Battery maintenance on land

[green]

Russ I’d love to know more about your setup if you have time to share.

[Russ]

Russ I’d love to know more about your setup if you have time to share.

It's not complicated.

2 Deep Cycle Batteries. Our motors don't need cranking amps to start so a deep cycle will work as a starting battery and keep them the same type, which makes charging less complicated. (I also have a small jumper pack as an emergency).

#1 - (Start Battery) Is connected directly to the motor. Nothing else gets power from it.

#2 - (House Battery) Is connected to the boat's 12v panel and supplies power to radio, pumps, chartplotter, lights, etc..

Both batteries DO share a common ground (-) terminal but are isolated otherwise.

120v battery charger is connected to both batteries, but the batteries are electrically isolated. It is essentialy 2 separate chargers. I rarely have access to shore power.

The dealer (BWY) installed a battery combiner. (below)
A simple yet clever little device that is connected to each battery and senses voltage.
When either battery voltage goes high (13.2 volts) it assumes THAT battery is getting a charge and combines the 2 batteries in a parallel to share the charging.
It also has some protections so if one battery is extremely low ( <10V) it will NOT combine them.

When the motor is running, it's sending a charge to #1-Start battery. When the battery reaches charging levels (13.2v) the combiner joins the 2 batteries and the motor charges BOTH batteries. Since they are exactly the same type, in theory, they should charge the same.

My Solar Panel connects to the charge controller (voltage regulator) and is then connected to my #2-House Battery (fused). When #2-House battery reaches 13.2v from the solar panel charging, the combiner will join the house battery with the starter battery and charge both. When the sun goes down and the solar panel stops sending to the house battery, the combiner disconnects and keeps both batteries isolated.

I've had other boats with A/B/Both switches that combine when charging the same way. But I often forgot to switch back and would find myself using power from my start battery. The combiner is super simple and idiot-proof (for me).



For years I removed both batteries and stored them at home and would put a trickle charger on them over the winter. It's so dang hard to get them out and they are so heavy I got lazy one year and just left the solar panel connected. In the Spring, the batteries were fully charged and happy. Now, this is what I do. One time I had to remove the panel and face it South and angle it 45 degrees so it got maximum sun and shed snow. I tied it down to the trailer and it worked great.

[Russ]

This year I upgraded my solar panel from 80w to 100w monocrystalline panel. It's smaller and is more efficient.

With that, I also updated my controller to a MPPT controller with bluetooth.

I also have an old android cell phone that I leave on the boat that I can remote into and connect to the controller to see what the conditions are.
My boat is 90 miles away so it's really nice to see at any time what the charging situation is like.

Checking the solar controller right now I see batteries are 100%. It's a little cloudy out but I'm getting 19.8v from the panel and my batteries are at 13.8v so I assume the combiner has joined both batteries.

It's putting out 12w which I assume is the load from the Android phone and WiFi camera that is connected to the house battery.



https://hqsolarpower.com/20a-mppt-solar ... d-display/

[green]

Thanks for the detailed run down, Russ. Gives me a lot of useful leads to investigate.

[LordElsinore]

My battery/charger/solar setup sounds pretty much identical to Russ'. Starter battery, pair of house batteries, smart charger and ACM switch (which were likewise installed originally by BWY for the original owner). I have a large 200W panel monocrystaline panel attached out the back on the mast carrier and a Renogy 40A MPPT solar controller.

Makes a huge difference to be able to be out all day running the fridge, electronics, etc knowing that battery will still be 100% when the sun goes down

[vkmaynard]

You will ruin your batteries if you don't keep them charged year round. Been through numerous batteries since 2005. Replace frequency way down since using a small solar panel with a solar regular over the last 10 years.

Use two house batteries. More than enough CCA to start our Suzuki DF90A.

Batteries are super expensive now thanks to our current administration so protect them with a sub $100 investment.

Victor