Euphoria finally gets inverter, lithium batteries and solar

[Addie-Kat]

Well, after 3 years of planning and contemplating I finally did it. Scott Bickwid, Boatsb on the forum came up to New Bern, NC and spent 5 days installing my new system. Consists of 2 10kw victron inverters, 8 330 amp hour Victron lithium batteries, making a 660 amp hour bank at 48 volts. I installed (8) 370 watt solar panels on the fly bridge hardtop in custom hinged frames, built by a local in New Bern. For the short time I was on the boat before heading back to NY, the system was working great. I cant wait to see what it really can do in another month. Here are a few pics i took before leaving. The solar panels shown are only 1/2 of hard top, the other half is exactly the same.
4 more batteries are under the lower bunk. Had a great experience working with Scott B.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Looks great. Now you can sell the generator

 

[Phasma2128]

I am curious what the over all costs were. This would be a great addition to Kemos

 

[Freestyle]

What loads and duration do you project?

Will that be sufficient to power an AC for a meaningful period of time?

Beautiful install.

Bruce

Freestyle
Tampa

 

[Dan Mapes]

What was chosen to perform the solar charging?

 

[BOATER BOB]

Whats the return on investment as far as running a generator how long in hours to repay?

 

[Addie-Kat]

I am curious what the over all costs were. This would be a great addition to Kemos

It was not cheap, Let’s say the cost was equivalent to a loaded brand new full size luxury pick up truck.

 

[Addie-Kat]

What loads and duration do you project?

Will that be sufficient to power an AC for a meaningful period of time?

Beautiful install.

Bruce

Freestyle
Tampa

Yes it will power multiple AC’s for many hours, I had just started figuring out wattage of the ac’s before i left the boat. I should be able to power ac’s in two cabins all night long without running the batteries past 80%. During a sunny day, solar should cover the salon ac and 1/2 of the minimum house load/refrigeration. The goal is to only have to run the generator for an hour or two each day.

 

[Addie-Kat]

Whats the return on investment as far as running a generator how long in hours to repay?

I was not installing this and looking at return on investment. This was done, solely so i did not have to run the generators every time i left the dock. Obviously there will be about a hundred dollar savings every day, assuming that i only run the generator 2 hours. That does not factor in wear and tear and maintenance. This system will also allow me to only need one shore power connection at transient docks, saving $$ as well. Again return on investment was not factored into this project.

 

[Addie-Kat]

What was chosen to perform the solar charging?

everything installed was victron.

 

[Captain Ralph]

PLEASE update us on how everything works out as time and hours ad up. As expected or not.

 

[scottinsydney]

You are so lucky to have a specialist Hatteras marine electrician do this. And WOW what a system!

 

[pmacFL]

Sounds like a great project. So, I assume this provides your 120/240 power. How do you select solar vs shore vs generator power at any given time? How is this tied into the factory 120/240 panel?I would appreciate the silent power!

 

[Addie-Kat]

Sounds like a great project. So, I assume this provides your 120/240 power. How do you select solar vs shore vs generator power at any given time? How is this tied into the factory 120/240 panel?I would appreciate the silent power!

The system is tied into the source 1 shore power/generator selector breaker. The Shore power/Generator pass through the inverter, and the inverter knows when there is power. The inverter will also boost the shore power or generator when needed. Let’s say you are only plugging in one 50 amp cord and running the boat off of just that. When the boat is calling for more than what the dock pedestal can give, it typically trips the dock breaker. With this system, the inverter makes up the difference when needed, no more tripping breakers. The solar is also tied directly into the inverter through the smart solar charge controllers. Any time there is sun and the batteries need some charge, the solar will kick in automatically. I’m still new to all of this, but this summarizes the system.

 

[Addie-Kat]

Update

We have been on the boat for 1 week now. We unplugged from new Bern North Carolina on Sunday morning 3/27 and were not connected to shore power again until Friday afternoon 4/1. The Boat is now located in Daytona Beach. Total Generator run time to recharge batteries during the 130 hours we were disconnected was 10 hours. We ran the boat as we typically would, made water, did laundry, dried laundry, baked in the oven for hours at a time, all while running off the inverters and solar during the day. We also ran air conditioning in the master state room at night. We did not need air conditioning during the day, however we could have ran it, the batteries were always 100% during daylight hours while the sun was out. One day we did not have sun, and had to charge the batteries prior to bed and once again in the morning. We averaged about 2 hours of generator run to fully charge of batteries. Again system is 20kw 660 amp hours at 48 volts with 2960 watts of solar. This is working just as i had hoped it would, very pleased. I give Thanks to Scott B

Andy

 

[Boatsb]

It's great to hear your happy with it. The design fits well. It's all about the user experience and having it almost transparent to you means you don't have to worry about anything.