Beneteau 311 creative battery locations

Jan 12, 2016
140
Beneteau 311 Seattle, WA
Steve,

There are really two goals here:

1) Getting the battery weight to the port side, near amidships and near the waterline, and away from the starboard, rear end of the boat, far from amidships, and maybe above the waterline.
2) Reducing the battery weight and perhaps adding to the performance and capacity.

Both are good objectives, but you can do one without the other. The second objective costs significantly more.
I'm not aware of battery technology that isn't lithium that would allow me to keep near 300ah of capacity and meet #1 without major surgery - such as my original idea, which is removing the air conditioner or taking all the storage under the setee.

And by 300ah, I mean 80% of that capacity, not traditional 50% capacity with standard AGM batteries (or others) - I have carbon foam now, and can discharge them quite deeply.

But if I had lower amp hour requirements, for sure you could put an AGM battery in the stern bunk area, or under the settee for much less.
 

Gunni

.
Mar 16, 2010
5,937
Beneteau 411 Oceanis Annapolis
I know of only one other sailor with a Lithium battery system and his are well above the bilge. Every lithium battery I have has prominent warnings about not exposing them to water. You have a water pump and strainer in your planned lithium bat install area. And it is well behind your midship. 3 Gp 31 AGM or Gel in the settee would give you 300 Ah at 80% DOC. On a 31 ft boat you really are in compromise mode, you either run a bunch of power hungry electrics or you run lean and gain stowage. Relocating that A/C vent from the cabinet would be a big improvement.
 
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Jan 12, 2016
140
Beneteau 311 Seattle, WA
I know of only one other sailor with a Lithium battery system and his are well above the bilge. Every lithium battery I have has prominent warnings about not exposing them to water. You have a water pump and strainer in your planned lithium bat install area. And it is well behind your midship. 3 Gp 31 AGM or Gel in the settee would give you 300 Ah at 80% DOC. On a 31 ft boat you really are in compromise mode, you either run a bunch of power hungry electrics or you run lean and gain stowage. Relocating that A/C vent from the cabinet would be a big improvement.
That water pump and strainer are not going to be there much longer, it is moving to a completely different part of the boat. I'm not sure why the PO put it there when the thru hull is many feet away, and the destination (air conditioner) is also as well. I think it was just weirdly convenient for them.

None of the batteries in the 311 are midship in the default, factory setup. Keep in mind I am using LiFePo4 batteries which are not subjected to the same crazy situations that LiPo or other Lithium based batteries. They're all fused individually and are designed for marine applications.

I would love to have the battery weight further forward, but that necessitates having cables that are much longer than I would like from inverter, engine, alternator and the like. Given that the factory boats seem to be using the same storage area I am, and that the boat was likely balanced/designed for that weight (which is why mine is listing the wrong way) I think I will be OK.

Relocating the A/C vent wouldn't really give me space for batteries. There is a vent in the upper storage cabinet (small) and the actual A/C unit, which is in a lower cabinet and is remaining. I could move the upper vent and give myself some additional storage there, but not for batteries.
 

Gunni

.
Mar 16, 2010
5,937
Beneteau 411 Oceanis Annapolis
The battery tray in front of the engine is considered to be mid ships, it just is not big enough, and subjects batteries to engine heat, not good. Cable runs to the settee are nominal for charging supply as you are not as concerned about wire loss. Bringing load wiring back to your disconnect switches is also nominal (maybe 12 feet) and easily accommodated by large gauge battery cables. In fact, the 411LE had a 3000W inverter wired into the settee location, so it was easy to convert to battery storage. And, it put the boat back on her feet - both starboard list AND stern squatting.

I can’t think of any boat, or any cruise where I missed 120VAC while underway. Plugging up at the dock for A/C after a wet sail, now that was nice. Everything essential can be run with DC voltage these days, anything that can’t just requires an easy work around (or left on the dirt). So I would ditch an inverter before the A/C. And no, I wasn’t suggesting the galley cabinet for battery storage. That space is too essential for food prep to be taken up with a vent. A shelf-mount disharge can be routed to the area behind the settee.
 
Apr 3, 2021
3
beneteau 311 CARTAGENA
good morning
with the air conditioning where is the compressor of the refrigerator?
thank
 
Apr 3, 2021
3
beneteau 311 CARTAGENA
Here are a few more photos.
View attachment 146633
This is the stern berth. You can see the space underneath the bedding. That is the deepest area. All of the other areas are far shallower, have thru hulls in them, or diesel fuel filters, etc.
View attachment 146634
Here is that area opened up. The pump in here is the sea water pump for the AC unit, which would be coming out. The deepest spot is about 9.5" but only for a small portion. By 6" further along, it's less than 6", so a standard G31 would never fit in here.
View attachment 146635
Here's a better photo of the storage unit under the galley with the AC unit in it.
good morning
where is the refrigerator compressor then
Thank you
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
@toscatara Welcome to the SBO forums. Your query is to a 2018 message. You may have better luck asking your question as a new post.

Most times the builders locate the compressor very close to the refrigerator box. Below and alongside the box is the usual location. The refrigerators lines need to be short and connected to the refrigerator box.