Our electricity will come from a large 12v DC battery bank located in the engine compartment. The batteries will be charged from the combined output of the 50 and 175Ah alternators driven by the boat engine.
After a considerable amount of research we have decided to fit a domestic battery bank consisting of conventional flooded lead-acid wet cell traction batteries.
The batteries under consideration are Trojan L16H deep cycle traction batteries. They are each 6 volt with a capacity of 420Ah. The combined capacity will be 1260Ah and total weight is 342kg. In order to retain the life of the batteries they should not be discharged below 50% which leaves us with a maximum output before re-charge of 630Ah. Interesting I subsequently read that another kiwi couple on nb Gypsy Rover had previously installed a similar domestic battery bank.
It is important that the batteries are correctly connected so as to produce a ‘balanced’ discharge when under load. To achieve this I plan to have them connected as shown below.
My energy audit suggest this should provide sufficient electricity for 3 days without requiring any recharging.
Our plan is to produce 240v AC power using a 3500 watt combi inverter. There will actually be few 230v appliances on the boat. Washing machine, microwave, TV, media tank, laptop and some power sockets for small galley appliances. The the lighting will be 12v LED and we plan to use a CANBUS system to distribute and control the DC supply in the boat.
There will be a shoreline input socket on the boat should we be in a location where we can connect to the main 240v supply.
Next, the battery charging options!
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