DEKA bank

I finally got the 24 volt battery bank hooked up. With the rain we have had it has been near impossible to work in the basement (old engine room). I was still having trouble with the main controller, or the understanding of it. I contacted the DEKA battery company about the batteries I got. In spite of the float and cycle voltages documented on the batteries, the full voltage on these batteries is 12.8 volts.

One thing I did not realize was that when you hook batteries up in series parallel, or just in parallel, that the controller must be set to handle the increased amperage/current. With my controller you must set the AH to what the battery bank AH is. Dummy me, somehow I didn't realize that! Nonetheless, I will go over today and reset it from the 104 AH to the 416 AH, and 25.6 volts.

No matter how educated I get on this stuff it never ceases to amaze me of how much I do not know. I’m glad I am not an arrogant person; otherwise I would never learn anything. If you think you know it all you have no room to change your opinion!

I also hooked my solar array directly to my house bank to try and get them up to a reasonable voltage. I’m not sure if they are worth saving, but I thought I would give it a go. Since the solar controller for the house bank is not working, and my wind generator diversion load controller went bad, I am just going to put a full load from the solar array directly into the bank. The voltage is down to 10.6, so it will take a bit to get them up close enough that I’ll have to unhook them before overcharge.

The new dock is real nice, but I do not have electricity at the dock. So, I have to either bring my generator over to power things up, or wait to get the controllers in order. In spite of not having electricity at the dock, it is still light years better than where we were. We have no one hassling us, and no parking lot of dust blowing over the boat.

The biggest plus with the new dock is that we are allowed to get into the pool to cool off!

I also have had a nagging drip coming from the Bimini connector on the port side. Whoever mounted the Bimini bent the pole in a bit too much, and when it rains and blows the Bimini shakes about and allows a drip to get through below.

I mounted a bracket on the outside of the boat so there will be no bend on the Bimini, and eliminate the leak. I’m letting it set for a couple of days so the bedding will dry.

Whether you are cruising or just sitting, the jobs on a boat never seem to dwindle. I guess that half the fun of owning a boat is working on it to improve or maintain it; although at the time it never seems to feel that way. 

More controller errors

A treat today; two blogs! Well, we went down to the boat, so I could check our battery bank voltages. It’s been a couple of cloudy days since I put the new fuse in the main solar controller. The 24 volt motor bank was topped off perfectly. When I checked the house bank they had not charged, so I took both controllers off the house bank and brought them home for testing. I have three controllers all together.

The diversion controller, for my wind generator, had taken in some water as well, and needed to be cleaned up. I will also have to get another relay for it. The Mppt solar controller for the house bank had a 40 amp fuse blown in it, so I’ll get another and put them both back on in the next few days.

On the diversion controller I am also going to hook up the load off the Mppt house controller directly to the house bank through a continuous duty starter relay switch. When the diversion controller hits its peak it will shut off the continuous solar charge. I hope that makes some sense? 

For days when I am depleting the house bank quicker than the 30 amp Mppt controller can handle this setup will allow a quicker charge. I will add a diode to the load in case the Mppt diode is not in the load circuit.

I guess staying home this summer to debug all of these problems, and having time to finish off trim, etc. on the boat has been a blessing. I would not have liked doing all of this while on the boat. I do realize that things will come up while cruising, but the basics will be working before we leave, and if anything happens while cruising it will not be too much to fix once all is configured properly.

Finding benchmarks to compare with is not easy and mostly impossible for solar powered houseboats. How far can I go with the solar panels getting good light all day? If the controllers are all working properly, how long can the house bank last with the air conditioner, frig, microwave, etc. running? Will I need to run the generator on occasion, or just have it as another redundancy?

There are many questions to ask when only the math has a definitive answer. But, regardless of the math proving itself, I would still like to test it through using it in a real time situation to back up the math. 

Now Fred would say that it isn't worth the bother, and maybe he would be right. I love to mess around with this stuff, or I wouldn't take the heartache that comes along with trial and error. Nothing ever gets figured out without people like me questioning the norm! 

New controller fuse

Since we now have time to finish up some lingering projects on the boat, before we attempt another long trip this fall, I thought I would measure up what space we have available. I feel that for us to have a successful trip we must be able to conform to some of our daily habits in order to not upset the natural balance we have developed.

When we were young, spontaneity was our guide; well at least that was mine. But now that I am not able to travel easily anymore we must stick to what works. There are days when I am up at the crack of dawn, and other days when Lynda has to work at getting me awake.

So, figuring out a routine and making decisions as to what and where we will spend most of our time on the boat, will help us ease in to the cruising life. In calculating our available space in and out of the boat I came up with the following:

We have 911.5 square feet of usable space on the boat; not including the outside walkways. 689.5 square feet is inside, which makes up the pilot house, kitchen, master bed and bath, the 2nd bedroom and bath, and the remaining amount makes up the front porch, back porch, and the top usable deck under the Bimini.  It does not include the engine room (basement with no engines), or the front top of the boat where the solar array is mounted.

Compared to our 28’ Aloha sailboat, and our cabin at the Grand Canyon, we will be living in a mansion! At our former marina, (where there are no liveaboards), three people come to mind. These individuals, who stay on their boats full time, have either never taken their boats out, or have not taken them out in recent memory. All three have sailboats; two 36 ‘, and one 30’. My unwavering contention was and is: why would you want to live on, (I mean stay on), a cramped sailboat that never moves, rather than a palatial powerboat or houseboat?

Some things are not meant for me to know? Regardless, we are quite happy with our boat now, and that camaraderie that sailboat owners have, that often, if not always excludes “stinkpotters”, will have to trundle on without us. Sailboats travel far on wind and diesel, but if you want to travel in comfort, and you like more room, you must consider an alternative; that is why we chose to convert this houseboat into a solar cruiser.

That is enough of my rambling for this blog entry. Since it is going to be in the low 90’s this week, we will probably not go to the boat and work.

I did hook the solar controller back up the other day, so we can get the batteries back up to speed. I still need to separate the eight batteries in to four 24 volt packs in parallel, which will give us 416 amps @ 24 volts. As I mentioned in another blog the controller blew a $50 fuse when it was underwater during the boat flood. I was going to hook the boat up at 36 volts to get more speed, but the 36 volt array will need an extra 20 amps to run, and my number one controller is only set to handle 1000 watts or 40 amps. Even at maximum the solar array with that controller will not be able to keep up with the diminished capacity being extracted from the battery bank. I did consider running my little generator while cruising to compensate, but will save that for later in case I feel more power and speed are necessary. 

I can run my 800/1000 watt generator on full load for 12 hours on .9 gallons of gas. If I went to 36 volts and the increased amperage it will cost me for gasoline whereas I can cruise for free on the 24 volt 30 amps currently. My speed varies according to current and wind, but usually I can average around 3 mph. Clearly that is not fast, but it is free. I suspect I can get used to free with the occasional use of the Johnson 115 rudder.

I did figure out that if I went with the 36 volt system and generator I would be able to average around 30 miles to the gallon compared to the 3 miles to the gallon I get with the Johnson 115, and that is only when wind and current is not against me. So, I will wile my way along until the cooler weather arrives. There is always something to work on at the boat.