T-Pain Is On A Boat: Re: [Electric Boats] Charging to 80% rather than 50%

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Re: [Electric Boats] Charging to 80% rather than 50%

Steve

How big is your battery bank and how long does it take to fully charge at what size genarator amps and voltages? Or are you only fast charging up to what percent?

Aaron

From: Steve Dolan <sdolan@scannersllc.com>
To: "electricboats@yahoogroups.com" <electricboats@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 5:29 AM
Subject: [Electric Boats] Charging to 80% rather than 50%

I changed the subject line on this since it really didn't have anything to do with props.

First off Mike I discharge to around 60% since my AGM's (Northstar) engineer said it did no harm to the batteries, he said 50% was fine. I'm guessing that the 80% set point was to keep the batteries in the Absorption phase of charging, reducing the charge time on the genset. This is just a guess mind you. I know that the auto run time thingy has been a nuisance on one of the Electric 410s that had the original genset replaced and this auto start installed. Short cycles and midnight start-ups. I also just monitor the state of the batteries at the helm and start the genset when it's convenient and run till the pack is happy.

Since it seems to be slow hear the last few days here is another Cat thinking about converting to Electric Outboards and his thoughts on batteries, solar, charging, and the like.

http://www.katiekat.net/Cruise/KatieKat2004F.html#4Aug2011

He does world cruising, into a fully electric house, cars and scooters. Sounds like our kind of guy….

Steve in Solomons MD

Lagoon 410 SE

Mike

My feeling is just because you can does not mean you should. I want my battery bank to last as long as possible before I meed to replace it. Lagoon may operate on the same principle.

Sent from on board BIANKA
http://biankablog.blogspot.com

i've heard that batteries can be discharged to about 50% without doing any long term damage... considering that why is it that automatic recharging is set to come on at 80% rather than say 60%

Steve:

Very interesting. It turns out I operate the same way with my electric propulsion system. My generator comes on when the battery bank has dropped to 80%. Of course unlike the Lagoon
setup I've got to manually start it and stop it. But, I'm glad to know that I may have stumbled upon a good operating proceedure on my own. Thanks for posting it.

Capt. Mike

http://biankablog.blogspot.com/

From: Steve Dolan <sdolan@scannersllc.com>
Subject: RE: [Electric Boats] Re: actual test data for prop regen? [1 Attachment]
To: " electricboats@yahoogroups.com " < electricboats@yahoogroups.com >
Date: Monday, October 10, 2011, 10:30 AM

Just ran across this at the Lagoon Owners site, The "Manual" for the 420 Electric that didn't go well for the owners. There might be some info in here someone could use. Note it was put together in 04.

Steve in Solomons MD
Lagoon 410 SE