I have been reading his site for about a week and sometimes feel like I'm looking into the business end of an open fire hose nozzle.
I know a bit about 12v and 115v systems (mostly boat stuff) in general, but I know very little about solar as a whole. However, I have it on this boat - a 36 foot Marine Trader Trawler - and I'm looking to upgrade it - along with most (all) of the rest of the 12-volt system.
A few months ago, my fiancé and I bought her basically sight unseen “as is” from the estate of a captain who had passed. It had been sitting dockside for nearly two years with no one even going aboard. As a result, no one knew the battery monitor/control system (Freedom 2000) for the Xantrex Inverter/Charger had failed, and the charger was simply bulk charging the batteries all the time. In addition, there are four 200-watt solar panels and a small controller, and they were hooked up and doing their thing as well.
When we took possession, it didn't take long to survey the extent of the damage – all the batteries (FLA) were completely wasted – eight house, two start, and two windlass/thruster. We replaced the two start with a single, replaced both windlass/thruster batteries with comparable models, and replaced the house banks with two 230 ah deep-cycle marine batteries wired in parallel. I manually control when the Xantrex charges by turning it on and off. No, that’s not ideal – at all – but we knew that we would have to redo the entire 12-volt supply side anyway; we were just looking to get enough to travel the 100 miles necessary to get us to the boat yard.
Fast forward to now. We are in the yard, living in the boat on dry land, and contemplating a new 12v supply system. As a result, I started looking at LiFePO4 batteries for the same reasons everyone else does – weight/storage space reduction and availability of 100% of the Ah capacity.
While living on land, our computed power needs top out around 200 Ah a day – all from running the (super old and inefficient) 12v fridge and some lights. Everything else runs on 115v, including all the power tools we will use during the refit.
I like the SOK 204 Ah battery and feel that our long-term cruising needs would be met by at least two – but preferably three – of them running in parallel. I have computed our expected loads when underway/at anchor, and they top out at around 370 Ah a day - call it 400, if you will. I plan to replace the Xantrex with a Victron MultiPlus and replace all four solar panels with 250-watt versions along with the appropriate MPPT controller(s) and fuses…etc. From there, I will add whatever else is required to keep the house (SOK) batteries charged properly using a combination of solar, generator, and/or alternator. The start and windlass/thruster batteries would be switched for SLA charged by just the alternator.
However, doing this wholesale would cost more than I make in a month – just for the equipment, and as a result, I’d like to eat this elephant in smaller bites.
The way I see it, one SOK 206 Ah battery will provide nearly the same capacity as the two deep-cycles we have now – and will cover us while on the hard. However, I don’t want to hook it up to the Xantrex – it’s not a good charger in the first place, and it’s as old as the hills – Plus, it pushes too many amps for the SOK.
Therefore, my initial thought for the first step was to ditch both house batteries and remove the Xantrex completely, replacing them with one SOK 206 and a Victron IP67 30 Amp charger, followed shortly after by all new solar panels and a controller. This whole setup should also cover the second SOK – also purchased before we get underway again.
And since we won't be back in the water until next spring, I have plenty of time to plan out and build a complete charging system with the MultiPlus and whatever other components are needed while considering what’s necessary to add the third SOK either before we splash, or shortly thereafter.
As I said, I drank from the fire hose over the past couple of weeks, but I still don't know... So I'm asking you all: Does doing it in stages like this sound workable?
I know a bit about 12v and 115v systems (mostly boat stuff) in general, but I know very little about solar as a whole. However, I have it on this boat - a 36 foot Marine Trader Trawler - and I'm looking to upgrade it - along with most (all) of the rest of the 12-volt system.
A few months ago, my fiancé and I bought her basically sight unseen “as is” from the estate of a captain who had passed. It had been sitting dockside for nearly two years with no one even going aboard. As a result, no one knew the battery monitor/control system (Freedom 2000) for the Xantrex Inverter/Charger had failed, and the charger was simply bulk charging the batteries all the time. In addition, there are four 200-watt solar panels and a small controller, and they were hooked up and doing their thing as well.
When we took possession, it didn't take long to survey the extent of the damage – all the batteries (FLA) were completely wasted – eight house, two start, and two windlass/thruster. We replaced the two start with a single, replaced both windlass/thruster batteries with comparable models, and replaced the house banks with two 230 ah deep-cycle marine batteries wired in parallel. I manually control when the Xantrex charges by turning it on and off. No, that’s not ideal – at all – but we knew that we would have to redo the entire 12-volt supply side anyway; we were just looking to get enough to travel the 100 miles necessary to get us to the boat yard.
Fast forward to now. We are in the yard, living in the boat on dry land, and contemplating a new 12v supply system. As a result, I started looking at LiFePO4 batteries for the same reasons everyone else does – weight/storage space reduction and availability of 100% of the Ah capacity.
While living on land, our computed power needs top out around 200 Ah a day – all from running the (super old and inefficient) 12v fridge and some lights. Everything else runs on 115v, including all the power tools we will use during the refit.
I like the SOK 204 Ah battery and feel that our long-term cruising needs would be met by at least two – but preferably three – of them running in parallel. I have computed our expected loads when underway/at anchor, and they top out at around 370 Ah a day - call it 400, if you will. I plan to replace the Xantrex with a Victron MultiPlus and replace all four solar panels with 250-watt versions along with the appropriate MPPT controller(s) and fuses…etc. From there, I will add whatever else is required to keep the house (SOK) batteries charged properly using a combination of solar, generator, and/or alternator. The start and windlass/thruster batteries would be switched for SLA charged by just the alternator.
However, doing this wholesale would cost more than I make in a month – just for the equipment, and as a result, I’d like to eat this elephant in smaller bites.
The way I see it, one SOK 206 Ah battery will provide nearly the same capacity as the two deep-cycles we have now – and will cover us while on the hard. However, I don’t want to hook it up to the Xantrex – it’s not a good charger in the first place, and it’s as old as the hills – Plus, it pushes too many amps for the SOK.
Therefore, my initial thought for the first step was to ditch both house batteries and remove the Xantrex completely, replacing them with one SOK 206 and a Victron IP67 30 Amp charger, followed shortly after by all new solar panels and a controller. This whole setup should also cover the second SOK – also purchased before we get underway again.
And since we won't be back in the water until next spring, I have plenty of time to plan out and build a complete charging system with the MultiPlus and whatever other components are needed while considering what’s necessary to add the third SOK either before we splash, or shortly thereafter.
As I said, I drank from the fire hose over the past couple of weeks, but I still don't know... So I'm asking you all: Does doing it in stages like this sound workable?
