And As Maine has frequently pointed out, this is part of a system. So unless you have a 150A alternator, and bigger AC charger, you will have a significantly longer charging time bringing a 600A set back up to full SOC. IF you are running the 100 Amp Hitachi alt, you are probably should stick with the 400A bank. For a given day tho, you will not discharge the 600A bank as deeply, however original smaller charging rate undermines the advantage of having a deeper bank.
House batteries??
- Thread starter eianm
- Start date
I use only Interstate 8D lead acid batteries. I have been using them for about 13 years now. I get about 5 years out of these babies, there is basically no maintenance, other than checking the fluids once or twice a season. I have a 120 watt solar panel connected for charging as well as an antiquated 120V charger. Put down in dollars and cents :
1 8D Interstate @ 450 AH - $ 300 canadian = 0.66 cents/ AH.
Cheapest yet on this Thread.....
1 8D Interstate @ 450 AH - $ 300 canadian = 0.66 cents/ AH.
Cheapest yet on this Thread.....
The problem is that you don't have a 450Ah 8D. We can not confuse a Reserve Minutes rating of 450 +/- minutes with the Ah capacity which if I recall is around 240Ah for the Interstate 8D.... Interstate is a funny company and they do not publish Ah capacity figures for any of their batteries which are not true deep cycle batteries.This is why it is so ahrd to find an Ah capacity figure. I had to get a hold of their engineering department to get it...
Course Ah capacity is not how we determine value. Five years is pretty short life so cycle life needs to be calculated into the cost equation.
While I read a lot of great points, it comes down to your charger. Personally, mine has the old Heart Freedom 20 Xantrex and is not recommended for AGM. However, it does have a gell setting. I ended up with 2 4d 12v gell with some rearranging. (8D just too much for this old man) Everything is good and I never concern myself about water anymore.
Actually- i have the Heart/xantrax Freedoom 2000 also and the marine elec checked its charge rates and it is set up perfectly for my AGM's-I got 9 years out of the last ones- ended p using the same again- why fix something that's not broken
That would be Great!! The AGM's are cheaper than gel. So I am assuming you just set it to Gel? What year is your production? My 380 is a '99. They might have upgraded after. I am putting baby up for sale here in a few weeks so the next owner might want the choice on batteries.
mine is 1991 but it had a lightning strike in 2007 before bought it in 2010 lots of electrics were replaced- not sure about the Freedom 2000- i think its original. As far as being to set to GEL- no idea- only know that when the marine elec cheked it out - he said it was set EXACTLY as is recommended by the battery maker
I just replaced our batteries.
I decided to reduce the size of our bank. We are commuter cruisers, the boat is only used for about 4 months or so each winter in Florida, Bahamas.
I have a 50 A Sterling charger, 140 A Electromaxx alternator / Balmar and a 325 W solar with Rogue controller, and a 3.5 KW generator.
All our lights are LEDs. We have a large freezer and fridge. Our energy budget is only about 90 to 120 Ahr per day. We like AGMs for a number of reasons but they do need to be charged back to 100%. So we thought that will be easier to do with a smaller bank.
We now are using two Odyssey 100 Ahr batteries. Our battery monitor indicates a 20 to 25 % discharge each morning. We run our Yanmar or generator depending on if we are on the move or sitting in an anchorage and the Odyssey's suck up the current and come up to 85 or 90 % quickly, about an hour. The solar panel usually has them back to 100% by noon. Then we charge our laptops, handheld VHF etc. By dinner time the battery bank has been at 100% for a few hrs and all our portable devices are charged. When we had a larger bank it sometimes didn't hit the 100% mark.
When we haul the boat the AGMs are better left unattended over a Florida summer than flooded cells I think.
Different batteries depending on how the boat will be used and how it is outfitted.
Bob
I decided to reduce the size of our bank. We are commuter cruisers, the boat is only used for about 4 months or so each winter in Florida, Bahamas.
I have a 50 A Sterling charger, 140 A Electromaxx alternator / Balmar and a 325 W solar with Rogue controller, and a 3.5 KW generator.
All our lights are LEDs. We have a large freezer and fridge. Our energy budget is only about 90 to 120 Ahr per day. We like AGMs for a number of reasons but they do need to be charged back to 100%. So we thought that will be easier to do with a smaller bank.
We now are using two Odyssey 100 Ahr batteries. Our battery monitor indicates a 20 to 25 % discharge each morning. We run our Yanmar or generator depending on if we are on the move or sitting in an anchorage and the Odyssey's suck up the current and come up to 85 or 90 % quickly, about an hour. The solar panel usually has them back to 100% by noon. Then we charge our laptops, handheld VHF etc. By dinner time the battery bank has been at 100% for a few hrs and all our portable devices are charged. When we had a larger bank it sometimes didn't hit the 100% mark.
When we haul the boat the AGMs are better left unattended over a Florida summer than flooded cells I think.
Different batteries depending on how the boat will be used and how it is outfitted.
Bob
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I was concerned about this when I built my battery bank.
I only had a 70 amp balmar or 2 40 amp AC chargers.
My bank is 6 T-1275s for a total of 900 amp hours
I talked to Trojan tech suppport and they were fine with that relatively low charge rate. I've added 480 watts of solar and now rarely get below 80% SOC. There's a lot to be said for a big bank. Large power draws have a less detrimental effect because of Peukert. If its cloudy for a long period, I don't run short so fast. I rarely got to 50% SOC even before expanding the solar array.
I bought these in 2009 for $105 each! Inflation? What inflation?
I did just have one of them go into thermal runaway. That was exciting. 158 degrees and smoking and bubbling. Stay tuned for more on that subject...