adventuretrimarans
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2021
- Messages
- 5
Hi All,
I'm hoping someone can help me find a way forward as I've got a (for me) fairly complex set of requirements.
And I am a bit dim.
This became a bit of an essay so I've put the actual questions in bold below!
I've got a 6m folding trimaran which has very little space available for solar but I am trying to find some smaller panels. I am also just starting to build another smaller 6m folding trimaran that will oddly have significantly more space for solar as it will have a micro cabin but that is secondary.
We don't have a huge power requirement but and currently have Tohatsu 3.5hp petrol outboard - we need it when we launch off the ramp and hold station raising the sails then for a short period coming back in, again holding station while we lower the sails then come back to the beach.
About 15 minutes each way, possibly an hour max combined and only require fairly low power in general.
We will end up with a couple of different motors for the different boats and different requirements which will cover:
12v/50 amp
24v/50 amp
24v/105 amp
48v/50 amp
I am currently testing several motors and batteries and the Haswing Ultima series which appears to suit one requirement perfectly.
29.6v with max continuous discharge of 35 amps.
This has a 29.6v (8S) Lithium Ion battery and I can get a complete kit including a spare battery for about £2k (total of 2kwh between them). I looked at the Torqueedo Travel 1103 to compare costs that for the base unit which only has 915Wh and a spare battery costs another £859....
Anyway, I am looking at how I can potentially get some extra charge into the battery while we are out as I want to assume a worst case scenario.
Firstly as I have very limited space for solar I am going to be limited to small 18v open circuit 12v panels and probably 2 initially of 60w each.
As ever with boats shading is an issue so will will need to be wired in parallel.
The battery AC charger shows Output Voltage 33.6V at 4 amps.
I think the Victron MPPT 75/10 would be able to cope with this as it can be programmed I think from a mobile phone to tailor the output and float etc?
Assuming we might be drawing 20 amps and less most of the time this will pull approx 600wh from the battery. Having one spare unit gives us loads of leeway BUT again thinking about the worst case scenario, anything extra we can bang in from solar can only help.
Even a couple of hours putting in 2 amps would mean a further range of 12 minutes which could make a difference - we are generally out for 3-4 hours to all day so this could really make a massive difference and having an option for a bit more power can't be a bad thing....
I've also got a WaterLilly turbine on order which apparently is finally being delivered in the next few weeks. After 9 months waiting for it. As our boat is pretty speedy (sits at 15 knots mostly but capable of around 20 knots) we shouldn't notice having that slung out the back and it could produce 2 amps apparently.
I should be able to just connect that up to the Victron with no problems in addition to the solar?
Once tested it might be that 2 of those could be a better bet than solar, or even in addition. Overnight, these can be converted to a small wind turbine which could be handy as well (apparently a bit fiddly though).
Does all of that seem reasonable?
The other issues then come in with some of the other motors and configurations we will almost certainly end up with!
We have the option of a 2.8kw 48v motor which is seriously good and means max draw of 50 amps reducing need for massive cables etc.
I was looking at how I could potentially get any charge into that with similar small solar panels/waterlilly water/wind turbines.
Another Victron MPPT 100/20-48V then looks like the best plan? Which would cover the Ultima as well plus one of the other options we could end up with which are the 2.5Kw 24v motor and oddly for kayaking and generally twatting about with 12v much smaller 500w trolling type motors on kayaks and so on.
If that 20-48V is going to cover all of these options that would be great and I will get one on order immediately.
Finally, as one of the things I am interested in with the electric motors is the ability to have the battery weight up front (the current tri is very stern sensitive) so I need to look at cable length and voltage drop.
If the batteries are about 3m away from the motor I can easily size the cables accordingly to minimise the drop, but I also need to consider the solar panel positions which could be as far 5m as they will be on the floats at the back to be out of the way and unshaded as much as possible.
Am I going to be best off having the controller positioned to shorten the distance between it and the panels / turbine OR have it closest to the battery?
Thanks so much for reading this and any advice you can offer.
I'm hoping someone can help me find a way forward as I've got a (for me) fairly complex set of requirements.
And I am a bit dim.
This became a bit of an essay so I've put the actual questions in bold below!
I've got a 6m folding trimaran which has very little space available for solar but I am trying to find some smaller panels. I am also just starting to build another smaller 6m folding trimaran that will oddly have significantly more space for solar as it will have a micro cabin but that is secondary.
We don't have a huge power requirement but and currently have Tohatsu 3.5hp petrol outboard - we need it when we launch off the ramp and hold station raising the sails then for a short period coming back in, again holding station while we lower the sails then come back to the beach.
About 15 minutes each way, possibly an hour max combined and only require fairly low power in general.
We will end up with a couple of different motors for the different boats and different requirements which will cover:
12v/50 amp
24v/50 amp
24v/105 amp
48v/50 amp
I am currently testing several motors and batteries and the Haswing Ultima series which appears to suit one requirement perfectly.
29.6v with max continuous discharge of 35 amps.
This has a 29.6v (8S) Lithium Ion battery and I can get a complete kit including a spare battery for about £2k (total of 2kwh between them). I looked at the Torqueedo Travel 1103 to compare costs that for the base unit which only has 915Wh and a spare battery costs another £859....
Anyway, I am looking at how I can potentially get some extra charge into the battery while we are out as I want to assume a worst case scenario.
Firstly as I have very limited space for solar I am going to be limited to small 18v open circuit 12v panels and probably 2 initially of 60w each.
As ever with boats shading is an issue so will will need to be wired in parallel.
The battery AC charger shows Output Voltage 33.6V at 4 amps.
I think the Victron MPPT 75/10 would be able to cope with this as it can be programmed I think from a mobile phone to tailor the output and float etc?
Assuming we might be drawing 20 amps and less most of the time this will pull approx 600wh from the battery. Having one spare unit gives us loads of leeway BUT again thinking about the worst case scenario, anything extra we can bang in from solar can only help.
Even a couple of hours putting in 2 amps would mean a further range of 12 minutes which could make a difference - we are generally out for 3-4 hours to all day so this could really make a massive difference and having an option for a bit more power can't be a bad thing....
I've also got a WaterLilly turbine on order which apparently is finally being delivered in the next few weeks. After 9 months waiting for it. As our boat is pretty speedy (sits at 15 knots mostly but capable of around 20 knots) we shouldn't notice having that slung out the back and it could produce 2 amps apparently.
I should be able to just connect that up to the Victron with no problems in addition to the solar?
Once tested it might be that 2 of those could be a better bet than solar, or even in addition. Overnight, these can be converted to a small wind turbine which could be handy as well (apparently a bit fiddly though).
Does all of that seem reasonable?
The other issues then come in with some of the other motors and configurations we will almost certainly end up with!
We have the option of a 2.8kw 48v motor which is seriously good and means max draw of 50 amps reducing need for massive cables etc.
I was looking at how I could potentially get any charge into that with similar small solar panels/waterlilly water/wind turbines.
Another Victron MPPT 100/20-48V then looks like the best plan? Which would cover the Ultima as well plus one of the other options we could end up with which are the 2.5Kw 24v motor and oddly for kayaking and generally twatting about with 12v much smaller 500w trolling type motors on kayaks and so on.
If that 20-48V is going to cover all of these options that would be great and I will get one on order immediately.
Finally, as one of the things I am interested in with the electric motors is the ability to have the battery weight up front (the current tri is very stern sensitive) so I need to look at cable length and voltage drop.
If the batteries are about 3m away from the motor I can easily size the cables accordingly to minimise the drop, but I also need to consider the solar panel positions which could be as far 5m as they will be on the floats at the back to be out of the way and unshaded as much as possible.
Am I going to be best off having the controller positioned to shorten the distance between it and the panels / turbine OR have it closest to the battery?
Thanks so much for reading this and any advice you can offer.
