BATTERY BANK SETUP

[Scott T-Bird]

The other difficulty is that when you put your batteries in series to supply power to your motor, you will then need to either have a separate 12v DC system for your house loads or you will need a converter. Boat builders that are converting to electric motors have been dealing with the power conversions in various ways, I think, including running some house systems on greater voltage.

 

[captcoho]

As Scott T-Bird mentioned, there has been no consideration for any basic house loads, especially vhf radio, GPS/ chart plotter or navigation lights

 

[dlochner]

Well, here we are again. A relatively new member asks a question that generates more questions and lots of information, but @jr22553 has not been seen in 48 hours.

The most important piece of information any of us needs to respond to his question is the motor's voltage requirements, until we have that we can't begin to offer any more advice or provide direction. Perphaps someday he'll return, answer our questions and gain some useful information.

 

[Bob J.]

Well, here we are again. A relatively new member asks a question that generates more questions and lots of information, but @jr22553 has not been seen in 48 hours.

I was wondering the same thing.
Toss a hand grenade into the group, stand back & watch the show

He'll go the 48v route for his propulsion bank. He did mention 4-12v batteries. Besides a 10KW motor doesn't operate efficiently on voltages under 48. Believe the lowest one can go is 36v but why would you want to?

 

[Scott T-Bird]

I was wondering the same thing.
Toss a hand grenade into the group, stand back & watch the show

He'll go the 48v route for his propulsion bank. He did mention 4-12v batteries. Besides a 10KW motor doesn't operate efficiently on voltages under 48. Believe the lowest one can go is 36v but why would you want to?

Yes, it seemed very odd that he posed a question about whether to wire in series or parallel ... almost as if he didn't know the difference between the 2 methods. It also seemed very odd that he stated that the motor was already installed, yet he didn't seem to know anything about his power requirements. I suppose he can make the 100 yards from the marina to open water on that small battery capacity. It's pretty short-sighted, though, if he thinks that will be his only need. As far as the solar goes, I would think that the more watts he can mount on the boat and the highest amperage controller he wants to purchase, the better if he has to rely on solar to re-charge his batteries. What else is there to recommend? He won't satisfy his power needs with solar with any practical installation unless he plans to use the boat only a few hours on the weekends. He will definitely need to depend on shore power to recharge. Very odd post indeed ...

 

[LloydB]

I feel like I'm in a herd of cats and someone just shined a laser pointer at us.

 

[Benny17441]

Suggestion; you already have the basic setup so use it for a few months and see how it meets your needs under different conditions. No sense in investing more money in a system that may or may not work for you. Neither larger batteries nor solar panels will help that motor push the boat up river. Either it does or it doesn't.