Arthur Brown

Most outboards use a petrol based fuel -petrol is highly regulated on board and hard to find at waterside fuel sellers. Few outboards make much electricity few outboards make any usable heat -hot water or radiators. Not exactly damning but close enough to need careful planning.

Well it seems that the fuse protected the charger, so stick with that rating. A blown charger is far more expensive to replace. Add some ventilation or a suitable fan to keep the kit cool.

IMO you should look at 100 boats before you get your pen and cheque book out. OK 90 of those can be web based viewings. BUT it's unlikely you will be fully wise about boat viewing the first time you go out.

!/ You have a smartgauge, You've paid for it, go fit it NOW. Used correctly it can only help you keep the batteries in good order, then fit new batteries and keep them well.

The wrong charger with Lithium cells is a recipe for disaster. I have a laptop converter from 12v to my laptop, BUT it doesn't work from a 12v battery unless it's on charge (12v input no good, 13+v and it works fine).

Very specific question: Does the "Smartguage" battery monitor work on 24v systems, How does it fare with small batteries (ca 10AH by design) It's for a non boat project.

Remember that the Smartgauge when installed (start now!) will only show state of charge. It does it well but does NOT measure battery capacity so it could show 100% but the batteries could be 5AH or 5000AH The only direct way of determining capacity is to count the amps in and count them out again. BUT batteries are neither amp or power perfect more amps and more power needs to go IN than can come out. Sitting there monitoring your present batteries will NOT help their imminent demise, BUT WILL give you an understanding of the charge current available from your system at various RPM -you don't say what charge or cruise RPM you use. Learn all you can about batteries otherwise you risk killing the next set in short order. The shortest battery life recorded on this forum was three weeks, the longest IIRC was 10 years. The difference between long and short lifes of batteries is largely the charging regime that they live under.

Lots of hard numbers are needed! When you have collected them you will understand a lot more about your electrical system yourself. 1/ go really psyco and record the current consumption from the batteries say every 15 minutes, Record also what the charge current is say every 15 minutes also. 2/ record the battery voltage rested (first thing in the morning no load overnight) and at the same time as you read the currents. Determine the charge voltage and if you ever can the charge current and tail current when fully charged.

"Hive" Control your home from your phone. Can anyone explain why a penguin would like it "nice and warm inside" -it's a change channel advert.

Probably demonstrates the need for compliance with BSS.

A battery on short fat wires has to be a good choice of power supply. The charger could be anything from a Mains driven one, to solar, to a 12v derived one. A good charge regime should help the batteries to last as long as a starter battery.

OR you could investigate having the motor rewound for 12v -basically cut the copper off and rewind with less length of fatter copper- certainly NOT a DIY task

I use a Maplin N53EC. It's 6/12/24v auto selecting and 1.2a £22

I'm inclined to prefer the solution based on two 12v batteries charged in parallel and discharged in series. Assuming that the toilet is probably less than 1% duty cycle a small charger would suffice at moderate cost. Probably a solar panel and 24v MPPT controller will help you.

In my opinion! Keep the battery set that you have, get used to life on battery power. You should get 2 years out of a battery (set) but first time you may not. The only simple direct reading State of Charge monitor is the Smartgauge. Other meters exist but none so simple to read simple rested voltage readings are the cheapest battery indicators but usually take some interpreting. Remember that for BSS your batteries need to be secured properly so you cannot just add a battery without adding a securing point for it

The usual fuels for generators -petrol and LPG- both require special care as the fumes are heavy and will build up in the boat hull in the event of a leak, then things go bang badly. Please be very careful with generator fuel. If your boat is subject to BSS inspection getting the genset and fuel installed to BSS is GOOD. -In fact observing BSS even if not required would be a good idea, unless a better standard applies to your boat.

Remember that this is a web forum, there is much knowledge and wisdom here but you need some understanding to be able to sort out what advice is relevant to your questions. Enjoy the read! The author is a boater and part of Victron.

http://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Book-EN-EnergyUnlimited.pdf is a free download book on the topic of power management. All the details can be found there and lots more besides. Your solar panels will make their rated power for three months in the peak of summer, for three months in winter the panels will make about 8% of their rated power, the months in between will provide between 8 and 100% of their rated power. LOTS of panels is good. Otherwise. you need to run the engine for a reasonable period each day and for a whole day at the weekend, or run a generator for a similar period. A good understanding of your electrical installation helps, as does a means of determining the battery state of charge.

Well her last post was very much broomstick and black cat

Have you checked the ballast? How easily removable is it?

When did you last fully charge the battery? How did you know that the battery was fully charged?

Do you have access to shore electricity?If the vessel is draught tight then having a moderate electric heater on a frost stat should be a great help.

Probably the worst place in the country to leave a tatty anything! The neighbours like it TIDY and 10% of them are lawyers!