DC Electrical Upgrade

[Boatsb]

I didn't look through the whole library but they seem to have a bunch of info.

Look at the system as a system not as a price sensitive choice was a big take on the video.

[Jammin']

I'm still working on my electrical upgrade and I have a long way to go. While I had the generator battery and generator muffler out and the forward battery bank vacant it gave me access to an area that is normally very difficult to get to, so I thought I'd clean it up and paint it, but it didn't make sense to stop short of cleaning all the bilges. That was a couple of weekends right there. The generator exhaust had been leaking so some of the wood had gotten punky and that had to be fixed prior to painting.

I needed to mount a busbar for the negatives so I could install a battery monitor shunt. The cooling lines for the forward and salon AC units were run haphazardly and the tubing was clear hardware store stuff that had hardened. I replaced all that with Trident 132 and rerouted it out of the way. There was a comical succession of fittings and hoses pieced together on one of the bilge pump discharges that also handled one of the condensate lines that got cleaned up. Lots of wiring splices and cords that got removed and rerouted. Since I am increasing the size of my battery charger, I'm replacing the existing 8 gauge wire with 6 gauge and installing the temperature compensation sensor. There were no fuses at the batteries so that's happening. Today I installed new LED engine room lights on the port and forward perimeters of the engine room. While I was doing lighting I pulled out the 120 volt lighting in the galley and made it all 12 volt LED. I finished that on Saturday.

Old Lights.jpgNew LED Lights.jpgNew Galley Lights.jpg

To make room for the Victron Skylla-IP44 charger I bought, I had to remove my large accumulator tank and re-plumb in a mini tank. When I removed the water filters, I found rot damage below. I dug all that out and I've saturated it with epoxy and laid the fist layer of cloth. I had hoped to get more of that done this weekend, but installing and wiring the lights went tediously slow. As long as I have the area where the charger is going partially apart, it makes sense to pull everything out and clean up that area. I am going to prepare the area for a second battery charger in the future. At least I will have nice lighting in which to do it.

I am working my way around. The forward batteries should be ready to go in soon and then I can finish reassembling and servicing the generator. That will feel like a milestone. Next I need to start working on the aft new battery bank and the alternator and external regulator installation. I have made the new battery tray and I just picked up another shunt so I can start planning out the wiring.

Oh, and the refrigerator just quit.

The road goes on forever and the party never ends.

[brettportzer]

That is great - been following your projects!

Any pics of the cleaned up bilges to keep me going while I work on ours?

[Jammin']

I'll get to those pictures when more is done. Does anyone know if there is a commercially available serpentine engine pulley available for a 671? Or even a double vee.

[Jammin']

I'm looking at my overall charging rates for both the alternator and the battery charger. When I install the new alternator and external regulator, it will be charging two AGM battery banks with a rated capacity of 440 ah each. At the present time I will have one 60 amp battery charger with an eye toward adding a second one in the future. Even with 120 amps of battery charging capability from two chargers, it will only amount to 13.6% of battery capacity. The constant current charging time to reach the end the bulk charging period will still take quite a while. As I think I understand it, the absorption charging period of constant voltage and declining amperage, which continues until the batteries are deemed fully charged when the charge acceptance rate drops to .5%-.75% of the rated amp hour capacity, will be an impractically long time to run the generator when away from shore power. It would take even longer with the engines running with a 120 amp alternator de-rated to say 90 amps depending on temperature. It seems like if we were to be anchoring out for any extended periods of time, the only practical way to fully charge the batteries would be to add some solar component.

All of this would seem not to be an issue if the engines are running for long periods of time every day and/or the boat is hooked up to shore power at night.

Is the end of the bulk charging period determined by the voltage that the battery attains or by the reduction of the charge acceptance rate?

[Jammin']

I guess I'll have to go back to the Nigel Calder book for that answer. I get distracted easily in the engine room. I keep following and pulling stray wires. When I see electrical tape I want to know what's under it, like the wire to the hot water heater below that popped out from the tape just now.

[Captain Ralph]

I'll get to those pictures when more is done. Does anyone know if there is a commercially available serpentine engine pulley available for a 671? Or even a double vee.

This Detroit Part MAY help
https://www.powerlinecomponents.com/...3508421/pulley
It is a 10 groove pulley with a 7.5 inch diameter. You may need a longer crank bolt.
Also, Vintage parts ph# 877-846-8243 usually has them on the shelf for bus conversions.

[Jammin']

It took a lot to make the space for these chargers, but I'm pleased with how it's coming together, albeit slowly.

[12V71]

My 3 Thoughts
1. would not want all the electrical systems tied to each other.
2. find, fix, and or replace problems (you showed a mess on one, Hot water looks like it needs to be completely rewired)
3. more practical research: cost, longevity, reliability

[Jammin']

Also, I notice that the questions Scott asked in post #3 have not been addressed:

"First question. Is it a marine inverter?

Second question why 4 x 6 volt batteries? Are they start pr deep cycle by the way?

Third question. Why the 1+1 charger and not the 3 bank ip44? "

It is not a marine inverter. The inverter is mainly for the microwave and coffee pot, now that I have a 12 volt refrigerator.

The reason for four 6 volt batteries (deep cycle AGM) is to increase the capacity of a battery bank that is in a location that is almost impossible to get to and the 6 volt batteries are a more manageable size and weight. That battery bank will have the inverter, windlass, DC refrigerator and half of the bow thruster on it and is monitored by a Balmer SG200.

I have installed two 60 amp Skylla-IP44's, both the 1+1 charger and 3 bank charger. One handles the new 4 x 6 volt bank and one handles the other two banks of one 8D each. The 8D's are in a more accessible location. One 8D is a sealed FLA that is for starboard start as well as currently having the bilge pumps wired to it. In 1-1/2 years, a bilge pump has yet to cycle. The other 8D is a Lifeline AGM with the rest of the ships electrical functions on it including lighting, waste system, port start and the other half of the bow thruster. The latter is also monitored by an SG200. I installed a combiner for these two batteries.

The generator has it's own starting battery that is charged by the generator and a small multistep charger when on shore power.