I love our magum Battery monitor. Last year upgrade our gen and inventor and add the battery monitor, totally redesigned the batter bank wiring so all the ground go to a super huge bus bar then a shunt and then the house grounds all go on that side. We also have solar. So I can see amps in, amp out, total amps use total amp stored, it is super accurate. I disagree with voltage only, did that and it only give a feel. with a properly designed setup you can see what devices/equipment are pulling what load (ie tun on bait pump and see the draw, turn on the refigerator and see what our inventer draws, put on all the lights, etc.
I also know when on Solar what it is adding gross amps and net. With just a volt meter you will see a high voltage when solar is charging for 5-8 hours a day but have no clue if it is adding 1 amp or 25 amps of something in between.
I guess I am nerd and like the details.
https://www.magnum-dimensions.com/battery-monitor-kit
The ability to mount kW worth of panels, the effect on the aesthetic sensibilities of the owner and impact on the performance of the vessel will be different.Trawler or sailboat, both can be rigged and used in a variety of ways.... AND in exactly the SAME way.
Same ease of power consumption and production.
The problems only occur on a liveaboard boat, using flooded batteries with a minimum charging system. In that situation you will be running between 50% and 80% or so, ...
Well, I think I am. Your statement was just too wide ranging to be accurate.
Like many statements a lot of people have made in this thread.
You might have used the words some or many liveaboardsvwith minimal charging.... And I would have skipped over it.
Yes, in fact can often be 7hrs if you're really getting to true 100%.I'll stand firmly behind my original statement. Nearly everyone living aboard with a minimum charging facility is going to try to minimize the run time of that charging system. To fully charge LA batteries from even 70% requires something like 5 hours, because of the long asymptotic tail on the charge acceptance curve.
I believe no one was talking about that.There are rare ones who might run the genset or main engine the 5 - 7 hours sitting at anchor to fully charge their batteries. Very rare. Also not smart, as the lifetime costs of doing so will far exceed a proper DC system.
Maybe Starter batts, or ignoring SoH specs for EoL, butWhat an appalling thread! This topic is as weird as anchors and bow thrusters.
Your batteries are good for 5 - 10 years, no matter what.
Many owners have all the gear, but not the knowledge to give optimum care, or just lack the motivation, don't mind replacing the bank more frequently.if you have a solar charge system capable of that, you do not fall into the category of having a minimum charging facility.
I believe no one was talking about that.
No, the "that" refers to some straw man telling members to burn dino juice for 5+ hours a day just to charge the House bank.Actually you were talking about that nearly exclusively.
Most SoC meters are of the coulomb-counting type.The argument for the SOC meter is that it is the only accurate gage, because AH counters tend to drift off.
What an appalling thread! This topic is as weird as anchors and bow thrusters.
Your batteries are good for 5 - 10 years, no matter what. Save your beer-bottle deposits to replace them when they are toast, a tiny but admittedly annoying drop in the boat maintenance bucket. Most of you are wildly overthinking all this and you are exactly why a battery-monitor company can get rich while you worry about nothing. Just use your boat for what it was intended and stop fussing. Go for a swim or a paddle and wait for the sunset...
I agree with XS, at least in our case. We average about US$400/yr on battery replacement. This is about 2% or less of the vessel's annual cost excluding DDA.
Yes, a drop in the bucket.
You agree that battery monitor companies are getting rich off of one off $200 monitors while you spend $400/year on replacement batteries?
Care to explain that logic and maths to us?
I'm not saying you NEED to know everything or anything about your batteries. You don't NEED a boat, for that matter. But if you've spent $100K just on basic overhead, do you think the $200 for a good battery monitoring system is relevant?