GB49 Electrical update

[ValhowellPower]

Battery project well underway on 95 GB 49. Swapped two 8D house bank (only good ones out of 4) to port and starboard spots. Stbd one was a pain to get out and in. All old batteries (8Ds) out. Battery area cleaned up, wires run and labeled. Thanks for the advice during the early stages of this effort.

New batteries almost in final resting place. But they are out of the salon. Wiring updated with Victron distributor to parallel batteries and fuse each one. Victron shunt and a couple more Lynn Distributors to fuse main power runs. 1320 ah of Lead/carbon batteries. Discharge to 90% and can take sustained charging. Like Lithium without the hassle from our insurance company.

Once wired up, new inverter/charger, twin Balmar 250 amp alternators on Wakespeed controllers, Cerbo and display and Chetco Sea Guage to get all engine instruments on chartplotters.

 

[luna]

Those 330 Ah Lead/Carbon Batteries in what looks like almost an 8D format look interesting. Unfortunately G00GLE draws a blank. Not East Penn, Crown, Exide, nor Victron.

Can you let us know who manufactures these batteries.

Have a great Birthday Bash Alan!

 

[Frosty]

Those 330 Ah Lead/Carbon Batteries in what looks like almost an 8D format look interesting. Unfortunately G00GLE draws a blank. Not East Penn, Crown, Exide, nor Victron.

Can you let us know who manufactures these batteries.

If you're asking about the lead-carbon batteries, I found some that are made by Victron. (I was curious so looked them up.)

Here is a link to the datasheet.

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-Lead-carbon-battery-EN.pdf

They look like they could be the same batteries as in the post above yours. OTOH the largest size is 160ah and 1320ah divided by 160 ah = 8.25 batteries. Doubt he cut one into fourths! So not sure.

One interesting note: As they tout the benefits to their lead-carbon over other lead-acid batteries, they mentioned that the others need 8 hours of absorption time for a full charge (which the lead-carbon don't). Not saying these aren't great batteries, but that one claim goes against my experience. I had Lifeline deep cycle batteries and absorbing them to the acceptance they recommended (a C% which I forget but which I calculated back then and charged to) took far less than 8 hours. Maybe typically around 2 hours? That bank lasted 9 years of daily cycling (no shore power) and while a bit tired by then, they could probably have gone longer. I just decided it was time to go to LFP.

That's not to say the lead-carbon aren't better though. Always interesting to see new stuff and read about it. Just that one note caught my eye.

 

[luna]

Ya, I am familiar with Victron's offerings in Lead Carbon, 160 Ah. max. That is why I asked for the manufacturer of these 330 Ah. heavyweights.

Victron is unsure of the 2000 cycle, 90% DoD claim made by numerous Lead Carbon battery providers and seems to want to limit charge current on their batteries to 0.2C (20 hr. rate) or in this bank's case 264A.

 

[ValhowellPower]

Those 330 Ah Lead/Carbon Batteries in what looks like almost an 8D format look interesting. Unfortunately G00GLE draws a blank. Not East Penn, Crown, Exide, nor Victron.

Can you let us know who manufactures these batteries.

Have a great Birthday Bash Alan!

They are made by Univix. It is a lead/carbon battery. They sell it as a 12v 250 ah rating but this is a 10 hour profile. At 20 hrs it is 330 amp hours. Can be drawn to 10% with no sulfation. The batteries are used in home energy storage but also for boats in Europe and Australia. The charge profile is the same as a lead acid (4 stage) but can accept a higher input and output amperage. The voltage profile is a bit higher than a normal AGM so charging dissimilar batteries requires attention.

 

[Diep]

Nice project! Those new batts look HEAVY, nice job getting them in place.

I hadn't looked at the Lynx stuff before and thought it could be a nice solution for fusing. Unfortunately they use MEGA fuses which look to only have an AIC of 2,000 amps. I need over 10,000. It would be nice if someone put together some attractive devices using class T fuses.

 

[Frosty]

I hadn't looked at the Lynx stuff before and thought it could be a nice solution for fusing. Unfortunately they use MEGA fuses which look to only have an AIC of 2,000 amps. I need over 10,000. It would be nice if someone put together some attractive devices using class T fuses.

I hear you. I am continually surprised that Victron chose Mega fuses. Low AIC, and then at the other end, they don't come in small amp sizes, so they limit flexibility on that end as well.

I think they have now "sort of" rectified it with some sort of Class T "in"? (I'll have to look again. I ended up ruling them out because of the Mega fuses, but after seeing them in person they would have taken up too much real estate for my space anyway.

Okay, here is their newish "Class T Power In." Took them a while. I still don't like their use of Mega fuses in other products. (Which is okay, I just chose another solution.)

Lynx Class-T Power In | Victron Energy

The Lynx Class-T Power In connects and fuses up to two strings of Lithium batteries. It features a positive and negative busbar, and connections for two Class-T fuses as well as a connection to ground the DC system. The Class T-fuses, available in 225A, 250A, 350A and 400A, must be purchased...

www.victronenergy.com

 

[Diep]

I love the look of the Class T power in. If the Lynx shunt came with a class T option I would probably go that way. I really like how the modules integrate.

That has been the most frustrating part of my design - finding products that meet all the requirements and don't end up involving dozens of terminals and crimps. All the clean looking installs don't work for big banks and a legit install involves a hash of bulkhead mounted fuse holders, bus bars and giant guage wire jumpers.

 

[Frosty]

That has been the most frustrating part of my design - finding products that meet all the requirements and don't end up involving dozens of terminals and crimps. All the clean looking installs don't work for big banks and a legit install involves a hash of bulkhead mounted fuse holders, bus bars and giant guage wire jumpers.

I hear you! If one does not go for the complete row of blue fuse boxes (and even if they do maybe?) it's such a puzzle.

Space was my problem. I didn't have room for the Victron fuse boxes anyway, so I went for mostly Blue Sea components (smaller). It's good, but everything is at a different height, so you're shimming or whatever (looked at Marinco Pro Installer but just wasn't jazzed by that either).

Because I have space constraints I used copper (or preferebly tinned copper) bars whenever possible instead of "giant gauge wire jumpers." Meaning if the two components were rigidly mounted so no flex, and if I could logically make it work. That saved a lot of space and lugs/crimps. Perhaps something you could consider.

I did fit everything tidily and logically into place.... eventually. But there was a lot of rearranging and head scratching in the planning phase (I started with graph paper to get a rough idea and eventually just bought components and played Tetris for real).

 

[ValhowellPower]

Project update…batteries and Victron power management (distributor, shunt, distributors) are in place and mostly wired. New Victron Multiplus 300p in place. DC to DC chargers are in place and being wired. Victron power I. Repurposed and main DC neg bus bar adjacent to stbd engine. This relieves the six cables wired to the starter negative. Cerbo installed and getting everything connected (shunts for engines, gen, house). A ton of wire shrouding and wire ties to secure everything. 1330 ah of house bank, DC to DC charges to tailor charge to each engine and gen battery needs.

Still to go, 2 Balmar 250 amp alternators and dual wakespeed 500s to manage them.

 

[Comodave]

I hear you! If one does not go for the complete row of blue fuse boxes (and even if they do maybe?) it's such a puzzle.

Space was my problem. I didn't have room for the Victron fuse boxes anyway, so I went for mostly Blue Sea components (smaller). It's good, but everything is at a different height, so you're shimming or whatever (looked at Marinco Pro Installer but just wasn't jazzed by that either).

Because I have space constraints I used copper (or preferebly tinned copper) bars whenever possible instead of "giant gauge wire jumpers." Meaning if the two components were rigidly mounted so no flex, and if I could logically make it work. That saved a lot of space and lugs/crimps. Perhaps something you could consider.

I did fit everything tidily and logically into place.... eventually. But there was a lot of rearranging and head scratching in the planning phase (I started with graph paper to get a rough idea and eventually just bought components and played Tetris for real).

I put lithium batteries in our last boat. I made bus bars out of 1/4” copper bars to “cable” the batteries together. It made a nice clean install. I used shrink tube over the bus bars except where there were connections.

 

[Frosty]

I put lithium batteries in our last boat. I made bus bars out of 1/4” copper bars to “cable” the batteries together. It made a nice clean install. I used shrink tube over the bus bars except where there were connections.

That I didn't do, because it always makes me nervous. Even with tightly secured batteries, I worry about (slight) movement and pressure on the terminals. (In this case I only have one battery, but in other cases I've had a larger bank.)

But obviously installation-dependent.

I used them anyplace else I could though (switch to bus bar, bus bar to fuse block, banked fuses, shunt to bus bar, etc.

 

[Comodave]

I had solid fiddles on the battery bases and the batteries only weighed 23 pounds each. I could literally hang on them and not move them at all, I tried it to make sure they were secure.

 

[Portage_Bay]

They are made by Univix. It is a lead/carbon battery. They sell it as a 12v 250 ah rating but this is a 10 hour profile. At 20 hrs it is 330 amp hours. Can be drawn to 10% with no sulfation. The batteries are used in home energy storage but also for boats in Europe and Australia. The charge profile is the same as a lead acid (4 stage) but can accept a higher input and output amperage. The voltage profile is a bit higher than a normal AGM so charging dissimilar batteries requires attention.

I'm very interested to hear how these batteries work out for you. For older boats needing to replace FLA batts that have aged out it seems it could be a simpler and less expensive option than conversion to LFP. I tried to find objective reviews of Univix batteries, none that I could find. Regarding carbon batteries the now out of business Firefly manufacturer of carbon foam batteries comes to mind. Yes, Univix is not the same as Firefly was just because the both used carbon.

 

[ValhowellPower]

I'm very interested to hear how these batteries work out for you. For older boats needing to replace FLA batts that have aged out it seems it could be a simpler and less expensive option than conversion to LFP. I tried to find objective reviews of Univix batteries, none that I could find. Regarding carbon batteries the now out of business Firefly manufacturer of carbon foam batteries comes to mind. Yes, Univix is not the same as Firefly was just because the both used carbon.

On our first outing. So far looking great. BTW, these are 250 ah based on a 10 hour drain which is common for home solar storage. At a 20 hr profile the are 330 ah. By the way, tech support from Univix is outstanding.

 

[ValhowellPower]

I had solid fiddles on the battery bases and the batteries only weighed 23 pounds each. I could literally hang on them and not move them at all, I tried it to make sure they were secure.

I have boundary frames around then and ratchet straps fore n aft and athwartships. Ain’t going nowhere.

 

[Portage_Bay]

On our first outing. So far looking great. BTW, these are 250 ah based on a 10 hour drain which is common for home solar storage. At a 20 hr profile the are 330 ah. By the way, tech support from Univix is outstanding.

Thank you. I'm very interested in these batteries.