Feb. 18 to Feb. 24: Vero Beach (ICW Mile 952) to Titusville (ICW Mile 879)
It’s been quite some time since I did my last system series post since once we started cruising we mostly focused on travel updates. However, I did want to finish the series at some point, so we are going to do a duel post this week. We will start out with the system series and end with what we did this week.
Utopia's Electrical System
During the refit process last year, updating our electrical system was one of the main things that we wanted to address so we could go off grid for longer periods of time without relying on going to a marina to charge our batteries or running our engine an inordinate amount of time. So, the way I will tackle this topic is to 1) go over generally what our system is on boat and how it functions and 2) what we upgraded to make this more “off-grid”. I might get a bit technical with some of my wording so if you need any clarification just shoot me a message or post on the blog and I will try to get back with you.
Electrical System Overview
Utopia has a typical electrical system that is broken into two specific parts. She has a 12-volt direct current (DC) system that runs things light cabin lights, navigation equipment, bilge pumps, fridge/freezer and the water maker. She also has a 110-volt alternating current (AC) system that runs larger power items such as the hot water heater, the microwave, and any household appliances we have on the boat. Utopia has an 800 amp-hour house battery bank to draw power from. This consists of four 200 amp-hour batteries. To get 110 volts out of the system an inverter is used that converts the normal 12 volts DC from the battery bank to 110 volts AC for the other items. It should also be noted that we have a standalone starter battery that is used solely for starting the engine. It’s a good idea to keep these separate so in the event the house bank gets drawn down, the engine can still be started up.
So, the batteries are the storage side of the equation, so we need a side of the equation to fill up the batteries (i.e., charging). Utopia has three separate ways to charge the batteries.
The first type of charging is shore power. Utopia has two 30-amp connections that we can connect from the shore (one connector is enough to charge the battery bank and run all electronics, other than the air conditioner. The second 30-amp connection is dedicated to running the air conditioner). Our inverter is also a charger that can use the shore power to fill up the battery bank relatively quickly.
The second type of charging is solar power. Utopia has solar panels on an arch at the back of the boat. These panels are connected to a charger that is connected to the battery bank, allowing them to fill the batteries during the day. This is the main charging source we have on a day to day basis. It probably is the most important item to keep our boat self-sustaining on anchor for days or weeks at a time.
The third type of charging on the boat is an alternator. This is very similar to the alternator on your car utilizing your engine to convert energy from the engine to an electrical current that will charge your battery. This is the last piece of the puzzle for staying off-grid when you have several days of cloudy weather (which we have had a fair amount this season). I hate to run the engine at anchor just to top off the batteries, but we have had to do that a few times (not many) over the last few months. Since it’s a noisy affair we usually make water when the engine is on (since that is noisy too).
Upgrades Made to Extend “Off-grid” Time
Last year, before retiring and moving onboard, we did a big upgrade to the electrical system that allows us to be more self-sustaining. This included upgrading our storage (batteries) and the way we charge the batteries. I did a blog post called ‘The Power Trifecta’ last April that went into more detail. I will rehash some of that here, but now that we have been living with the system for a while, I have added some other details here.
Battery Bank
We upgraded our 800 amp-hour house battery bank from a lead-acid bank to a lithium battery bank ((LiFePO4 batteries), which has been a game changer for us. Even though we have the same amount of overall capacity in the bank (800 amp-hours), lithium allows discharging the bank down to a very low level without damaging the batteries. It’s bad for the life of a lead acid battery to be discharged less than 50% on a regular basis where you can safely bring the lithium down to less than 20%. Also, the lithium batteries continue to charge at a fast rate even when the batteries are between 80% and full, while the charging of lead acid batteries slows down considerably when approaching 100%. With that, our battery bank has a good bit more capacity than our lead acid batteries ever did due to this.
Solar Capacity
Another substantial change was to increase our solar capacity by replacing our old panels with new ones. The two new solar panels increased the capacity from 400 watts to 800 watts. This bumped up our charging capacity on anchor considerably. Each panel has its own charge controller so if one panel is shaded the other one still works at full capacity. It doesn’t take much shade from the mast or a sail to significantly reduce the incoming wattage, so having each one work independently is a nice thing.
Alternator Upgrade
The last big change to our electrical system was changing out our regular alternator (100 amp) with a high output alternator (240 amp). This was important for the times we have several days of cloudy weather. With a lithium battery set up, we added a separate controller for the alternator. This is because the lithium batteries will accept whatever charge come to it, and if not controlled, the alternator can overheat.
Now that we are full-time cruising, we have been able to test the entire system for long stretches of time while at anchor. With a little conservation (i.e., turning the hot water heater off most of the day and turning on the inverter only when we are on the boat and not sleeping) we can almost run on solar indefinitely, as long as we do not have too many cloudy days. I think the longest we did was 6 days at anchor without running the engine, and that was with some cloudiness. With the engine running at around 1600 RPM, we charge the bank about 15-20% per hour. When we are moving from anchorage to anchorage, the engine is typically run at least at the beginning and end of each trip, allowing the alternator to help top off the batteries. We have found that this system of solar plus the alternator works very well for us. If I could add anything to our system, it would be a little more solar.
Along with these main upgrades, a new 3000 watt Victron inverter installed with monitoring panels that allows us to review data from an app (see pictures). It’s nice to be able to see your system and its state of charge whether at the boat or when we are away from the boat.
I think at some point in the future I might expand the electrical discussion and talk about a power budget and how I figured out how much charging capacity is needed to suit our particular needs. Stay tuned for that.
Cruising Update
This was a good time to do this article since this past week as been pretty low key with no major mishaps (of course there are minor ones) while we moved up the ICW. Some highlights of the week include:
Departing Vero Beach (ICW Mile Marker 952) and arriving in an anchorage off of Cocoa Village (MM 898) nine hours later (thanks Cocoa Village for the free dinghy dock).
Watched a rocket launch while approaching the Cocoa area (Sorry Madelyn, no photos).
Lunch with a friend, a former member of our yacht club up near Tallahassee who now lives near Cocoa.
Traveled from Cocoa (MM 898) to Titusville (MM 879) and caught a mooring ball.
Visiting friends from our very early career days who have a beautiful Tyana 37 in the same marina that manages the mooring balls in Titusville.
Aside from the usual messing about on the boat (a fun term for boat chores), we have spent some time this past week putting together our backpacking kit.
It was a needed low-key week that was also quite productive. As always see below for the recent pictures. There are quite a few of Baxter who loves being at anchor or mooring ball (when not rafted up with another boat) with the beautiful weather of the past week. The newest photos start on February 20 (photos are named by date, e.g., 24-02-20…)
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