I've been reading this forum and others for weeks/months and I feel like I'm trying to drink from a firehose. Hopefully someone can give me a little advice on where to start.
I have an old, small (26ft) sailboat. One house battery, one start. Both charged from 110v shore charger. Also have a little 50 watt panel that plugs into a cigarette adapter and adds...something.
I would like to update storage, as well as be ready to add solar and more batteries in the next year or so, if not sooner.
I'm going to go with LiFePo4 battery. Chins or whatever. I have to get a new charger because my old Xantrax doesn't do Lithium.
I guess my questions are:
I have an old, small (26ft) sailboat. One house battery, one start. Both charged from 110v shore charger. Also have a little 50 watt panel that plugs into a cigarette adapter and adds...something.
I would like to update storage, as well as be ready to add solar and more batteries in the next year or so, if not sooner.
I'm going to go with LiFePo4 battery. Chins or whatever. I have to get a new charger because my old Xantrax doesn't do Lithium.
I guess my questions are:
- Do I just buy the battery and a new charger, and then just deal with solar later? Or is there a charger that also works with solar? Is that even a good idea?
- I'd like to go 24v. When the engine goes I'd like to go electric, but that'll be awhile as the engine is in good shape. I might be stupid with wanting to go with 24v now. Do I need to replace the alternator on the engine to charge 24v battery? The starting battery is 12v, is doing a 24v house battery needlessly complicating things?