assuming everything is working properly, so no shorted battery cells, dud panel cells, loose connections etc.
First the batteries. Five times 105 amp.hr is 525 amp.hr for your house bank. Now all I have read about batteries suggests that it is very hard to get them charged to 100% without overnight on shore power, or a long motoring trip, and 90% is probably more realistic for the max. achievable at anchor. Then, the rating is usually defined to a low voltage cut off, I think 10.5 V, but all the advice is that consistently discharging this deep will drastically shorten battery life. More sensible for battery life to only discharge to about 50%. That leaves a useable capacity of about 40% or 210 amp.hr useable capacity. Don’t put too much stock in the precise figures, but 210 is a reasonable place to start.
You have estimated the fridge and freezer load to about 140 amp.hr per day. Assuming they each run about 50% of the time, this means an average combined current of just under 12 amp. They are probably larger units than on my boat, and in your current climate may run more than half the time, but it’s in the ballpark for a reasonable estimate. And it leaves a good margin on battery capacity for running lighting (assuming LED, especially if you run an anchor light), instruments, but not too much autopilot, water pumps, not a water maker, and charging devices. So let’s run with that. Battery capacity even if I am being a bit pessimistic, looks adequate. That’s good news because adding an extra battery is not generally recommended without replacing the whole lot.
The solar panels, two by 105 is 210 watts rated capacity. If you have MPPT Charge controllers, this will give about 17 amps with standard sun strength of 1000Watts/m2 perpendicular to the panel. In the tropics you may get more. With the earlier charge controller technology, you only get the full 110 watts at the optimum voltage, which for most panels is around 20 V. So 10.5 amp at 20 V. When you look at a panel characteristic it might only give 12 to 15 amps when clamped to a battery charging at around 13 V.
I know you said you are getting good sun for about 10 hours per day, however, I suggest that early morning and later afternoon, the suns angle will be low, which reduces the panel output considerably, unless you tilt the panels to the sun. Six to eight hours is probably a better estimate. Let’s say 7 hours by 15 amps or 105 amp.hrs per day. Oops, here is a problem. Exacerbated by the charging efficiency of batteries, which means you only get out about 70% of the energy you put into the battery during charging. Clearly some extra panel capacity would help, along with making sure you have good MPPT charge controllers. If you are buying replacements, or just extra, make sure the controllers have a current display so you can check actual performance occasionally throughout the day.
Panels have improved a lot recently, I notice that my local dealer has 200 and 230 watt panels that do not seem much larger than older panels of much smaller capacity, and much cheaper as well. I suspect a wind generator might also be worthwhile, but a little more work involved in a good mounting.
It is also worth thinking about your operating procedures. Clearly if the batteries are deeply discharged by morning, the best recommendation is usually to start charging immediately, however, if you run the generator until they are up enough to at least go on float, the panel finds charged batteries, possibly with a bit of over voltage from the generator charging, so implements it’s float charge schedule instead of the maximum possible. It idles all day instead if using the full suns energy. It might be worth considering running the generator for about half the normal time in the morning, to get the voltage up some, then turn it off and let the sun do its best during the day, and if necessary run the generator for a short time in the evening as you cook the meal so they are fully charged when the sun goes down. This schedule, in principal, gets most out of the panels so minimises fuel consumption for the remainder. If you save an hour each day it will all add up.
Until you have more panel capacity, you will have to top up nearly half your daily usage with the generator, but it should save some fuel if you can squeeze the maximum out of the panels. That and all the normal measures to reduce consumption until you have the panels sorted. Instrument displays on sleep mode or off when not being used. Load the fridges early in the day when the panels are in full sun, so you don’t have the battery charging efficiency losses while cooling stuff down, even turn the fridges to lowest temperature that does not freeze everything during the day and return to a warmer setting overnight to minimise the work they do overnight when they are running on straight battery power. Etc.
I hope this is helpful, at least as a starting point for further discussion.
Rene460
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Post by moonshadow on Jan 13, 2019 11:39:41 GMT
Thank you Rene. Your assumptions are very close to what I used for my estimates. But I think your suggestions on managing solar panels time is well thought out and I will try that. Previously I was thinking that my solar panels might barely keep up with fridge etc and I could only expect float charging from them so I ran gen in the morning quite a bit. I appreciate the tips and advice. Paul
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Post by vasko on Jan 13, 2019 15:37:26 GMT
MY opinion all has been : minimum 500W panels MPPT monimum 40A - daily consumption about 200ah...
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Post by rene460 on Jan 14, 2019 8:51:41 GMT
Hi Paul, it’s hard to be sure just how much can be achieved from management techniques, but you do seem to have a shortfall that has to be made up by running the generator. If doing things differently to account for how things work saves a bit of fuel, it’s all worth a try.
I estimated about 12 amps when the fridge and freezer are running based on your figures, seems a bit high, but near enough for the purpose, but also that these probably only run for 50% of the time. So the panels estimated current generation of 15 amps, they only keep up with the draw for half the time, but for the other half of the day, she’s should be able to charge a useful amount, providing the charger can see that the batteries need it. It all depends on the intelligence in that charger.
Ultimately, to become self sufficient, you will need more panels, but at least it is only an addition to what you have, nothing to throw away. There have been some really good posts recently on how to connect extra panels in series/parallel arrangement.
rene460
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Post by moonshadow on Jan 15, 2019 1:38:06 GMT
Thanks again. I definitely see the shortfall with my solar. Not something I can fix till this trip ends. So even taking some tips on managing what solar I do have this shortfall is being made up by running generator. A lot. But, if my understanding is correct, no matter how powerful the gen is it takes hours of float time to fully charge batteries once bulk phase is done. This seems to be a real waste of generator time and fuel since little energy is really being put into the batteries. I am trying to charge everything I can, phones etc, and run my Watermaker during this gen time. Since my solar at this point is barely covering hourly needs during the few good hours per day I don’t count on it for much. But am trying to implement the tips above. Thanks. I really think the main point I have learned so far on this trip is the boat as equipped with solar and generator options when new is really only set up for use with regular shore power access. I am about day 70 without a marina night so far. I’m kind of thinking that these chronically undercharged batteries might not last too long the way I’m using them. Cost of cruising I guess.
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Post by rene460 on Jan 16, 2019 9:08:41 GMT
Hi Moonshadow, it will be interesting to see how many hours a day of generator operation, you are able to save, the proof of any theoretical devised system is a test run.
I don’t expect that not being able to reach 100 % charge will hurt excessively, if I understand correctly, it is excessive deep discharge that is more of an issue, particularly if they are left flat for some time before recharging. Hence my suggestion of running the generator for say one or two hours in the morning to ensure they do not remain flat, and running the remainder of the time in the evening after the sun has done its best. It will probably take some close observation to judge the timing. If you can read generator current while it is running, you will probably work out a schedule.
At the end of the day, it is worth running the generator as much as necessary to prepare the batteries for the night time rather than damage them, also with the aim of determining if the battery capacity is adequate given adequate charge capacity. Then when the batteries do eventually need replacement, you will be be confident of whether you need a lot more capacity for your present consumption. So far we have not talked about cloudy days, which obviously mean that extra capacity is required, so extra capacity is always worthwhile unless you live in a Camelot of eternal sunny days. However, given the standard recommendation to replace all batteries together, no one wants to throw out batteries before they reach end of useful life simply to add a bit of capacity, unless absolutely necessary for what we want to do.
Enjoy your trip, and don’t forget we all like to learn about the adventures of other Jeanneau owners.
Rene460
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Post by chuckr on Jan 19, 2019 11:45:01 GMT
Having sailed the Bahamas and most of the Carib. I guess I have a question? Where is the power going? What is using it?
We sail DS40 with 6 trojan t105 batteries as a house bank and only on occasion did we need to run the engine. At the time we had 390w of solar with a Blue Sky 25something controller. We know what our big drains are what are yours?
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Post by moonshadow on Jan 20, 2019 1:47:10 GMT
My big drains seem to be freezer, refridgerator, autopilot. Followed by electric winches, I’ve been reducing this. Today I was at anchor for the afternoon with good sun angles and the two solar panels seemed to keep up well with the ongoing usage. After the sun went down the voltage seemed to follow. But it was nice to see the panels helping. I agree that more panels and checking the controller are next. And being more aggressive for a few days with generator charging seems to be helping. Little by little I am seeing more voltage when I wake up. It really does take some time and experience to work these things out and after a few months cruising now without any marina nights I am learning. A lot. Great boats but they each need modification for how we end up using it.
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Post by jy51 on Jan 20, 2019 8:30:59 GMT
Hi moonshadow,
I sail in the Med and my cruising style is 4 to 5 month at a time on the hook. My last boat had a large bank of wet batteries, two engine alternators, with one dedicated to the service bank, solar panels and a generator, I was very conscience of maintaining my power needs and never let the batteries drop below 60 to 80 percent. We never had a problem and our arrangement coped well with the daily inverter use of my wife's hairdryer, hair straighteners, coffee machine and toasters, the first set lasted 11 years.
My new boat, a Yachts 51, will be commissioned in two weeks times and I have ordered a factory fitted generator and lithium batteries. I have decided to wait and see how this arrangement will cope with our demands. I believe the way forward is lithium but imagine I will still need solar silently working in the background to keep the fridges and freezers running. Although Lithium has had its critics in the past, the new breed seem to be safer and well suited for boat life. They are still very expensive, but I believe there will be others on this forum interest to know if they preform well in the real world. Maybe this will be the way forward for you! We are being commissioned in the south of France but leave at the end of March for a cruise back to our home base in Spain so will post results as and when.
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Post by moonshadow on Jan 20, 2019 12:38:03 GMT
Yes the information on actual use of the newer lithium batteries would be great to have. I believe that my issues started with undercharging my house batteries before I recognized the problem. If lithium batteries charge faster and tolerate abuse a bit better than lead acid batteries it likely will be part of the solution.
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Post by jy51 on Jan 21, 2019 8:28:03 GMT
I'm not an expert on these matters but believe the advantages of Lithium are;
When discharging they maintain their working voltage, unlike conventional batteries that drop their's resulting in only a small part of the battery being usable, so with lithium you us get 100% of useable energy.
This also means that because you use almost all of the battery you need less batteries to achieve the same results, and therefore less weight. With the equivalent energy there is a 65% weight gain and of course less space required.
The charging cycle is different, lithium can be charged at baulk charge much quicker unlike conventional batteries that need a controlled sequence which includes a long absorption time to reach fully charged. They say that a full discharged lithium will take two hours to charge while under power and less time with solar panels, something I haven't got my head around yet!
I believe, if maintained and used correctly they have a much longer lifespan, 5000 cycles.
My personal requirements are to keep three fridges, lighting, instruments, and radio running on 12 volts, with coffee machine and hairdryer operating once a day on the inverter. If the batteries alone enable me to anchor for up to three days I would be more than pleased, even two days would be sufficient. Motoring is required when leaving most anchorages and mediterranean winds tend to favour motor sailing for part of the journey, if this alone is sufficient to fully charge the batteries before arriving at the next destination I will have solved my power consumption needs.
The Jeanneau upgrade to Lithium for my 51 consists of three 90ah LIFEP04 batteries, which to me doesn't seem enough, however, being a realist I image solar will be a necessity to keep things topped up from time to time. As promised I will report my progress.
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Post by rene460 on Jan 21, 2019 9:37:12 GMT
Hi jy51, that seems like a pretty good description of the features of lithium batteries as I understand it, but I am not the expert on those. I don’t know how they are rated, so I don’t know whether that 90 amp.hr is more or less than the useable capacity when discharged to the recommended useable end point for frequent use. I will leave others to answer that. But it seems clear that for a given useable capacity, the lithium batteries will be lighter weight and possibly more cycles than any of the other chemistries. The higher charging rates possible will also sometimes be an advantage if the charger can supply the necessary current at the required charging voltage.
The battery capacity you need must equal your consumption until the charger is back in operation. So overnight in the case of solar, and practically also for motoring. And of course the nights are longer and the days shorter if, like us, you also sail in winter. More cloudy days in winter also. Wind is harder to predict, so if relying on wind, you may need more reserve capacity in your batteries.
So if you sometimes have cloudy days, and despite our sunny climate, we get our share, more battery capacity is required to tide you through, or a generator to make up for lack of sunshine.
The capacity requirement for the solar panels is a slightly different calculation. Overall, you must have capacity to replace your daily consumption each day, plus a margin to allow for the battery charging efficiency. And this must occur through the part of the day when the sun is high enough for your panels to be effective. The charging current is determined by the panel characteristic and the sun intensity. So the battery must be able to accept at least that much. Of course if you motor during sunlight, or have a wind generator, the batteries need to be able to accept the expected maximum total.
In general it is always desirable to have extra battery capacity to get you through a cloudy day, and it never hurts to cycle the battery through a smaller range, in that it generally allows more cycles in a battery life time. However there is a limit to the weight you can carry and the space you can devote to batteries on the boat.
Similarly, it is good to have more solar capacity to charge up the batteries in a shorter sunny break, but again, less you want to look like one of those space satellites, there are practical limits to how much area you can accomodate. And it needs to be mounted so as not to catch too much wind or get in the way of normal boat operation.
So so it is all a compromise, cost and weight of batteries, area of solar panels, generator run time and management of load must be balanced to suit your preferences.
But it at the end of the day, the system must be balanced. Extra battery capacity does not replace generating capacity. It just balances the hour to hour mismatch in time when energy is generated compared with when it is used. Even shore power can be considered part of the system if it is reasonably regularly available. Our panel is too small for our daily consumption, so we lose ground on the batteries each day, even when the sun shines. But as lake sailors, we are never more than about 25 miles from our pen. So after two or three days out, we need to return to the pen where the shore power enables us to catch up. We could extend this to four or five days with a practical extension to our panel capacity if we ever feel it is necessary.
rene460
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Post by blade on Jan 21, 2019 9:43:26 GMT
Hi moonshadow, We are being commissioned in the south of France but leave at the end of March for a cruise back to our home base in Spain so will post results as and when. Just out of interest whereabouts in Spain is your home base, we are based in Calpe on the Costa Blanca.
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Post by jy51 on Jan 21, 2019 11:13:30 GMT
Blade, our previous base in the Mediterranean was MDL in sant cales de la Ràpita. We don’t own a berth there and have not yet taken up a contract as our plan is to take a 6 month winter contract on the hard and spend the summer months sailing and mainly anchoring. But that’s a plan and you know what they say about plans!
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Post by jy51 on Jan 21, 2019 11:20:57 GMT
Hi jy51, that seems like a pretty good description of the features of lithium batteries as I understand it, but I am not the expert on those. I don’t know how they are rated, so I don’t know whether that 90 amp.hr is more or less than the useable capacity when discharged to the recommended useable end point for frequent use. I will leave others to answer that. But it seems clear that for a given useable capacity, the lithium batteries will be lighter weight and possibly more cycles than any of the other chemistries. The higher charging rates possible will also sometimes be an advantage if the charger can supply the necessary current at the required charging voltage. The battery capacity you need must equal your consumption until the charger is back in operation. So overnight in the case of solar, and practically also for motoring. And of course the nights are longer and the days shorter if, like us, you also sail in winter. More cloudy days in winter also. Wind is harder to predict, so if relying on wind, you may need more reserve capacity in your batteries. So if you sometimes have cloudy days, and despite our sunny climate, we get our share, more battery capacity is required to tide you through, or a generator to make up for lack of sunshine. The capacity requirement for the solar panels is a slightly different calculation. Overall, you must have capacity to replace your daily consumption each day, plus a margin to allow for the battery charging efficiency. And this must occur through the part of the day when the sun is high enough for your panels to be effective. The charging current is determined by the panel characteristic and the sun intensity. So the battery must be able to accept at least that much. Of course if you motor during sunlight, or have a wind generator, the batteries need to be able to accept the expected maximum total. In general it is always desirable to have extra battery capacity to get you through a cloudy day, and it never hurts to cycle the battery through a smaller range, in that it generally allows more cycles in a battery life time. However there is a limit to the weight you can carry and the space you can devote to batteries on the boat. Similarly, it is good to have more solar capacity to charge up the batteries in a shorter sunny break, but again, less you want to look like one of those space satellites, there are practical limits to how much area you can accomodate. And it needs to be mounted so as not to catch too much wind or get in the way of normal boat operation. So so it is all a compromise, cost and weight of batteries, area of solar panels, generator run time and management of load must be balanced to suit your preferences. But it at the end of the day, the system must be balanced. Extra battery capacity does not replace generating capacity. It just balances the hour to hour mismatch in time when energy is generated compared with when it is used. Even shore power can be considered part of the system if it is reasonably regularly available. Our panel is too small for our daily consumption, so we lose ground on the batteries each day, even when the sun shines. But as lake sailors, we are never more than about 25 miles from our pen. So after two or three days out, we need to return to the pen where the shore power enables us to catch up. We could extend this to four or five days with a practical extension to our panel capacity if we ever feel it is necessary. rene460 Very much agree with your comments’ and yes we do have a generator 8kw so will always be able to fully charge our lithium batteries when required. However, as you imply the art is a balance, who wants a generator running all day? The sums are sometimes difficult to predict’ that is why I’m starting out with a suck it and see tech before sizing up for solar.
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Post by moonshadow on Jan 21, 2019 21:27:30 GMT
One important part of the system that I still lack is a good monitor for the system. All I currently have is the Sheiber panel voltage which shows voltage after wiring loss to the panel and drop due to current draw. Shutting everything down for a bit helps give a voltage idea but not practical. Also with only a system voltage there is no way to tell during charging where you are. Pulling a panel to see the charger might show bulk or float status. But again not always convenient. While charging maybe I see the voltage change corresponding to beginning float mode. A battery monitor will be added after my current trip. So far 80 days without stopping at any marinas. Everything still runs, so something is going right!
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Post by rene460 on Jan 21, 2019 21:52:21 GMT
Hi Moonshadow, it looks to me like an awful lot is going right. Much better to have to add something after the first trip than clutter the space with stuff you later find you don’t need. I don’t have a battery monitor, but my solar regulator does tell me the charging current, so a little more information. But I suspect a battery monitor would be considerably better, even with their limitations.
Hi Jy52, I am sure you are right on the suck it and see approach. Between sunshine, and load patterns there are too many variables to allow a definitive calculation. All the calculations just give an idea of the potential performance and give a rough “budget” to compare with actual results.
rene460
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Post by neworca1 on Jan 29, 2019 3:49:50 GMT
I'd like to thank Moonshadow, Rene460 and the others on this thread for a very helpful discussion. Like jy51, our last cruising boat had a (very) large house bank with old-school loads to match, all powered for months at a time by an Onan generator. Our little Xantrex battery monitor was indispensable, and we used it religiously to keep our batteries between 50% and 80%, since charging becomes slower and more generator-inefficient the higher you go. The only time we would charge above 80% or so was when we chose to make long motor passages.
Now we are coastal cruisers, mostly weekends, so our needs have changed. But with an autopilot, electric winches, a fridge and freezer, etc., we still need to watch our batteries even on short cruises. I've just bought a Victron battery monitor that looks like it should do a fine job.
My question is where to mount it. There's plenty of blank space on the panel where the Bluetooth player is, but that's a pretty inconvenient place for a monitor. Has anyone found a good spot somewhere in the SO 469 saloon for a battery monitor or any other useful displays?
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Post by rene460 on Jan 29, 2019 6:53:50 GMT
Hi Neworca,
I am glad that you have found this thread interesting. And I hope many others also. More contributors always helps canvas many details that are difficult if even possible to cover in just one answer, and a diversity of ideas is always helpful.
While the way you use the boat has changed, basically the batteries only even out the load over a couple of days at the most, so it is not surprising that you find the issue just as important for short cruises as for the longer term. At least with short cruises, solar panels have the opportunity to get the batteries as good as the sun allows after each cruise so they are ready for next time.
If I understand the Victron system, it consists of a shunt and a separate meter connected by a lightweight multi core cable. The shunt is installed in the battery negative cable and, as it sees the full battery current, should be placed as near to the battery as possible. The light weight wiring to the meter is in principle easy to run around the boat, it is only carrying voltage so is not significantly affected by a longer run.
I find the most user friendly location for meters is at the nav table with the other electrical equipment if you can fit it, and the supplied cable is long enough. If you need a longer cable, you will have to decide whether you can make up another, as many on this forum would do, or have it made for you. Other locations just don’t get looked at as often, so soon become excess weight. So I would suggest install the shunt first, then, if you can find a practical path, run the light cable to the nav table if it’s length allows.
I have found the easier to read, the more often it will be read, so more useful overall, particularly the battery voltage display. By keeping an eye on that, you can tell if the batteries are charging when the sun comes out, or if the level is getting low and you need to do something. (Long ago, on a previous boat mid cruise, my wife picked up that the voltage had not gone up as usual when the sun came out. I was then able to look more closely and found a failed charger, all well before we had a flat battery and a warm fridge!)
Rene460
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Post by Bora on Jan 29, 2019 7:03:23 GMT
I'd like to thank Moonshadow, Rene460 and the others on this thread for a very helpful discussion. Like jy51, our last cruising boat had a (very) large house bank with old-school loads to match, all powered for months at a time by an Onan generator. Our little Xantrex battery monitor was indispensable, and we used it religiously to keep our batteries between 50% and 80%, since charging becomes slower and more generator-inefficient the higher you go. The only time we would charge above 80% or so was when we chose to make long motor passages. Now we are coastal cruisers, mostly weekends, so our needs have changed. But with an autopilot, electric winches, a fridge and freezer, etc., we still need to watch our batteries even on short cruises. I've just bought a Victron battery monitor that looks like it should do a fine job. My question is where to mount it. There's plenty of blank space on the panel where the Bluetooth player is, but that's a pretty inconvenient place for a monitor. Has anyone found a good spot somewhere in the SO 469 saloon for a battery monitor or any other useful displays? I've got a Mastervolt BTM III installed at the chart table just aft of the VHF, the switch for the Victron inverter is there as well. It's not ideal for the BTM III as the backlight times/doesn't have an always on function so I need to go over and press one of the buttons to see it. But on the flip side it's not cluttering up any other spaces.
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Post by ForGrinsToo on Jan 29, 2019 17:33:06 GMT
My question is where to mount it. There's plenty of blank space on the panel where the Bluetooth player is, but that's a pretty inconvenient place for a monitor. Has anyone found a good spot somewhere in the SO 469 saloon for a battery monitor or any other useful displays? I'm sure you can purchase a long enough cable from Victron to mount the battery monitor just about wherever you like. But you should know that Victron offers a bluetooth dongle and an app (iOS and Android) so you can look at your batteries anywhere within 30 feet or so. Our Victron is mounted in the aft cabin (36i) adjacent to the batteries and switches - not convenient for reading, but a very short, simple wire run. We don't have anywhere near the generating capacity (or the power load: refrigerator, autopilot, VHF/AIS, two GPS, and USB chargers) that others have described, so we are continually monitoring the house bank via the Victron app. Geoff
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Post by moonshadow on Jan 29, 2019 23:31:12 GMT
I’ve been looking for best location to mount a monitor display. In my SO469 there is really no room near the music/inverter/gen etc panel. There looks like room on the smaller wood panel between the cabinets. Currently there is only an A/C-heat control unit there. I haven’t pulled to wood panel yet but I can’t think of anything else back there. Let me know if you check this spot. I have already run a new XM antenna cable near this so I know it won’t be a problem to get a monitor cable from there to the battery main.
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Post by erkan on Jan 30, 2019 21:39:12 GMT
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Post by vasko on Jan 30, 2019 22:39:36 GMT
This one is acrually better then the expesive and useless batery monitors and will do a good job - it also calculated the kwh/amph usage over a period that not many battery monitors does - just keep in mind that the precision with 300a version is about 1amp.
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