peterboat

I agree in some ways but realistically in a few years electric boats will be taking over and thongs will change quickly for all of us even the early adaptors

The thing is all our systems suit us the designer, mine is simple because my 2 charging sources are quality items with realistic safe voltage limits. Yours is a compromise because the boat is under warranty, but your system is safe and has built in redundancy. Others have done the same and as yet no disasters reported, so they work and work well. I would not buy an off the shelf system as I know that the markup would be large so in most cases it would fail on uptake.

Having done hundreds if not thousands of LPG conversions which involved lots of soldering , i can safely say at times I lost the will to live doing it! The beauty is though soldered joints rarely fail and atr the best way of joining two or more wires. Spade terminals were also soldered much better than crimp connectors

Most boaters kill batteries by constantly under charging LifePo4s arnt bothered by that. Over charging is easily and cheaply sorted and a low voltage disconnect as well. Nick's board will sort out alternator charging. As Bob knows I just use solar and the whispergen I have never fitted the protection board I bought. 3 years on still no issues and they are so much easier to live with than crap LAs I bought 6 of them 3 for me and 3 for John who has the same batteries as me for his boat with a 48 volt inverter bit of discount and 125 squids for 3 ?

Yes Richard ebay item 312871729322 they are for my lithium polymer batteries that I have made up for little electric car, they are 5P 15S with one board for each pack. I have 3 packs making up 17.5 KWHS

Very old site and I would suspect out of date, I think for the time they were being careful which isnt a bad thing. Nowadays I would expect 20 years out of my batteries on my usage and maybe more

Battery balance boards are very cheap, £125 bought me 3 for three 48 volt batteries of 17.5 KWHs peanuts really

As an ex genny mechanic in the Army I can say latterly the gennys were very reliable probably as reliable as the engine and gearbox of an average narrowboat My LifePo4 batteries are over ten years old already and I expect them to do a lot of years more, I dont stress them like they were in their original design job so they are coasting along enjoying life and the sunshine, with a very easy charging regime

If my motor breaks and your engine breaks I will be fine solar and whispergen will keep me going forever, I think my outcome is way better than yours as I have so much less to go wrong in the first place? and I carry a spare speed controller already, your assumption is that all my supply systems have to go down very unlikely as is the same for you, also I have two MPPT controllers both of which can replace each other with switches, in fact you are much more at risk than me

I have more but have a usable 33kwh of batteries for drive and 9 ish kwh for domestic

I don't think any of the car makers charge to 100% on a regular basis after the leaf issues of course the real issue was was passive heating and cooling, the new SUV has gone for a much more sophisticated system. For us boat users their is no need to stress our batteries its pointless and as you have said possibly unsafe. My new car batteries will be charged to the same routine for the same reason

3.3 Kw so I have 10 hours of cruising, but sun shining increases it or in some cases covers it

From my experience I would not be able to make my boat work for me using my old LA traction batteries, charging is to slow using solar. Also the weight issue and maintenance are rubbish, LAs are pointless given their limitations for my sort of usage

I hate to say this Nick but car makers use 20 to 80% as well, Nissan leafs are an example why, short battery life due to charging to 100%! Vauxhall Amperas have a usable 16kwh pack but only use 11kwh if my memory is correct, Tesla you have to press a button to charge beyond 80% and do it to often and your warranty is compromised.