Moving battery bank to galley

[C-Wolfe]

Here some follow up on this project.
I ended up placing the start batteries (2X AGM gr 31) and main switches under the aft settee of the dinette. I built a tray behind the drawer and off the floor as high as I could so I’m not really loosing any storage there and it's very easy access.



The house bank (2X Lifepo4 LiTime 100 AH) and Dc to Dc charger are located under the forward settee of the dinette behind the fridge.



The house bank switch is just outside of it for easier/quicker access.

I have one breaker for the windlass and line hauler, the other breaker is for everything else.

I still have to do a bit of tidying up with the wires and finding better cover for the start batteries post, but I was able to test most everything and it’s all working. It’s still winter here so I have not started and run the engines, I’m curious to see how well it is charging with that setup, and have not try to pull my anchor up from a deep anchorage yet. But hopefully that will happen soon.
I have a few more pictures in my album if anyone interested.

[C-Wolfe]

I finally had a chance to put that whole new system to the test recently. I went on 2 different trips, first one was 5 days and I was exploring a new area for shrimp pots, so I get to use my line hauler and anchor windlass several times, both of which are connected to the house bank and worked great with no issues. The second trip was a short overnight. The DC/DC charger also worked great, and on both trip a got back home with the house batteries (LiFepo4) at 98 to 100% state of charge, no need to top off at home. I’m very please with the whole system.

Only one thing puzzle me a bit, after running the engines enough to top the house bank to 100%, they go to standby mode. At this point, I’m guessing that any power draw is been supply by the charger, all good so far. Once I stop the engines, both LiFepo4 start providing power and are getting draw down at the same level, but on a few occasion, only one battery seems to wake up and supply power, the other staying on standby and at 100%. On one occasion, I had one at 80% and the other still on standby, I flip the switch to turn of discharge (thru the App on the phone) and that wake up the standby battery. the other funny thing is after turning the discharge switch back on, they do not equalize, at least not very fast. If anyone have any insight on this, I’ll be happy to hear it.

[ssobol]

Each battery having its own BMS can cause this issue. You want "dumb" batteries with a charge controller that feeds both as one battery source.

[C-Wolfe]