Rewiring my boat

[Ron Hill]

Antoni : What I did was to take plywood cut to size and fill the battery indentations so that the battery "floor" was level. 

Then I could screw in tie down strap brackets!!

A few thoughts

[Ron Hill]

Guys : BTW that "Battery Hold Down" Mainsheet tech note article was in the May 1998 issue!!

A thought

[LogoFreak]

Antoni : What I did was to take plywood cut to size and fill the battery indentations so that the battery "floor" was level. 

Then I could screw in tie down strap brackets!!

A few thoughts

Yes that's exactly how it is on my boat but that plywood false floor is a bit rotten so I have to re do it. I think what I'll do instead is make two pieces of plywood to fill the indentations for the batteries and make a flush floor. That way the batteries will sit 3/4" lower, give me a bit more room.

I will be cruising with this setup this year and learning about my power useage, the plan is to move to lithium for next season. I plan on building my own Lifepo4 pack with some Winston cells. I know a couple of people that have done that and are super happy. I know I can fit 700ah of lithium in that space.

[Ekutney]

I used two pieces of wood to make the bottom of the battery compartment a flat surface.

[Bill Shreeves]

Remember to balance the batteries.  Don't pull/charge from one end.

Ken,
Are you saying the positive connection on the bank to the "house" or "load" etc. should not be the same positive terminal / bus connection for the charger/alternator?

[KWKloeber]

Hey Bill

What I'm saying is that the positive and negative (load and charger) should not be from the same end of the battery bank.
At a minimum they can be at opposite ends of the bank (but a star connection arrangement is better.). See reply #14.

[LogoFreak]

Has anyone considered a 48V house bank? I know most have 12V systems but that's easy to solve by adding a 48-12V dc to dc converter. The advantage to going to 48V house bank for me personally is that I have an electric epropulsion outboard that also has the ability to charge a battery bank under sail, also I can upgrade my windlass to a 48V model that will require far smaller wiring. Since I am upgrading all my electrical system I don't see a down side. Does anyone?

[Ron Hill]

Antoni : Probably more logical to go for a 24V system than a 48V system!

A thought

[LogoFreak]

Care to explain why? I'm not trying to convert the boat to 24v, only the house bank. Boat systems will remain on 12v, but will be supplied with a dc to dc converter. Only thing I would likely upgrade is the windlass to a 48v model as I intend to upgrade anyway as mine is on the small side of things.

Only thing I'm not sure about is if 48v house bank is a good thing for solar or not.

[Stu Jackson]

LF, there are many more discussions about alternate energy systems over on Cruisers Forum, most likely because they deal with boats that are different than our great "but essentially coastal cruisers" C34.

I did a search on "48V" there, and came up with this (I haven't read it, but did note the first paragraph talked about an earlier discussion, too, which you should be able to find).

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f14/2021-2022-updates-on-48v-for-main-system-bus-255007.html

Happy researching. 

[Ron Hill]

Guys : I did the same thing as Ed (post#4) and put 3 Gp29 AGM batteries (105 AH ea.) in the MK I battery compartment.  The third battery is turned side ways. I put a picture in the Mainsheet tech notes. 
I like the AGMs as they are no maintenance and very low self discharge.

A few thoughts

[LogoFreak]

Been waiting for this thing way too long, but it's finally here! Time to get back to this part of the refit 😁

[waughoo]

Nice!!  I have been waiting for an ELCI main AC panel to put in my aft laz right by the electrical service entrance.  It will be like christmas when it shows up (perhaps literally as well as figuartively).

[LogoFreak]

It's been a while since I've updated the progress on this project. It's been on pause for the summer as I was using the boat but winter is here and I'm picking up where I left off.

Picked up three lithium batteries, 150ah each for a total of 450ah (360ah useable for 6000+ cycles). Also got a Victron multiplus compact 12/2000/80 charger/inverter.

Got the batteries in and now working on the wiring as well as looking for a good place to install the chg/inv, would prefer to mount it on the starboard side as these boat list to port as it is. Not an easy task, chg/inv is 20"x10"x5". So far best place I can think of is in the cubby behind the backrest, the one nearest to the galley. Would have to cut out a rectangular hole 5"x10" in the bottom of that cubby so that it can fit as there's not enough height.

[Jon W]

Have you checked the space outboard of the starboard water tank under the cover? On my MK1 I was able to mount my echo charger and MPPT charge controllers there.