Batteries on Boats

photo by: Joanna Poe

Last weekend, we attended a lecture at the Cruising Association on ‘Power Systems on Boats’, by Matt Boney. 

We’ve attended a lecture on electrics on boats there before, but it’s always good to hear more on this topic again. Confirms that this is definitely something we need to master. Loads of studying ahead for the Can Opener…

Here are the key highlights from the notes I required the Can Opener take down (Hey Furrball, I’m self-motivated! I do not need you camped on my shoulder, waggling my ears like horse reigns to make me write faster…):

Battery Capacity

• Most cruisers do not have enough
• 150amps/day is a small amount
• You probably need a minimum of 300amp hours at 50% of DoD (depth of discharge)
• and batteries only top up to 80% of their capacity
• so you need to actually have more like 420 amp hours to be able to use 300 amp hours/day… and still would have to charge every day
• AND you don’t want to run your battery to 0… only want to run it down to about 25% of battery capacity
• therefore you need even more capacity!

Which battery to use?

• You can mix battery sizes to increase capacity (lifeline tested this) as long as batteries are
• the same age and
• the same make

• With batteries you ‘get what you pay for’… quality costs..

 Types of batteries

• Sealed leisure or marine batteries 
• are ‘maintenance-free’, 
• but can’t be topped up so they won’t last long. 
• They are also affected by temperature.
• Gels 
• are useful, 
• slow discharge
• old technology
• expensive
• hard to find

• AGMs
• are the best (?)
• becoming more popular
• make sure you get the right AGM for the right purpose! (There are many potential uses for these…)

Monitoring your batteries
You should 

• charge your batteries to 100% every month to anti-sulfate them – otherwise they will become permanently sulfated
• should estimate when you hit 50% DoD by measuring battery voltage
• must have a panel mounted digital volt meter
• must have a small digital multi-meter
• all batteries must have multi-stage regulators
• test your batteries 2x/year
• use your alarms!
• monitor regularly!

Ways to generate electricity?

• shore power charger
• solar – recommended 600Watts+ or you won’t be able to replace daily usage
• wind or towing generators – expensive, but easy and convenient
• AC or DC diesel generator – DC is the quieter of the two
• Honda petrol generator – don’t get this one. There are no petrol stations at sea. And you are not really saving a lot on size.

What type of batteries are you using? What kind of generator(s) are you using? Are you getting the voltage you need out of them?

–Captain Cat 

 (transcribed by the Can Opener)

Battery Capacity

‘The most unreliable part of the boat is its electric systems.’

–Tony Brooks

At the Boat Show we managed to attend 2 (free!) mini lectures, the second of which was on ‘Electrics for Boaters’ with Tony Brooks. 

Tony is an instructor offering boaters’ courses and technical help. His site with some good technical notes on it can be found here.

He only had 20 minutes to speak and focused on calculating how much battery capacity you actually need to have on your boat.

Here are the highlights…

First do an energy audit

1. Turn all electrical items off on your boat. Then one by one, turn each item on and off to determine how many amps each item on your boat draws (eg lamp uses 3.4 amps, pump uses 5 amps).
2. Estimate how many hours you use each item for per day (eg lamp used 2 hours, pump used 2 hours).
3. Multiply each item’s amps by the # hours/day used – this will give you amphours per day per item (3.4×2=6.8 and 5×2=10).
4. Add up all the amphours of all the items together (6.8+10=16.8 amphours).
5. This tells you the amount of usuable battery capacity needed.

BUT

• You can’t use 100% of any battery all in one day! 
• In fact, you should only use up 50% of the charge in your batteries each day (otherwise you significantly shorten the battery’s life).
• AND you can only realistically charge the battery to 80% of its so-called total rated capacity.
• Therefore really only 30% of the battery’s claimed capacity is available to you (80%-50%=30%).

Then calculate battery capacity

1. 16.8 amphours per day is only 30% of rated battery capacity needed. So how many amphours of rated capacity do you actually need?
2. Solve for x: 
• 16.8/x = 30/100
• x = 56 amphours needed per day

So 1×110 ah batteries should be enough. 

On the other hand, if you only charge your battery every third day, then you’ll need 168 amphours and should do fine with 2×110 ah batteries.
  
Listening to this lecture also showed us… we don’t know a thing about engines yet either. Hmm.

So the Can Opener will be trolling the electrics section in our Don Casey’s Sailboat Maintenance Manual as well. And the RYA marine Electrics course has also been bumped up the list…

Have you ever done an energy audit? 
Find any surprises?

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)


Cruising Lectures
Next: Chuck Paine Speaks
Previously: Diesel Bug
 

Spring Cruising Lectures 2012

The party begins!

I have researched the lectures that the Can Opener will be attending with me this Spring 2012. With suitable amounts of smoked molluscs hidden in his backpack to ensure my nutritional requirements for the duration. Naturally.

Here they are:

• London Boat Show: Electrics for Boaters
• London Boat Show: Diesel Engines
• Cruising Association: 35 Years of Cruising Sailboat Design with Chuck Paine
• Cruising Association: Sail Away
• Cruising Association: La Dolce Vita – Cruising the Islands of the Central Mediterranean 
• Cruising Association: Hostage – A Year at Gunpoint with Paul & Rachel Chandler
• Cruising Association: Some By-ways off a Circumnavigation
• Red Tabby Yacht Club: Ocean Passage Making

This of course, will mean endless notetaking, transcribing and reviewing for the Can Opener.

But he’s up to the challenge. We are very pleased with our First Mate’s continued progress. Yesterday I gave him two gold stars. If he keeps this up, tomorrow I may even share with him my mouse.

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Don Casey’s Sailboat Maintenance Manual – Arrived!

links below at bottom of post

I just got Don Casey’s Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual in the mail to add to the library. ‘Six books in one’ is anyone’s idea of good value. 

I’ve assigned it to my First mate by day for some light reading (ha!). He needs to cover this giant reference book cover to cover. In particular, I want him to focus on its overview of how to survey boats. The book weighs in at about 3 lbs, so it’ll take him a while.

By night, however, the book is mine! A few good snoozes stretched over this tome should allow all the info contained therein to leech upwards into my sizable and osmotically inclined brain. I’ll be done absorbing its info long before the Can Opener. 

Then I can move on to selecting the right shade of organic catnip slip covers for the berths in the saloon. 

A captain’s work is never done.

 

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

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Electrical Systems – One More Thing for the Training List

 

Can Opener: I’m sure there is a good reason you have added ‘a thorough knowledge of complete boat electrical system’ to the ever-growing list of things you think I am about to learn.

Captain Cat: Best practices says we should both be knowledgeable about everything on our boat. Everything. 

We need a working knowledge of all systems and should be able to do basic repairs. And then some.

Know how to maintain marine wiring? How to calculate our electrical usage and needs? How to rig solar panels and make sure we’ve got a non-integrated system (so that if one thing busts we don’t lose all our electrics at once…)? 

Can Opener: Hm…

Captain Cat: I have spent years snoozing my way on the very best books to electrical savoir faire. You, on the other paw, have some studying to do.

Can Opener: So exactly what would happen if you didn’t get your way all the time, every time? 

Captain Cat: No one knows…

–transcribed by the Can Opener

Reference: The Training List