(Let me begin by saying this post may be incomplete in the information needed to make an assessment)
After the recent full battery system upgrade to 8 GC2 6V and 3 Group 24 start batteries (800+ AH before considering the reserve bank) with a Blue Seas ACR and Sterling 60A charger, no inverter (and as a side note... finally realized I had my Victron shunt backwards), I decided to perform our first plug's out test at the dock this past weekend. We spend 24-ish hours at the dock with the battery charger turned off and tried to pay no attention to trying to conserve battery power. Now, at anchor, we probably would have used the davit crane, so maybe it wasn't a completely accurate test. It was light, but it was pretty close I guess..
Over that time the Victron indicated about 90 AH used, it never really dropped below 240 hrs. Dropping a few times when there were heavier loads light Vaccu-Flush recharge, refrigerator, and all the rope lights were on. It only showed about 93% SOC by the end. Under load, the main bank dropped to around 12.3V. It did waiver around some during the test, meaning, I suppose, that as the batteries came to rest, the voltage and charge stabilized (that might be BS and that is where I may sound like an idiot).
At the end of 24 hours, I fired up the charger and it immediately began to charge at 60A and stayed that way for a couple of hours. It also, as it always does when it starts up, performed a conditioning cycle. Here is the incomplete part mentioned above; I didn't note the voltages... Sorry. Still, it seemed like a long time to charge at full power for what I see as about 10% use. And as noted in another post, the #6 wire (about 15 feet round trip) from the charger, got noticeably warm to the touch.
MaineSail, Can anything be learned from this test? Is there something I need to wonder/worry about or change? And finally, If I wanted to do another test, what info should I gather and what conditions should I put the system under to make sure everything is proper?
Thanks!
Tom-
After the recent full battery system upgrade to 8 GC2 6V and 3 Group 24 start batteries (800+ AH before considering the reserve bank) with a Blue Seas ACR and Sterling 60A charger, no inverter (and as a side note... finally realized I had my Victron shunt backwards), I decided to perform our first plug's out test at the dock this past weekend. We spend 24-ish hours at the dock with the battery charger turned off and tried to pay no attention to trying to conserve battery power. Now, at anchor, we probably would have used the davit crane, so maybe it wasn't a completely accurate test. It was light, but it was pretty close I guess..
Over that time the Victron indicated about 90 AH used, it never really dropped below 240 hrs. Dropping a few times when there were heavier loads light Vaccu-Flush recharge, refrigerator, and all the rope lights were on. It only showed about 93% SOC by the end. Under load, the main bank dropped to around 12.3V. It did waiver around some during the test, meaning, I suppose, that as the batteries came to rest, the voltage and charge stabilized (that might be BS and that is where I may sound like an idiot).
At the end of 24 hours, I fired up the charger and it immediately began to charge at 60A and stayed that way for a couple of hours. It also, as it always does when it starts up, performed a conditioning cycle. Here is the incomplete part mentioned above; I didn't note the voltages... Sorry. Still, it seemed like a long time to charge at full power for what I see as about 10% use. And as noted in another post, the #6 wire (about 15 feet round trip) from the charger, got noticeably warm to the touch.
MaineSail, Can anything be learned from this test? Is there something I need to wonder/worry about or change? And finally, If I wanted to do another test, what info should I gather and what conditions should I put the system under to make sure everything is proper?
Thanks!
Tom-