Captain DJ
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 18, 2016
- Messages
- 159
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- m/v "Ramble On"
- Vessel Make
- Cheoy Lee 34
Like many boaters, I am drawn to solutions for power that do not require starting up the Genset. I have an older 34 Cheoy Lee Pilothouse that has an Onan 7.5kW Genset, 6- Interstate 6V deep cycle batteries, and 2-8D starting batteries (one for each FL 120). I have recently added 2- 200 Amp Hour LiFePo4 batteries and 4- 100 watt solar panels and an MPPT charge controller.
Here are some of my systems integration issues:
Temporary Solutions (for this cruising season, at least):
We hardly ever stay in one place for more than 3 or 5 days, so using flooded acid just after a 6-10 hr cruise and then switching to lithium as a Plan B on extended stays should work for our needs this year.
Am I missing something critical?
Have any of you tried a hybrid/two-tiered house bank approach with totally separate charge input modes?
This seems like the easiest way for me to get 2-5 days out of the systems for charging (i.e. alternators & inverter/charger for flooded and separate solar for lithium) but have never heard anyone else using both quite like this.
If finances were better, maybe new alternators with external regulators and new inverter charger with lithium profile options could allow me to simply ditch the flooded acid technology for everything except my starting bank. But sadly I am trying to get the best and longest house bank usage for the smallest investment in funds and time required to acquire and install and learn newer charge input devices.
Ideas?
Ultimately I want to get rid of the over-sized 7.5kW Genset and replace it with (already acquired on the cheap) 1 cylinder Kubota setup to run a high output 12 v alternator, to fill in the gaps on strings of cloudy/rainy days in Fall when solar in PNW will probably not keep us up, at least with only 4-100 watt panels. This could be like our Webasto furnace, rarely used, but nice to know it is there if needed. And it would be extra economical compared to the Onan.
Thanks in advance for your input.
Here are some of my systems integration issues:
Temporary Solutions (for this cruising season, at least):
We hardly ever stay in one place for more than 3 or 5 days, so using flooded acid just after a 6-10 hr cruise and then switching to lithium as a Plan B on extended stays should work for our needs this year.
Am I missing something critical?
Have any of you tried a hybrid/two-tiered house bank approach with totally separate charge input modes?
This seems like the easiest way for me to get 2-5 days out of the systems for charging (i.e. alternators & inverter/charger for flooded and separate solar for lithium) but have never heard anyone else using both quite like this.
If finances were better, maybe new alternators with external regulators and new inverter charger with lithium profile options could allow me to simply ditch the flooded acid technology for everything except my starting bank. But sadly I am trying to get the best and longest house bank usage for the smallest investment in funds and time required to acquire and install and learn newer charge input devices.
Ideas?
Ultimately I want to get rid of the over-sized 7.5kW Genset and replace it with (already acquired on the cheap) 1 cylinder Kubota setup to run a high output 12 v alternator, to fill in the gaps on strings of cloudy/rainy days in Fall when solar in PNW will probably not keep us up, at least with only 4-100 watt panels. This could be like our Webasto furnace, rarely used, but nice to know it is there if needed. And it would be extra economical compared to the Onan.
Thanks in advance for your input.