Swapping From AGM to Lithium Batteries on a Sailboat
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- After 2 years of sailing on Cadoha, the time has come to replace our old AGM battery bank with something new. It was time to upgrade to a lithium battery bank.
A huge thank you to the guy that really helped us decide on exactly what kit we needed for what we wanted to achieve, Roland, the owner of www.qualitysou... who are experts in everything to do with advanced lithium batteries and off grid living. This guy went above and beyond simply selling us batteries and an inverter, he spent hours on the phone to us and over email, holding our hands through what seemed like a super daunting process, and made sure that we had everything we needed to tackle this epic project.
Thank you again so much, Roland, you're a real super star!
Be sure to check out the batteries that we bought, which at the time writing this (15 June 2021) happen to be on sale with £225 off each battery! 👌🏻 www.qualitysou...
Also another huge thanks goes to Frankie the 'Mad Scientist' who really went above and beyond, helping us with the physical installation of all our new hardware, mate, we couldn't of done this without your help, you were so generous with your time and we owe you big time, thank you again, matey! Frankie has an instagram page where he periodically uploads his 'boat hacks' in-between his e-surfing exploits. He's forever coming up with cost effective ways to recreate what the marine industry would sell you for 10x the price. If you have instagram, give the man a follow for his efforts! / battcat_boathacks
Raspberry Pi - System Display (useful links)
Here is a list of everything we used for our Rasberry Pi build.
1) Rasberry Pi 3: amzn.to/3zu19pt
2) Rasberry Pi touch screen display: amzn.to/2SB71g3
3) Victron USB display cables (these were to connect the solar charge controllers to the raspberry pi): amzn.to/3xqsdnY
4) Rasberry Pi Display Case: amzn.to/3zCYqub
Woke up this morning in Dart Haven marina to the sound of Hank barking, looked up to see him up on top singing his heart out, loved it!! 😍
Hope he didn’t wake you 😬😬⛵️
@@CadohaAdventures not at all, was lovely to see him!
wouldn't miss an episode, I enjoy spending 20 to 25 minutes with you
Excellent episode. I’ve been off grid for over 20 years, running my vineyard and winery, and still learned much. Technology has changed a lot since I installed my systems.
Is it true Hank was absent because he already knew all this stuff and crimping hurts his jaws?
Really interesting video as I’m just researching the same process, thanks for posting , it was made even more useful for the step by step process . Wish i had Frankie in Cornwall !!!
It’s my birthday in August and we’re celebrating in Cornwall, and Frankie is invited, soooo 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
Good vid but where was the main man Hank? :)
That Frankie guy seems he was super useful also.
Frankie is a genius and a very capable all round guy with just about anything mechanical and electrical.
Very informative, thanks. Love your “Barnet!”
Ha ha, my hair can certainly get out of hand in no time at all.
I’m so impressed with the time,thought process and implementation of this fabulous new system,so interesting and fingers crossed for the result.Ditching the Gas has to be a massive safety plus and to be able to run your appliances on 210V brilliant.Well done.
Nice job. Good info! Sail Safe Guys, Ant, Cid & the pooch crew.
Another excellent video. I do like those fuses. I am trying to live off grid in the house, slowly adding a 12v circuit for lights
Really useful video and still the majority of comments seem to mention the missing Hank!! :) gotta love that doggie!
Well he is the star of the show 😂
I’m glad to hear you found some of it useful 👍🏽
Hey great video, thanks for sharing the details on the Raspberry Pi. 👍
You’re more than welcome, if you have any more questions then Frankie from the Batt Cat is your man!
Very good video, thanks from a new subscriber.
Awesome episode guys. I have been trying to decide what to do with my batteries and bouncing between lithium and AGM but what you have now seems a fabulous install. Top advice from Roland and Frankie and I hope they get kick back too and I may well be in the queue. Stay safe guys. Andy UK
Andy, we have a 31ft yacht, so mixed lithium and a single flooded lead acid battery to give us 205Ah. Early days but 6 weeks in the ability to flick a switch and boil the kettle, toaster or run an electric drill is really nice option. We will add an induction hob shortly but probably keep the gas cooker and mix or match.
@@pete9501 Thanks Pete, that is helpful to know. I have been hanging back as tech moves so quick. I love the Raspberry Pi display as there aren’t many good battery monitors on the market. Thanks.
@@AndyUK-Corrival I am using my phone at the moment to see the Victron MPPT charging details and the Daly BMS. However, I want something else on board just not sure which way to go at the moment. Tried an old mini ipad but too old. Same with an old iphone 4. A cheap android tablet may be the answer. Either way as Dom says, this is a game changer particularly for a small yacht that can run large mains voltage items.
Now that was a Great 👍 video! Out of all the upgrades on a boat that is the best one I believe you can do.
So thank you so much for this video.
So until next week.
Aloha and Mahalo from the Big Island 🏝of Hawaii. 🏝
very interesting guys
Glad to hear it 🤞🏼⛵️
Great informational video. I will look back on this for reference in the future when we attempt our change over to lithium. Thanks for sharing this.
Great episode, curious to see how it works out with normal day-to-day use. We have an AGM house battery bank and a Fischer-Panda genset on our current yacht but would go this way if / when we upgrade 👍
So far we’ve been living the same as we would on shore power for the last two weeks and we’ve been anchored the entire time.
We had to motor sail one day for quite a way to get to Portland Bill on time for the tides as that took our bank up to 100% but other than that we’ve been fully charged maybe three days in total when it was glorious weather and on a slow power SOC decline ever since.
We could of course do things to mitigate power consumption, but the idea is to find the level where we live as if on shore power without having to stop and even think about our usage. I’m already planning a revamped solar array for this coming winter, but for now, we’re doing ok and only need to run the engine infrequently. The biggest drain on power is the 1 hour a day hot water element being turned on. We’ve experimented with as low as half an hour a day, but that means one of us ends up having a cold shower 😕
Really great video! Great to see your latest content and lithium is clearly the way to go!
We went the Raspberry Pi route as a cheap alternative to the full Victron GX, but eventually switched to a Cerbo GX as this allowed us connect temperature probes (Engine cooling water, alternator temp etc.) easier than using the Pi. Then we added bilge float switches, IR alarm, fire alarm etc. Unfortunately the built in GX display is not up to the job of displaying all this data in the built-in dashboard, so we then added Grafana and Docker to the Pi, that allows you to customise your own dashboard. And, more importantly setup alarms in the dashboard. Instructions on the Victron community forum. You can use Victrons VRM display but no good without internet.
Can fit temp sensors with rpi using ruuvi and others
A really interesting episode, thanks for sharing. The outcome seems really great 👍
Thanks, still lots of testing to do so there will be some trial and error but by the end of the year we should have a very clear idea of what we will need to live on anchor and be totally relaxed about all the power we possibly want to use.
Looks like you guys did this just in time. Seems to be a calor gas shortage at the moment with everyone buying boats, caravans and tents etc rather than fly aboard. Its going to be an interesting summer on the south coast and out at anchor could be just the ticket, certainly our plan. See you out there and thanks for making the videos, always a pleasure to watch.
Excellent vid guys, very interesting. Definitely be stealing some of your ideas! 😉
Go for it! Hardly any of the ideas were mine, but happy to hear the video has been at least of some use to someone 😁🙏🏻
Great video! Thanks for sharing so much good info!
You’re welcome, I hope there was something of use in there for you.
Woop big up Dartmouth!!! Really interesting vid, thanks for sharing!
Good to see you back in my neck of the woods ( read that as seabed bottom.)
The last thing I thought I’d hear on a British yacht channel was a reference to Larry The Cable Guy and Git-R-Done.
Ha ha, that must have been Frankie, he's Canadian, so perhaps more likely to know what Larry The Cable Guy is?😬😬😬
@@CadohaAdventures yeah, look him up if you want to be perplexed by my American Culture. It would be as if I made reference to Mrs Browns Boys.
If you you do not have a popcorn popper on board, this is all for not. 🤣 Well done. Enjoy.
There is something going wrong with the calculations. If the kettle uses 1000 watts of power and you run it on 210 volt it uses 4,67 amps. if you run the same 1000watt kettle on 230 volt it uses 4,35 amps. Thats the whole reason we have 230 volt instead of 110 like in the US. It puts less strain on the grid, in this case your wiring and inverter. Lets calculate the difference between 110v and 230v, just for fun; 1000 watt kettle on 110 volt system uses 9,09 amps. 1000w devided by 110v
1000 watt kettle on 230 volt system uses 4,35 amps. 1000w devided by 230v
Hello. The kettle is a fixed resistance device like most of the heat generating devices.
So if it draws in our case 2300 watts at 230 volts it’s roughly 10 amps . When you reduce the supply current the resistance is the same but the wattage and current is reduced . So for simplicity. The kettle is 23 ohms. 23 * 10 amps 2300 watts @230 volts
23* 9.1 amps =1911 watts @210 volts
As you say the grid in North America and even Canada is 120-240 volt industrial 480 volts and eastern Canadian 600 volts. The higher voltage allow for more transmission wattage for the same wire size. / infrastructure .
In the case of a yacht with a 2400 watt continuous inverter. The kettle is the limit of the inverters supply , by reducing the system voltage the kettle and fridge and tv could be on at the same time . And still be with in the rating of the inverter .
@@STRUTZKOFF but the kettle will need to be run for a longer time @210v as against a240v supply. You can’t make energy! Your wrong about higher voltage allows for more transmission wattage. You are confusing wattage with current!
A higher voltage allows for a lower current during transmission, thus allowing for smaller cross section conductors to be used.
The wattage remains the same.
@@stevencarey6610 the amount of kWh or wh to boil water remains the same regardless of the voltage that’s correct. But running lower voltage makes it so they don’t need to turn other items off. If you watch the video you can see the wattage drawn changes as the inverter output voltage is adjusted.
As for higher voltage yes you can send higher wattage though to the end. As the current stays the same . Or you can run smaller wires to do the same work at a higher voltage. As the infrastructure of electricity supply runs at 10kv to 100kv its all about sending the most wattage for the least cost and least losses.
For you saying that higher voltage doesn’t allow for more wattage to be transmitted well let’s say a 10 gauge wire can take 10 amps
12 volt X10 amps is 120 watts.
When you boost the voltage to 120 volts x10 amps is 1200 watts transmitted in the same wire
Or you can use a much smaller wire to transmit 1 amp x120 volts to send 120 watts. Power law. There are some RUclips videos you can watch to learn more about it
Again the reasoning for the lower output voltage is less strain on inverter and batteries, slightly more user friendly as laptops and other chargers can remain on with out overloading the inverter when high current devices are switched on .
@@STRUTZKOFF it's the amps that put a strain on the system, not the voltage. That's why a 230 system can run on thinner cables than a 110 system.
@@STRUTZKOFF I have to say that you have it spot on. Any cable working at its maximum current rating can only carry more watts by increasing the voltage. That is why power distribution networks work at such high voltages. By reducing the inverter output voltage you will indeed reduce the voltage across resistive devices and therefore reduce the current drawn V=IR proportionately. The effect on wattage is even more significant. A 10% reduction in volts causes a 10% reduction in 5amps and therefore a 19% reduction in watts (0.9×0.9=0.81). Some appliances that arent purely resistive loads may seek to compensate for the reduced supply voltage by increasing the current drawn so a 10% reduction in supply voltage might increase the current drawn by a proportionate amount in order to maintain the power output. A motor or a laptop power supply might fall into this category. I think this is where confusion is arising, but providing these loads are small compared to the resistive loads the result should be an overall reduction in the total VA supplied by the inverter if V is reduced.
Great technical vlog guys extremely interesting and very informative really enjoyed it |!! By the way i used to go out with Frankies sister Francesca Fourfingers or at least my friends told me that was her name, but she kept telling me her name was Routledge!!
Frank, I have to pop down if your free in a week or so to look over batcat as I got loads I what to ask you for duchess if thats ok....I will DM you on facebook or whatsapp mate
Nice video guys...very good and informative.
I’d die to get a friend like Frankie😅
Thanks for the tech video
🤯 ah, can I borrow a life jacket? Your post is way over my head.
👍 good info 👍
Interesting vid.👍 The investment decision in going the lithium/big inverter and all the control geekery route is testicle tightening, but rewards with a big leap in capability and lifestyle options. Are you well up for geeking the Pi when it goes TU? Your most extravagant consumption is the electric water heating, have you considered not just waiting for a shower until 30 minutes after the engine has been started? When I was a lad we had a bath once a week, whether we needed it or not, never did me any harm.🤣
Without doubt the heating of the hot water is the biggest drain on the system, second to the constant draw of the chest freezer. Without those two we’d have more power than we knew what to do with, but instead we need to figure out how best to produce even more power.
I think changing the solar set up and then when we finally do go longer distance sailing, some kind of deployable hydro generator?! 🤔
I just want to add a radiator to their diesel heater to make hot water.
@@CadohaAdventures another 300 or 400W of solar is not going to make a material difference to the water heating load (no where near as much as turning the water heater off 😉). A Watt & Sea Hydro is big bucks(€4500), very capable and very vulnerable (especially in the littoral) - but all the Vendee Ocean boats seem to have them - but apart from Pip they have big budgets.🤔 The company is owned by Yannick Bestaven a recent competitor and winner of the 2020/21 Vendee Globe. You also need to be doing a consistent 5 knots to get anything really useful - check your logs to see what your track record is thus far - they really need a slippery hull.
@@normanboyes4983 I mean the water heater is only on for an hour a day and aside from the winter months, I’m fairly certain that 1200w of solar would keep up with everything we’re asking if the system currently. I mean we’ve been at anchor and using everything now for two weeks and we’ve only used the engine once and we’ve only drifted down to just below 50% capacity now, and we’ve had a good few over cast days in that time too, and we’ve had a few brilliantly sunny days too mind.
@@CadohaAdventures it sounds absolutely terrific. You certainly want to avoid putting a propulsion engine on just for charging batteries for peril lays down that road.
Aye m8’s, thnx a lot for sharing and being funny! ❤️
Nice video. Very informative.
great video!!! hell you almost didn't even talk too much!!
good job, thank you.
Looks a great installation. However, it doesn't matter how good the batteries are, and the inverter; if you draw more power than is going into the batteries, sooner or later they will go flat. You said you want to be able to use electricity freely. Time will tell, but I feel 750 watts of solar in a UK winter will be well below your requirements. I guess maybe alternator or shore power charging may supplement the solar. I will be interested to see how things work out.
As for the fans missing Hank, well he is nice enough. Personally, I prefer to see Carly more.
I totally agree with you that it won’t cut it in a uk winter, and we’d likely be in a marina for winter, it’s spring, summer and autumn that we want to be spending most of our time at anchor and so this is when we want to still have all of our creature comforts. I’m already planning a fairly big solar upgrade for next winter which should reduce the number of panels we have (5 currently) down to three and increase our capacity up to roughly 1200-1400w which should help us through the cloudy days, again in the non winter months.
Thanks great video
Hi Cadoha! Love your channel! Very impressed by your DIY skills and what you achieved... Especially “admiratif” of Carly's cozy touch and deco. Huge congrats.
A question about your conversion to lithium, more specifically about the use of a Raspberry 3 to monitor your different Victron equipments; in addition to the hardware you've used, could you please give us more detail upon its programming: OS, specific softwares, etc? Would it be possible to use it to display other apps?
Once again many thanks to sharing all your skills with the sailing community.
Fair winds and flat seas.
Cheers!
Just seen this. My man Frankie is the best person to talk to about this so I’ll ping this question over to him for you and see if he can clear those ends up for you. 🙏
@@CadohaAdventures Many thanks! Look forward to earing of his advices and your next episodes!
the software for the raspberry pi is ready to go .. just burn the iso to the sd card and everythign works..
@@STRUTZKOFF Many thanks ! Much apreciated the advises. Cheers
That is nice video, what type of loader/inverter do you have?.And do you have also some connection from a bms to your charger, that tells the loader to stop loading if you are one shore power and the battery is full?
Glad you liked it. The batteries all have a BMS in built into each unit and our inverter is an inverter/ charger which monitors where the materiel are at.
Excelente. Felicitaciones y saludos desde el fin del mundo. En la Patagonia de Argentina, Estrecho de Magallanes. Alejandro LU9XBA.
Very interesting video. Would love to see more of the installation. I upgraded during the winter too (400 Ah only). I added a dc to dc charger between the alternator and the house bank. Did you skip the alternator bit for the house bank? Btw I’m loving induction cooking but I still have the gas oven - curious to know what you have done.
So far so good. We already had a Sterling ‘smart’ charger onboard which is what the alternator feeds to, and that simply had a switch for settings to cater for lithium batteries.
As for the oven, we fitted a ‘Ninja Air Fryer’ which is fairly how in terms of power draw, but cooks very quickly compared to a conventional oven, do higher power but for less time.
Hello. The boat is equipped with a sterling alternator regulator . It’s a voltage booster. That is designed to make alternators work harder by holding its output to 12.9 volts and then boost the voltage up to 14.2 volts or at least try . So when you run the engine it first diverts all the alternator power to the lithium battery about 70 amps ans or drops down to about 50 amps as the alternator heats up ( there is a temp sensor on alternator to the sterling unit to prevent over heating) once the lithium is full the start battery is allowed to change normally by alternator. The sterling unit has a rotary switch for different charge profiles and float voltages. In the even of bms disconnect the start battery prevents system over voltage
nice to see you back and good vid. any chance of the story behind that sextant?
Not gonna lie. That Frankly wizard guy sounds like the man. Get her done.
Herd he is building a 106 kwh pack for his 1987 gmc 1 ton truck 😎
Frankie is an electrical and mechanical wizard 🧙♂️🪄🧙♂️🪄
Nice 👍
Have you seen the Raspberry Pi used to create a navigation plotter? Nice video again but could you cleary state what are Victron parts because at first I thought that display was an item you bought from Victron. That screen is a raspberry Pi touchscreen.
Yes that display is all raspberry pi, I’ve put a little parts list at the very bottom of the description box if that helps at all?
Thanks for this one. I too have been thinking of moving to Lithium and more towards supporting electrical devices for lifestyle. The big reason for me has been independence from shore support, like propane supply as I intend to be cruising off the beaten track to some degree. I have to say though that after watching I wonder what happens if something goes seriously wrong? That mention of a cascade fault did not inspire confidence. Those 400ah fuses are not likely to be cheap and if a lithium battery goes down can you get a replacement in say Fiji or Honduras? How do people get on with Lithium support in remote locations?
All fair points, I think I’d likely stock up with supplies and spares before heading off anywhere too remote. There are parts of the world where items for the boat would be hard to come by period I guess.
@@CadohaAdventures I think the solution for me is going to be not to ditch the old systems completely and as for other things carry a good range of spares as you suggest, which hopefully can see me over until I can re-supply. I would say though that the Victron inverter is a weak link, being that if it fails fixing it is likely to be problematic and I am betting that carrying a spare is not an option given the likely cost...
@@crikycrocky that’s why its better to put in 2 multiplus inverters, say 2000va each in this case for redundancy. By the way it’s not a 3000watt inverter,it’s 3000va about 2400watts
Hi, It has been a year, how has the new batteries performed for you, any issues or surprises?
They’ve been great. They’ve done everything we’ve asked of them, windless, electric cooking, heating the water for hot showers, you name it, they run everything. We’ve also ran them down to just about zero before and they charged back up fine and show no signs of ‘ill health’. It’s only a year in so far, but so far, so good 👌🏼🙏⛵️
Hi guys, neat install.
Like many others, I'm also thinking about Lifepo4 s.
How did you handle the alternator charging? Did you keep a lead acid battery for engine start with a dc/dc converter to charge the house?
I'm worried about the BMS s in the Lifepo4s cutting the charge abruptly and causing the smoke to escape from the alternator regulator 🤗
I'll try to answer as best as I can. Yes we have a lead acid still for the starter battery, the boat already had a sterling 'smart charger' installed and so my understanding is that the alternator goes to this and then the sterling smart charger then solves the alternator/ lithium battery issue with a preprogrammed setting.
I'm not most technical person to best articulate how this happens exactly, but perhaps Frankie will drop by later and help clarify it for you 🤞🏼🙏🏻
@@CadohaAdventures Thank you 👍👍
Nice job, I can’t say I am not jealous. But two things occur to me the first is that by loosing LPG you are putting all your eggs in one basket. If you have a fault or not enough input charge you end up with virtually all systems not working. The other is that in the Uk can you generate enough power without running the engine to keep your input up to your output requirements? This is not a criticism just a question.
Great questions. Firstly we have a little camping stove that we can use in a pinch, which we bought originally to cook on the beach, rather than start fires, as the west coast has been plagued with huge fires spreading after a beach fire or BBQ was never put out properly, but as I say, this now doubles up as back up cooking ability.
We have 750w of solar, and we only intend to be on the hook for spring, summer and autumn months, so this is kind of a real time experiment, so far (two weeks in) we've only. run the engine once, and that was to get to Portland Bill in time for the tide change, which did give the bank a nice boost, although it has also charged fully a couple of times just from the sun, but generally speaking we seem to be running at a bit of a power deficit so far and it looks like once a week we'll need to run the engine for a short time with the. solar to get back to 100%, but we'll be making notes of how it all performs.
I have a plan to make fairly big change to our solar arch and hope to put 1200w of solar on it, which I believe will give is all the power we will need (plus I want to now get rid of the panels on the guard rails). As for it being in England, yes the sun can be less intense than more southerly latitudes, but we do have the sun high in the sky and for much longer in the summer, and so even on a day like today (fairly cloudy) we're still pulling 300w from the array, as I type and the bank is currently hovering around 50% after a few days of heavy use (Carly wanted to wash and blow dry her hair, on top of everything else we usually do, so lots of hot water and then the hair dryer) and not a huge amount of sun.
Do you have a ve.direct to usb connection from you shunt to your victron control panel? You will then be able to see your power usage and battery level on your Raspberry pi screen.
Yes. But the Victron shut has malfunctioned and it’s not communicating to its own display. Waiting on parts
@@STRUTZKOFF Ah, that explains that. Loving my Color GX hooked up to my shunt, solar and inverter. Now I just need to get some Lifepo4 batteries to replace my very tired lead acids.
Hi Dom/ Carly/ Hank - we are looking at installing a very similar setup on our Gib'Sea 402. Couple of questions I'd love to fire at you if you don't mind! Do you run your anchor windlass off of the lithium? Or your starter battery? What size wire did you use? Looks like 50mm2? Did you have two positives and two negatives wires going into the inveter? Two of each, running off each busbar? Did you need busbars anywhere else or just the two?
Hey there Joe. I think we used 35mm wiring for the heavier gauge wires, if memory serves? We have about six bus bars in total, just to spread out all the connections so they weren’t piled up on top of each other. We do run the windlass from the lithium, although the engine is also usually running whenever we use it too. We also did have two positives and negatives going into the inverter also, yes. 👌🏼
I’ll ask Frankie (the genius who fitted most of it for us) to fact check me on any of that though 😬😬⛵️
Hi joe , I believe we used four or 6 buss bars
Two for collecting positives and negative’s from battery. Four for positive and negative loads
A victron links bms could be used to make a cleaner installation that ill use going forward,
The inverter specifies 2x 35 mm wire positive and negative for the inverter when cable length below two meters and 50 when more than 2 meters .
The windlass is wired off the lithium and its easily ran from the lithium.
The start battery is separate while using the
Sterling dc-dc charger , the start battery has a parallel connection to the lithium incase either of them die
Thank you so much both, really helpful. Massively appreciated!
Great video nice to see your back on the water. Are you going to use the raspberry pi for your navigation ?
They could. But they mostly use a I pad
Great episode watched it again as hubby is sure that Frankie four fingers is American I’m saying no can you settle an argument and let us know where the mad scientist is from? TIA
Hi, can I ask why you need to fuse each battery? As if the batteries are ever overloaded then the BMS should take the battery offline
Just an extra layer of precaution really.
the bms can weld on .. and if one or two go low or have a problem you can over load the bms. the bms can potentially disconnect in the case of overload but should not be relaibled upon
@Sailing Cadoha *_ Hey, where's the Admiral? (Hank) Oh wait, his electrical expertise clearly is far too superior so he left it for you guys to "Learn the ropes" and I'm sure he'll do some sort of inspection to give his Seal of Approval! Trust Carly enjoyed her visit years ago to Cape Town, South Africa? See you guys soon. _*
A Canadian
As a Canadian, I recognized the accent right away. (please correct me if I am wrong. Sorry.)
By the way referring to one of your earlier videos, this is worth a watch: ruclips.net/video/HOVVoKN5sms/видео.html
A near silent diesel heater pump - if nothing else he is great to listen to ……..
Voice started on both left and right channels then switched to right channel then back to both, splitting up the audio, along with my hearing losses had to turn up audio, when you switched back got blown out with the volume when it switched back, way to loud, please try to normalized your audio to consistent levels and and if voice has to be on one track either left or right please keep it consistent. Good video overall would be great with audio improvements, if this is a You tube thing and not your doing please ignore, also crackling was noted with every audio switch, noted with your music overlay in the intro.
Appreciate the feedback, I have no idea what’s going on with my recording on the sound, it seemed fine on play back before I uploaded it, but either our main cam or mic seems to be having some recording issues then. I sincerely hope it’s the mic 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
@@CadohaAdventures No problem, without feedback one cannot fix issues, while this affects me personally, I know of others who have the issue with hearing loss in one ear, makes life a bit challenging but when is it not? Keep up the stellar work have enjoyed your videos during these chaotic times.
I think you have a mic issue from 0:40 to 1:40 it was in mono and occasionally popped on the left channel(speaker) , this is not a criticism just wanted to bring it to your attention. keep up the good work :)
I have used inverters for years, these new ones using computers to programme , and decide when to turn on or off , if you also have shore 240v , and plug in shore power when the inverter is running .
Is it fast enough to turn of if it can, before you send two sources of 240 v to the same cables ,
I made this mistake , fire and trashed the inverter, saved the boat.
Nothing wrong with a big switch saying on and off.
Those fancy fuses , great in the UK, try and find them on a shelf, in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Vanuatu.
It's fab getting a geek, but sadly you have no power . Think simple and available .
This inverter has built in transfer switch , so shore power goes to the inverter( inverter charger ) you can set limits for the amount drawn from the shore or small generator where the inverter can assist the shore using the batteries if you have a lot of high draw devices. Also this inverter has two outputs the primary powers most items the secondary powers the hot water tank , I added some logic where the hot water tank only heats when there are no other significant loads on the inverter. So when turning on the kettle 2500 watts and 700 watts hot water heater it’s over the limit of the inverter so the hot water tank is automatically turned off until the system loads drop back down again.
@@STRUTZKOFF was this inverter wired like this , ? To me it looked like shore power was still on the old system, only connection to batteries and outlets , so the shore power can still go to the outlets direct, boom 2 x 240 v collide . The master switch on the inver is better on or off ,
Being mean on your voltages will shorten the life of whats being powered 220 volts would be a proper voltage 210 would be supplying the low end of whats going to work .
Appreciate the feedback, thank you 🙏
how so ? it would be only hard on load lifting induction motors but this doesnt have any
Hi. Were the Hankook Lead Acid batteries you took out actually AGM, and what did you find problematic with them?
(I recently bought 3 Hankook XL-31 130Ah "Leisure Batteries" but returned these when on arrival they turned out to be the XV series ordinary car starter batteries. I subsequently went over to 4 x Bosch L-5013 90Ah units and really don't have an issue with them; that having been said, for an equivalent amount of money, Mads or Will would probably tell us that 4 x 3.2v LiFePo4 cells would achieve the same effect, though I note your concerns about insurance claims)
There was no actual problem with them as such, other than weight and space for what was going to be the system we wanted to build.
We were also going to be constantly asking very high power draws from the system, like heating the hot water, cooking, kettle etc, and from what I understand the batteries we had don’t last very long under these conditions either.
But to have a usable 600ah of power we’d of needed 12 x 100ah batteries which would of taken up a huge amount of space, and we only have a little boat so space is a real premium. With lithium we managed to get all that power out of only three batteries which neatly fit into one compartment, rather than filling four compartments.
I’m not saying that lead acid or AGM’s aren’t perfectly fine for people, it just didn’t fit for our plans.
Also the agm / lead acid are only rated for 6 amp continuous draw where if they were to cook for a extended time like they usually do the lead acid batteries would be loaded beyond the 6 amp per battery rating and thier 100 amp/hr capacity becomes 40 ah
The inverter is nearly down in the bilge?! I am completely clueless, but I would have liked to see the inverter well above the water line?! Where is Hank? He'd sort this.
I’m sure he would 😂
It’s the same level as the batteries, where the original bank was just under the settee but way above the bilge.
@@CadohaAdventures I'm quite sure you know more about what you're doing than I do! Thank you for measured reply! Love you all - but mostly, Hank!
Imagine everything we couId do with free energy! BTW, that wouId be a great question. WouId You give up saiIs if we had free and cIean energy?
Its a good idea ,
Can you do some real tests ,
Say from when your batteries are full. Cook a meal as if you were on land , and see what power you use ?
% of your 600 ah .
Charging , solar is great but as you say , it's UK weather ,
And if you use engine altinator , how long in comparison.
It will be interesting .
Jimmy cornard failed on his all electric adventure .
I am already on the case, I’m keeping a diary of daily power usage. So far we’ve been at anchor for two weeks and only used the engine once (which did of course charge the bank) but that was to get to Portland Bill on time for a ride change, other than that it’s all solar and right this second (as I type) the bank is at 53% and we’ve had a fairly overcast day.
Even with great weather the bank has only ‘fully charged’ a couple of times so on average I’d say we’re running at a slight deficit generally speaking, certainly more so when it’s cloudy.
We have 750w of solar, but this coming winter I hope to upgrade that to between 1000-1200w, which other than winter months (when we wouldn’t be at anchor anyhow) should be more than enough power for us, I think 🤔
@@CadohaAdventures cool great info, 53% at 6 pm, as you say a little down at the end of the day , if you were sailing and using autopilot ,
I know you can go down % further , but will be longer to push back up to 100%
Runn8ng the engine as you have one is a great back up, but slower charge .
You ad all that solar in the winter head to the med and you have to much,,, not easy great vids .
Yes agreed and if we were sailing anywhere far then we may very well have some kind of energy rationing system in place, although hoovers and hair dryers probably won’t get used too much under way.
I am fairly certain that I’m going to be doing a solar system overhaul and will do away with the 750w set up we have and will likely go for three large panels on a new arch, an arch strong enough to also incorporate Davits for the new (heavy) dingy and outboard.
This entire thing is kind of a real time experiment that we’re sharing, if nothing else, people may learn from some of our errors (for me that’s been the 175w panels on the guard rails).
Where are you off too?
Dom, you didn't seem to do much of the actual work? :)
Agreed, I was more of an overseer on this project 😬😬
@@CadohaAdventures I'd love to do this on my Nicholson 35
lol phone jack
Good stuff 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟⛵️☀️🙏😊🏴☠️🐶🌎
Used to be such a great sailing channel, but I see a change in direction, and not a good one. An editorial decision has been made to eliminate the main character from this episode 🐕. Shame on you!!!
What I love about your channel is that you seem to post everything. When you put the battery in with the positive at the back and it's suggested you switch it round, you could have edited that out and just put it the best way round straight off. Thank you for not editing those bits out and letting us see the journey, adds so much more value to the content.
Ha ha, I’ll be sure to bring back our leading star, as soon as we manage to agree new terms he’s happy with 😬
As for what to leave in and to leave out of the edits, this channel really is a video diary of two landlubbers trying to learn how to live successfully on a boat, and you’ll almost certainly never see me doing a ‘how to’ video, unless you want to learn how to wrestle in pyjamas (which is about the only thing I could possibly be classed as an ‘expert on’) but even then there are far more people vastly more qualified to teach than me.
I hope with this channel we can share a couple of things, the magic of a few places perhaps not widely considered stunning and/ or worthy of showcasing like the Caribbean or pacific islands are, and our genuine moments of learning.
It’s a balancing act when you edit, between not leaving so much in that it’s too dull to watch, but also not white washing over the bits where you clearly were ignorant of what to do and learned. When I started watching videos of people living these really adventurous lives, they all seemed so bloody capable, able to do most things that needed doing, it was quite intimidating and I had to ask myself if perhaps I’m getting in a bit above my head, but the more we sail the more people we meet who seem to have gone through a similar journey and process and so there are a few other mere mortals like us out there who gain gain some confident knowing they’re not the only ones who don’t know it all 😬😬🤞🏼⛵️⛵️
Don't use 210V, use 220V minimum for best appliance compatibility.
Now I’m curious, if all the appliances are working at 210, what potential issues could using the lower setting cause, do you think?
@@CadohaAdventures, undervoltage can cause any electric motors you have connected run hotter than normal and likely fail earlier, and batteries, particularly USB Power banks won't charge to their max potential. You can also get issues when you have flux from disconnecting/connecting large loads faster than the caps can smooth it, so you could get undervoltage spikes below 195v which might even cause a connect appliance designed for 220-240v (usually safe to operate between 198-260v) to shut off or temporarily fail.
@@Nookumwoogy well any battery charging device usually has universal power supply of 100-250 volt input , like laptops or anything of that nature .
As for a blender or other motorized device they will run slower and draw less current. If they had some sort of inverter drive or something to make it work harder to maintain a fixed output yes they would get hotter. But nothing on the boat has that. Also if you live on a farm in rural Germany or uk brazil or anywhere the power into your home drops down to 195 volts often. So I’m not concerned about any intermittent used household appliances would
Have a issue. If they were running a Cnc machine or laser cutter it would be very different.
@@STRUTZKOFF running under voltage will cause a higher current to flow in a motor thus causing heat which the device is not designed for. You get nothing for free when it comes to power usage. Also,if you did limit the current from the inverter at the lower voltage, the device would need to operate for a longer period of time. E.g. a hot plate. No advantage!
@@Nookumwoogy correct
Sometimes its not all it seems, I have lead acid, 300a/h with solar and back up wind. I use a fair amount of power and never plug in. My experience is that the middle ground is the truth not that Lithium as the answer to all. I can get prob 4 x replacement batteries for the cost of lithium x 1. Just my view and i understand Lithium has a place. ruclips.net/video/HCIlaXaVeF0/видео.html
Yes it’s a fair argument, for us, what we wanted to demand power-wise also meant having something like 12x 100ah batteries taking up a lot of space in the boat and weighing a lot, vs three small 200ah batteries. But I’m with you, the cost was a lot to swallow.
Well even 12 lead acid deep cycle batteries wouldn’t last long at the high current draw of cooking as they are 100 amp hour based on a 20 hour discharge rate meaning about 6-8 amp draw when you draw above this rate the capacity and life span are greatly reduced often. To a few hundred cycles. Also the round trip efficiencies of lead acid also don’t come near the lithium where one would need 50% more solar with lead acid than lithium as the lead acid generates heat while charging .
@@CadohaAdventures Yeah I can see what you are trying to achieve and why you have decided this way. I know I can draw 20amp/h average and 2 100w solar panels keep me topped up when the sun is out over the day. Never plug in and never run the engine any more for power. I have 360 amp/h lead acid and they are now 4 years old and cost £300 (prob £400 now). The sums are easy to see for me which way but that does not mean its for you I agree. What is your warranty on the lithium and what is your expected cost per year based on life expectancy ?
To franky four fingers. Hello there. Franky. Would you like to help me with setting up a system aboard my boat based in Southampton. Ocean quay marina
Mark. Thanks.
#frank.strutzke
So how did you steal the before picture of my batteries for this video thumbnail?
I imagine our old battery bank isn’t the most uncommon view in the boat world ever 😬😬
My boat is in the Flushing side of Falmouth and i live near Wadebridge in North Cornwall, if you need anything washing machine run etc give me a pm shout on messenger .