I'm going to try to answer a bunch of questions in the same post, so
am threading it to be under my original post which spawned the Amps
discussion. Due to the multiple responses, this is pretty long
(surprise! Mine are *never* long :{)) )
From: Lew Hodgett
Skip Gundlach wrote:
We don't yet know. We're going to do an energy audit, prolly tomorrow,
to see just exactly how much each item uses.
Add battery capacity, any way you can, it solves a lot of problems
including poor alternator performance.
Lew
We've already got massive batteries. The issue is properly keeping
them charged. At 750 nominal (less aging) AH, we can go for a long
time with no charge input. But if we don't put in the charge,
eventually the biggest battery bank will be flat, even if nothing is
drawn from it, out of normal charge dissapation (flooded = ?%/
month)...
From: Bob
On Jul 23, 8:45 pm, Lew Hodgett wrote:
Skip Gundlach wrote:
We don't yet know. We're gong to do an energy audit, prolly tomorrow,
to see just exactly how much each item uses.
Add battery capacity, any way you can, it solves a lot of problems
including poor alternator performance.
Lew
There is another path............. reduce load = smaller house bank,
smaller battery charger, smaller alt, less engine running, quiter,
cooler, also less things to fix!
Bigger aint always better. My 400 Ah house bank is huge...............
for me 
We will be carefully monitoring our use once we get our audit
finished. We *believe* (time will tell) that we'll have ample
charging available for the uses we need to put our load to.
From: Bob
On Jul 23, 8:00 pm, Skip Gundlach wrote:
On Jul 23, 12:59 pm, Bob wrote:
Hi Skip:
Do you have a way to determin a battery's level of charge?
Battery Monitor?
Hydrometer?
Bob
Actually, all of the above:
We have a TriMetric 2020 monitor, by Bogart Engineering, which
provides a
lot of information. Volts, amps in or out, state of charge in
percentage
terms are all front-and-center. Menus allow time from equalization,
AH
left, current state of AH up or down in numerical terms, time from and
what
is low and high (two separate measures), and so on.
Our controller for the KISS wind generator (in addition to the on/off
control of the generator itself) is a Xantrex 40A unit. When it's
piping
outside, we can get close to 30A before the internal controls shut
down, but
it doesn't start producing meaningful amps until ~15knots (designed
for the
Caribbean market). It's whisper quiet in our setup; YMMV dependent on
how
well you balance the blades. At full charge, that controller diverts
to a
heat strip setup, required because our water heater wouldn't accept
the dual
voltage unit where we used to send overcharging before we replaced the
water
heater. We have not yet installed (because we can't find where we
stored
them) an incandescent monitor lamp so that if that's happening we can
hurry
and turn on charging loads for AC devices, taking advantage of the
overstock
of amps.
Our controller for the 370W of high-voltage Solar is a Blue Sky 6024H
MPPT,
which provides as much as 30% more than the rated values of our
panels. At
9AM in Charleston, we typically show 12-15A, and at best, sometimes as
much
as 25A in mid-day. That controller just turns off the load (open-
circuits
the panels, I think is what's happening) when they're full. It also
has an
equalizer button, but with 750AH, it's unlikely we'll ever see enough
amperage to actually accomplish that, even connected to shore power.
We also have a battery conditioner attached - it uses the battery's
own
power to pulse, helping prevent/minimize sulphation. The very long-
cycle
charge regime of the solar and wind has meant that we very rarely see
less
than "full" on the monitor. Making sure we see above 13V nearly all
the
time we're not running huge loads is the bigger deal...
Our new shoreside battery charger is a Xantrex TrueCharge40A unit. We
have
4 L16H in series/parallel 12V, plus the windlass and starter
batteries
separated on an isolator. The shore charger, plus whatever solar and
wind
input has occurred since the TC40 installation has brought us back to
full,
with SGs previously in the 1.250 range to over 1.265 in all cells and
no
large variance (65, 65, 70, 75, 75, 75, 85, 80, 90, 80, 75, 75 in the
12
cells) either from cell to cell or in individual batteries.
We have no remaining halogen bulbs (haven't taken out the foredeck
light;
might be one in there) due to their current draw. All on board
lighting is
either fluorescent or LED, outside is either LED or the afore-debated
incandescent running/steaming lights left so because of "all the
current
available during engine operation" - which I may have to re-
evaluate...
From: Lew Hodgett
Bob wrote:
There is another path............. reduce load = smaller house bank,
smaller battery charger, smaller alt, less engine running, quiter,
cooler, also less things to fix!
Bigger aint always better. My 400 Ah house bank is huge...............
for me
As long as you remember that you must replace 125AH for every 100AH
consumed and the max sustained recharge rate is 15% of the battery
bank AH capacity.
Being realistic, over time, electrical consumption will increase, not
decrease.
These days, minimalists are few and far between.
Heh. Guilty as charged (pardon the expression). But, we believed
that we provided for that in our initial design. It proved that we
were dependent on a charging source (the prior 70A NewMar beast) which
wasn't happening. We'd not have behaved as we did onshore, at the
hook. That we discovered our alternator simultaneous problem, we feel,
now that it's corrected (more below), that the shore and engine
charging parts are up to snuff.
From:
Skip,
I strongly suggest that you get a digital voltmeter with at least one
decimil place readout and wire it into your system. Use a selector
switch so that you can read the voltage of any battery bank. It is
priceless for monitoring what is going on with the electrons.
The one I have is a LED readout so it is easy to see at night.
You can use it to check everything - charging? It will climb up to
about 14.4 volts and then drop off to about 13.6, or if you are using
a manual charger you can monitor voltages and switch the charger at
the appropriate time. How much power are your nav lights using just
switch them on and check the voltage. Ho! Ho! Turned the lights on and
the voltage driopped 0.1 volts at 12.7 volts. A little math and you
know how much power yout lights draw.
We have such a meter, but have not wired it in. It's part of a
multimeter that I use all the time. It's what I used to determine
that the alternator shop had mis-ended (male instead of female) the
tach lead on the new 94A unit.
OTOH, we have a pretty good one in the TriMetric, also digital, with
10ths in both amps and volts. We keep an eagle eye on it...
When we put in the new alternator, we (with a full battery bank) shut
off the shore charger, turned on the inverter, and loaded up
absolutely everything we could on the boat. Inverter with all the
electrical stuff we could find (two computers, all the charging
equipment for handhelds, three fans, etc.). Every single instrument
and light, in and out. All the pumps rated for continuous duty, with
salt and fresh water taps left open. All the AC and DC fans, engine
room and otherwise. The one single remaining incandescent wall
fixture. The fuel polisher and reefer, etc.
We managed to create just under 50A of load. Short of transmitting on
the SSB/Ham (we did it in standby, for only 2A), that's the worst it
can possibly get with no outside input. Of course, letting it go like
that, for an extended period of time, even with the capacity of our
bank, would be very hard on the battery were there no input.
So, after letting it consume about 15AH (per the TriMetric), we
cranked up the alternator. WhoooEEEE!
The meter went from -48 to +40, and slowly started to come down. The
battery voltage, which, by now, had been down to about 12.1 due to all
the drop, steadily climbed. It quite quickly reached well over 13,
and kept climbing.
Of course, that's also way more drop than we'd likely get before we
did something about the load, but it was very reassuring to see that
not only could we sustain that load at about 1500RPM, but put as much
back in as our shore power charger would in a no-load situation.
So, once we'd proven the point, we shut down most of the loads other
than the computers which were both on (connected to shorepower
otherwise), and saw the voltage immediately charge rate climb, level
off, and then start to taper. We got to 14.4 and things started to
calm down.
Having proven *that* point, we shut it down to keep the temps in the
boat somewhat reasonable, and reconnected the shore power. The
batteries were recovered (14.4, then equalibrium at 13.3, with the
shore power cycling occasionally, and the solar cycling in and out as
well, providing ~10A at that time of day, when it wasn't full.
Significantly, the radar didn't drop out when we started the engine,
whereas it always had before. Seatrialing the instruments is next,
but I'm convinced that our problems will either be entirely, or
mostly, resolved with the proper application of power. As it is, my
freezer is well under spec, running so fast that the evaporator
briefly acts as a cold plate, resulting in an under-temp spec (it
comes up relatively quickly to the set temp), where we've been
struggling to keep it under freezing, let alone the 4 or 5 it is now
(set point 8, 2* hysteresis).
From: Pete C
On Jul 24, 5:46 am, Bob wrote:
On Jul 23, 8:00 pm, Skip Gundlach wrote:
On Jul 23, 12:59 pm, Bob wrote:
Hi Skip:
Do you have a way to determin a battery's level of charge?
Battery Monitor?
Hydrometer?
Bob
Somehow I think Skip would prefer to spend time writing lengthy
cruising blogs, than learning about S.G. levels... =)
Hm. How many times do I have to sample to earn my merit badge? In 5
days I've been in Charleston, I've done it 3 times.
:{))
From: RW Salnick
Jeff brought forth on stone tablets:
BTW, I agree about the DVM, its essential on any boat that has more than
a minimal electrical system. Better yet is an Amp-hour meter, certainly
pricey but worth every penny if you have larger loads, such as a fridge,
and tend to live off-grid.
I second the comment that you need a way to monitor amp-hours in and out
of your batteries - it is the only real "fuel gauge" for batteries that
there is. And it is essential if you are not living plugged into shore
power. We have a Link 2000 and I absolutely love it.
I *think* I have such in the TriMetric...
That ought to hold us for a while. I'd bother the librarian but Lydia
would complain - and, besides, I'd rather write :{))
Well, no. I'm changing my tag line on the skype and googlechats to
"I'm in the engine room, but try anyway - I may hear it" - it used to
be that I was in the bilge.
Hands, please, for those who have spent more than 100 hours in their
engine rooms in the last month - I have - in addition to doing the
research and running around to fix those things which have cropped up
(Roger, I know you qualified last year)...
PS to Geoff - has the above eased your concerns about our
instruments? It's why we're still here...
L8R
Skip
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