We moved to Florida and are starting to do some serious cruising. I installed a water cooled refrigerator on my boat and added two size 27 batteries. There is not room for any more on the boat. I am finding that if I do not run the engin for at least 4 hours that the batteries get very low. When I anchor for any time, I usually run the engin for two hours in the morning and two in the evening. I have heard conflicting reports on the harm this can do the the engin. My long term goal is to install a wind generator. Comments on both of these issues would be appreciated. Ray Chapman 1997 Hunter 310 Delfin
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Daniel Jonas
Power
Ray, I'm not sure how much power a water cooled refrigerator takes, but we have a 290 with a regular refrigerator that draws about 5 amps when running. We also added two group 27 batteries to our 290. At the same time we replaced the starter battery so that all batteries are AGM Group 27. Our house bank has about 184 amp hours capacity. At overnight anchor we can run the anchor light, refrigerator, reasonable interior lighting, and the GPS / Chart Plotter (for an anchor alarm) / and Radar in stand-by mode with sweeps every 5 minutes (also as an alarm). Our total draw overnight (a period of about 11 hours) was 65 amp hours. This is just over a third of our house bank capacity. We know this because of the Heart Link 20 that we installed. We were able to put back about 45 of those amp hours with the engine running for about 1.5 hours the next morning. That tells me that with about 2 hours engine time per day, and a little more conservation, we can get by quite well. Seems that your situation should be similar. You might want to add up the loads that you use and see how they compare to your capacity...keeping in mind that you are shooting for about a third of your total house bank capacity. You also might check that your alternator output is good. I have noticed that if I engage the engine at idle the alternator output is somewhat lower than if I run the revs up to about 1200. If you want to really know what is going on the Heart Link 20 is an incredible asset. I know how much I'm using, how fast I'm using it, how much is left, how well the charger is doing and how well the alternator is doing....all in one little box. Dan Jonas
Ray, I'm not sure how much power a water cooled refrigerator takes, but we have a 290 with a regular refrigerator that draws about 5 amps when running. We also added two group 27 batteries to our 290. At the same time we replaced the starter battery so that all batteries are AGM Group 27. Our house bank has about 184 amp hours capacity. At overnight anchor we can run the anchor light, refrigerator, reasonable interior lighting, and the GPS / Chart Plotter (for an anchor alarm) / and Radar in stand-by mode with sweeps every 5 minutes (also as an alarm). Our total draw overnight (a period of about 11 hours) was 65 amp hours. This is just over a third of our house bank capacity. We know this because of the Heart Link 20 that we installed. We were able to put back about 45 of those amp hours with the engine running for about 1.5 hours the next morning. That tells me that with about 2 hours engine time per day, and a little more conservation, we can get by quite well. Seems that your situation should be similar. You might want to add up the loads that you use and see how they compare to your capacity...keeping in mind that you are shooting for about a third of your total house bank capacity. You also might check that your alternator output is good. I have noticed that if I engage the engine at idle the alternator output is somewhat lower than if I run the revs up to about 1200. If you want to really know what is going on the Heart Link 20 is an incredible asset. I know how much I'm using, how fast I'm using it, how much is left, how well the charger is doing and how well the alternator is doing....all in one little box. Dan Jonas
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Debra Blatnik
upgrade alternator, move batteries
You might look into upgrading the alternator on the engine. You may be able to reduce the charging time significantly by upgrading. Could you put in larger (or more) batteries if you moved them someplace else? What kind of refrigeration system did you install?
You might look into upgrading the alternator on the engine. You may be able to reduce the charging time significantly by upgrading. Could you put in larger (or more) batteries if you moved them someplace else? What kind of refrigeration system did you install?
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Ray Chapman
The refrigerator is a water cooled Grunert which a a rated draw of 4.1 amps. I do not have an amp meter to check this. There is no other location close to the engin/battery charger to install more batteries. I have the standard 30 amp charger and have considered going to a 60 amp, but this would still require running the engin to charge. If I can't find a good wind generator this will be my second choice. I usually run the engin at 1200 when charging. Again, the question is will this damage the 2GM. Ray
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Daniel Jonas
Power
Ray, I'm not sure how upping your charger to 60 amps is going to help much, unless you consistently have limited time attached to shore power in which to recharge. If you are attached overnight then 30 amps is probably enough for 3 total group 27 batteries. Upping your alternator could help lower the engine running time, but you should consider the load on the engine and pully system. My 290 has a 55 amp hour alternator and it seems like enough so far. Also this solution might require some additional electrical work depending upon what alternator you use and how you do it. I still think it would be helpful to consider all of your loads. 4.1 amps for the refrigerator is not bad. It might be that there is another problem that is getting in the way of recharging. Here is one thought: On our 290 all legs of the charger and the alternator are hooked to the primary battery. If you add a second house bank to battery switch 2 that bank will not recharge unless the switch is on both. On adding that second bank you should move one of the charger charge leads to the #2 battery switch lug. That does not take care of charging with the alternator, which still requires the switch to be on both. In our installation, we added two Group 27 AGM batteries that are switched through a second battery switch, with the common from that one going to the #2 of the primary switch. We utilized all three legs of the standard charger to each battery. So charger recharging can occur even if the battery switches are off. However, alternator recharging can only occur in all batteries when the switches are on both. I know that we could accomlish much the same with a combiner, and perhaps we will get there sometime. Our two battery house bank was originally installed by the dealer on the starboard side of the boat, same as the engine battery. We wound up with about a 5 degree list to starboard. We moved the house bank to the port side and know the boat sits perfectly. Regarding the 2GM. It is hard to imagine that you could hurt a diesel running it at 1200 rpm even for 4 hours per day. I think the reason that most responses are focusing on other aspects of the problem is because you should not have to run 4 hours per day if you are conserving correctly and have the right capacity for your needs (both storage and recharging). Just my opinion. Dan Jonas
Ray, I'm not sure how upping your charger to 60 amps is going to help much, unless you consistently have limited time attached to shore power in which to recharge. If you are attached overnight then 30 amps is probably enough for 3 total group 27 batteries. Upping your alternator could help lower the engine running time, but you should consider the load on the engine and pully system. My 290 has a 55 amp hour alternator and it seems like enough so far. Also this solution might require some additional electrical work depending upon what alternator you use and how you do it. I still think it would be helpful to consider all of your loads. 4.1 amps for the refrigerator is not bad. It might be that there is another problem that is getting in the way of recharging. Here is one thought: On our 290 all legs of the charger and the alternator are hooked to the primary battery. If you add a second house bank to battery switch 2 that bank will not recharge unless the switch is on both. On adding that second bank you should move one of the charger charge leads to the #2 battery switch lug. That does not take care of charging with the alternator, which still requires the switch to be on both. In our installation, we added two Group 27 AGM batteries that are switched through a second battery switch, with the common from that one going to the #2 of the primary switch. We utilized all three legs of the standard charger to each battery. So charger recharging can occur even if the battery switches are off. However, alternator recharging can only occur in all batteries when the switches are on both. I know that we could accomlish much the same with a combiner, and perhaps we will get there sometime. Our two battery house bank was originally installed by the dealer on the starboard side of the boat, same as the engine battery. We wound up with about a 5 degree list to starboard. We moved the house bank to the port side and know the boat sits perfectly. Regarding the 2GM. It is hard to imagine that you could hurt a diesel running it at 1200 rpm even for 4 hours per day. I think the reason that most responses are focusing on other aspects of the problem is because you should not have to run 4 hours per day if you are conserving correctly and have the right capacity for your needs (both storage and recharging). Just my opinion. Dan Jonas
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Greg Ketley
More power!!
Ray- Ihave found that you will consume about 100 amp hours a day using refrigeration and assorted stuff. If you have the standard alternator you are probably getting about 25 0r 30 amps when you are running the engine. This is consistant with your need to run for 4 hours a day. This much running while not under load may cause coking of your exhaust elbow (see the archives). More batteries won't really help you because you still need to replace the energy that you use. I ended up replacing my alternator with a 160 amp unit that gives me an honest 100 amps at 1,000 rpm(H-34 3GM). A half hour twice a day keeps everything happy. I got my system from Jack Rabbit Marine and they are very helpfull.
Ray- Ihave found that you will consume about 100 amp hours a day using refrigeration and assorted stuff. If you have the standard alternator you are probably getting about 25 0r 30 amps when you are running the engine. This is consistant with your need to run for 4 hours a day. This much running while not under load may cause coking of your exhaust elbow (see the archives). More batteries won't really help you because you still need to replace the energy that you use. I ended up replacing my alternator with a 160 amp unit that gives me an honest 100 amps at 1,000 rpm(H-34 3GM). A half hour twice a day keeps everything happy. I got my system from Jack Rabbit Marine and they are very helpfull.
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