Trying to demystify my power situation..

[visi0n]

Last week, I bought a 30 ft sailboat. She's older than I am but pretty strong and sails well.

I am, sort of the victim of my own ignorance on what follows and looking for some demystification and advice regarding my battery/charger situation.

When I did the initial walkthrough on the boat, I noticed a Link 2000 interface. Clicked around it, it seemed the work. I got under contract with an offer, did the sales-dance and last week we were on board for a sea trial after my offer was to be accepted.

This time, when I climb aboard, I see a regular ol' car battery charger sitting behind the companionway steps, with a egg-timer-rigged for 4-ish hour shut off. Set to 2A charge.

I didn't raise too much hell about that b/c I felt it was a little too late, I'd have lost my deposit and had already been in an accepted offer. Plus, the broker - dude kinda glossed over that fact, I was stupid enough to not ask about the inverter situation -- it wasn't dishonesty on the owner's part -- just two idiots (me and a broker) looking at a boat and not asking the right questions.

So, now she's my problem. We're going to use her for weekend trips, that's about it - for now.

She has a Heart Interface - pre-Xantrex, battery monitor nicely bolted to the wall over the quarter-birth sleeper. Beneath the sleeper, 4 batteries:


You can see the battery charge clips from the automotive battery charger spread across the bottom two batteries.

I've never done this with larger batteries, only smaller hobby stuff -- are these batteries in Parallel and configured as two separate banks?
Prolly hard to tell from that picture.. can you shed some light on that for me -- a typical sailboat cruiser 4 battery setup would be .... ?

What I would like to happen, is to have a shore power experience, where in, I plug up, my batteries are charging with auto-shutoff. I'd like an inverter so that the AC outlets to work while on battery for intermittent laptop use or cellphone charging.

I've been looking at used Freedom 25 or 20 charger/inverters on FleaBay which I assume would give me all of these things. However, is there a smarter way or better set of products I can afford that should be used instead?

Aesthetically,i'd prefer not to remove the panel and leave a bunch of holes without replacing it with something else.

Also, given that there are four batteries, I'm unclear as to how they all get charged by a single charger/inverter with one pair of Red/Blacks coming out? Is that where the battery isolators come into play?

I know alot of this will come to light as a dig around more on the boat but sitting here on the notebook at work, has my mind wandering as to what to buy next

If anyone with patience would care to shed some light on my setup, that would be super-outstanding.

[Stu Jackson]

Link 2000? You done good. I like ours.

Try this: Electrical Systems 101

You'll need to start following wires and draw yourself a wiring diagram to figure out what you have.

Those clamps gotta go... for starters...

[PorFin]

You've got some work ahead of you -- but that's a GOOD thing (no, really, it is!)

There are enough things in your one photo to lead me to suggest that you start a wiring refit. The clamp connections, the duct tape splices, etc, etc.

Like Stu said, begin with a good wiring diagram of your existing system. Then figure out what you want to add/delete from the system, and make a new diagram. Then insert provisions for how you'll tie in future loads (electronics, windlass, etc.) and update your diagrams.

Once you're happy with it, THEN buy the materials to build that system. Don't be conservative with the use of labels -- you'll save yourself (and future owners) time and frustration down the road.

After you're done, you'll know exactly what you've got and know that it's safe.

[visi0n]

Definitely alot of work ahead but I'm looking forward to it.

I did a little more investigation today at lunch before my job called me away. I haven't tested and labeled the wires all of the way back to determine which ones are house yet but I found this detail out.

The two batteries at the bottom of the photo are connected as such:

Bat 1 Positive to Bat 2 Positive / Bat 1 Negative to Bat 2 Negative
Then, Bat 1 Positive to the boat (somewhere), Bat 2 Negative to the Boat somewhere.

Classic Parallel, like I'd use in my R/C Plane to increase runtime.

The other batteries, confound me a little though.

Bat 1 Positive to Bat 2 Positive / Bat 2 Negative to Bat 2 Negative

But, then Positive and Negative to the boat both come from battery 2, not split between the batteries like above. Is that still considered a parallel circuit?

Work called and I had to get back before I could ohm it all back but I'm hoping to get back out there tomorrow for a few hours. I see what you mean. Time to label this stuff and clean it up!

[mitiempo]

It is still parallel.