If I had it to do over again I would have gone 24V in a New York minute.
Wire sizes can be smaller but mainly voltage drops on long runs are
a lot less of a problem and charging cycles are a lot shorter.

A DC/DC converter is the best way to drive any 12V electronics. You can
tap 12V off the batteries but that results in uneven discharging and
creats a whole new set of problems.

PeterV wrote:

I've checked through the archives and found a few on this subject but
none that clearly state if there is any real advantage of running a
24V system.

Obviously the current draw for a given load will be less but I've
not seen any mention of 'standard' instruments that run on 24V. I've
read somewhere that fishing trawlers use higher voltage systems
(24/36V?) but do they have DC-DC conversion (36-12V) for their
instruments? Or do they use 24/36V instrumentation? I assume, as 12V
is 'standard', that costs of higher voltage instruments will be more
expensive than 12V ones.


Thanks,

Peter

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
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