George and Dragon

Because using the same standard as two just other countries (and one of those doesn't use the same units of volume) makes so much more sense.

All I know is what I was able to glean from a number of PV system suppliers that seem to be offering this controller and some online searches

Does anyone know anything about this 'solar charge controller'? Manufacturer apparently Sourcetronic but I can't find this product on their website https://www.sourcetronic.com/ I find the terminology on http://www.directindustry.com/prod/sourcetronic/product-61814-1681650.html confusing but that's probably down to translation from German

I think that's from Swallows and Amazons

Advice noted. Though, from reading Victron's material, it seems that keeping them below capacity extends their life. Too early to tell. I shall certainly be keeping a bottle of de-ionised water on hand... I've seen people mention digital hydrometers - is there any significant advantage to these?

Good point. A RPi would be better then.

Thank you. Very helpful. As these batteries were bought with the boat I don't have a full history. For the time being they seem to be adequate and holding sufficient charge for our needs. When that changes I will look again at the whole topic in some depth since there seem to be a number of expensive options and some very expensive. Perhaps there is another thread discussing the merits of Trojans, Rolls etc and the less expensive alternatives. Also, I may look at LiFePO4s although they currently appear to be exceptionally expensive so unless they can tolerate deeper discharge and/or being left uncharged for extended periods of time I very much doubt they'll be the final choice.

Yes, and I appreciate the need for the dumbgauge. Am still trying to work out whether the SmartGauge is joke tho

<pedant> IIRC amps are coulombs per second. Amps / hour must therefore be some kind of rate of change of charge (argh - my A level Physics was a long time ago). </pedant>

I think batt 1 is the starter. Those measurements were taken after we'd been on the shoreline overnight. You may remember I have previously mentioned that Batt 1 is at 12.5 V in the morning while we're cruising and I suspect it is on it's way out. Is there a link to the the idiots' guide so I can understand float mode?

With the arduino it would be possible set alarm thresholds for any parameter which could flash a bright red LED, sound a buzzer etc. Or you could have three LEDs per parameter: yellow below normal, green in normal range, and red above normal. The actual numbers can be logged at suitable intervals and reviewed when the need arises.

Excellent. Thank you. I may pinch some of your ideas.

Thank you. That's very reassuring. I guess my next step should be to try to find some way of capturing how much energy we're using. Then I'd have a chance of predicting how long I needed to run the engine to recover that charge. The boat is now back on the marina and connected to the shoreline. Batt 1 was showing 13.8 V, batt 2 12.7 V which suggests to me that batt 2 wasn't drawing any current from the charger. That's a good idea. I wonder if I can retrofit one of those

Oh dear - someone has introduced tail current into my idiot's guide thread. I was saving that for when I had more than a very basic understanding

Maybe when I get a bit more experience I'll be able to concentrate on more than one thing at a time. In the meantime I'll definitely make sure the washing machine stays off until we've done with the locks I'm sure fatter copper would help but I probably won't go to the trouble unless it becomes a persistent problem. However, would that kind of load (assuming 260A at 12V) be a problem for the domestic batteries?

I hope it doesn't happen again, but if it does I'll be sure to check.

Thanks all We've been moving all day but slow running with locks and so I discovered another little issue: the inverter doesn't like the washing machine on at tickover. There was lots of beeping from the machine and it eventually went quiet - the inverter had gone into overload ? Previously the washing machine seemed fine while we were cruising at normal speeds most of the time. I'm not sure but it looks like it's a Power Master 'pure sine wave' unit. Hard to tell as it appears to have been installed upside down

They are. And that would mean every light on the boat was lit which I hope is unlikely? VSR? I hope that never happens ?

I've been reading several threads about battery management (I was going to say charging, but it's not just about that) and am, quite frankly, confused. There seem to be a number of technologies in use and I am trying to work out what would be best for us. We bought our boat a year ago and moor on a marina with a shoreline so when we're there the onboard charger should be taking care of things. The only other means we have of charging is running the engine. This works fine while we keep moving but I'm concerned that we might damage the domestic bank if we moored up for a few days while cruising. The previous owners were continuous cruisers living aboard so I assume the set-up worked for them. The only instrument I have to tell me what's happening with the batteries is a distribution panel with built in voltmeter and ammeter and a switch for battery 1 or battery 2 Battery 1 is, I think, the starter battery and will probably fail next winter judging by the fact that it never seems to get above 12.5 V and struggled to turn the engine over in December when it was about -8 degC outside. Battery 2 usually reads 12.7 V in the morning. We don't really use a lot of juice in summer (mostly the fridge and water pumps, I suspect) but in winter we might be tempted to check if the TV works and would also be running the Webasto as well as potentially up to 40 lights. I suppose the questions I need to ask are 1. How many years does a set of batteries last if treated well? 2. How can I tell when the batteries need replacing? 3. Would it be cost effective to add one or two PV panels and a reasonable quality MPPT? 4. How much energy does a 100 W PV panel provide over the year (mounted horizontally on the roof with no attempt at tracking the sun)

Watts would be a useful unit if batteries were rated in watts rather than amp hours since the number of watts is independent of voltage. ETA Stands back and waits for hornets' nest to explode

Thanks for this. 49.977 Hz a few seconds ago.

That'll be it then. I should amend my post to say our boat has three fuel filters And you just knew how to do your first service? Or maybe you had prior experience. I had no idea where anything was so it was very useful to watch. I will feel able to do my own servicing in future.

The Barrus 40 has 3 fuel filters. Engineer from RCR who did our service in December changed the first, found it was clean and didn't even look at the others.

And the good news is: the Examiner made no comments. We have a BSS until 8 June 2022 :):):):)

That's a problem I sometimes encounter