battery banks and more

[BAYLINER185]

Ok, I have a cruser that was outfitted with 4 marine batteries. 2 per bank in parrellel so that eack bank has about 1200 amps of power. This I beleive was done by the previous owner and Ive been thinking about this set up and may modify this.

Bank one is supposed to be a starting bank and bank 2 is for everything else. Im thinkng I DONT need 2 battereis in parellel for starting and maby I can take the extra battey and make my bank 2 a tripple battery set up.( 1800 amps more or less ) Im not sure that is really possible as I dont think there is room for 3 batteries on that side of the boat.
The boat does have a stove fridge and power inverter for getting 120V when away from shore. I plan on adding a 27" LCD TV w/ DVD player and wiring it into the 120 volt outlet that is real clsoe to where the TV is going.

What would be better do you think? 1 battery for starting, 2 batteries in parallel for the BANK 2 stuff and the 3rd for the inverter? The inverter is 3000 watts and Im not even sure it would turn on with just one battery connected. Now that I think about it I dotn think it will?

OR

should I just put an isolator between the dual battery banks. It has a perko switch that switches BAT 1 / ALL / BAT 2 and technacally an isolator can take the place of that. I know I can do an isolator and the switch and if I do, do an isolator I will want to leave the switch becuase I dont want to see the hole that will be left where the wiring comes through to the back of the switch if the unit is removed. The inverter right now is conneced to bank 2 directly and I havent used it at all except to run a small vacume for about 5 minutes.

Just looking for other thoughts. My machanic thinks I have the small stock altnator and suggested going up in size. I think thats a good idea and will wind up doing that as soon as I veryfy what I have installed now on the motor.

I havent had ANY power issues whatsoever so thats not why Im posting this. I just want to ensure no problems and possibly do it better if there is a better way.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: battery banks and more

My thoughts would be to use one battery for starting and add put the other three in parallel. With a 3000 watt inverter you will need all the house power you can get. A battery switch will work ok in that application and allows the most flexibility for charging and starting.

 

[BAYLINER185]

Re: battery banks and more

COOL

I like the sound of that.....I was thinking that myself as I dont see why the previos owner had 2 parralled for starting...seems like a waste.

I just added the 3000 watt inverter and want to add this TV to the boat so yea I dont want to run out of power OR run my batteries down if Im anchored out over night with my anchor light on.

I have added solor power pannels to maintain the batteries and so far, HMM I think they are helping a little.

I think Ill do the battery move this weekend if it isnt raining....Thanks

Vic

 

[Silvertip]

Re: battery banks and more

I don't know how big your solar panel(s) are but they would need to be quite large to provide any signficant benefit. Better than nothing though. If you anchor overnight frequently, you might consider switching the anchor light to an LED style. They draw much less power. Same for interior lights. Anything you can do to conserve precious battery voltage is suggested.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: battery banks and more

A rule of thumb for the power output of high quality solar panels is 10W/square foot. Each square foot is going to be supplying less than an amp. That is why solar panels will be too big to really do much to recharge your batteries.

 

[BAYLINER185]

Re: battery banks and more

Yea I hear that on the solar power panels. I think mine only output 3/4 of an amp.

I tested them with 12 volt light bulbs and they cant even light them. If you put your toungue to them you get a good kick, if you put two of them in series you get a hell of a kick when you touch them but still, no major amp output to light anything. My feeling is that the trickle they put out will be better then nothing when I store my boat out in the lot far from my house with no power. If I was able to store at my house I could plug it in to shore power and run the onboard charger. I think they have been helping but theres really no way to know for sure.

I was thinking of the LED for a stern light. I have some small LED lights I was thinking I would put up on my radar arch when anchored and to turn all my lights off..Just keep the fridge running as it seems to be not so bad on the batteries. If I can find a LED stern light I think I will replace what I have up there eventually with one.

I do think however adding that 3rd battery to the house bank may come in handy as well.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: battery banks and more

I tested them with 12 volt light bulbs and they cant even light them.

If you are talking about a tail light bulb, those are only 5 watts so you probably aren't even getting 3/4 of an amp. I bought a pretty nice 15 Watt unit on eBay for around $100 including a controller. The problem that you would have if you decide to go with bigger panels is that you would also need a controller to keep the batteries from overcharging..IF they ever got that high