Monday, October 28, 2013

RE: Re: [Electric Boats] AGM vs. FLA batteries and their usage

 

 Oak,

 

You are correct.  My Elcon PFC2000+ puts out more than 28A at 54V while being powered by my Yamaha EF2000iS.  The good thing is that unlike many LA "smart" chargers, most chargers with lithium profiles will produce max amps with the batteries more than 95% full (lithiums charge much better than LA) and won't get confused by a constant load greater that the charger's output for hours on end. 

 

As I posted yesterday...

 

"Range is a funny thing. I made sure that I could motor over 20nm at 4kts (that's 5hrs) with batteries alone. But the boat is considered a sailing auxiliary, using the motor at all is a backup. When my boat was still diesel, I never burned more than 2 gallons in a weekend of coastal cruising, most of my time was spent under sail. Of course, I couldn't blindly accept such a limited range under power, so I bought a portable generator (mine is a Yamaha EF2000is, very similar to a Honda.), a backup to my backup. It weighs 50 pounds with a full tank and fits in a cockpit locker for transport. I have tested it by plugging my shore-power battery charger directly into the generator running on deck and have found that the generator/charger/electric drive combination will drive the boat at 4.4kts without any power from the battery bank. I've motored like this for an hour to prove to myself that it would work (it did) and when I slowed down, the excess power charged my batteries. Here's the clincher, in three years, including weekend passages over 30nm one way to offshore islands, I've never needed the generator. I don't bring it on day sails. I've got no solar or wind generation and regen is insignificant at my boat's speeds. But with 8kWh (160Ah x 50V) range has not turned out to be an issue. I didn't expect that, but that's the way that things have turned out."

Fair winds,

Eric

1964 Bermuda 30, 5.5kW Propulsion Marine drive, 8kWh LiFePO4 batteries

Marina del Rey, CA


---In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Ned,
Thanks for this input!  Now I just need another $1000 or so, and I'll be in business...   :)

With a $500/$600 charger, it looks like the current output would be enough that I could run that off a small generator for backup, as it sounds like several are doing.  Is that correct?

From: Ned Farinholt <nedfarinholt@...>
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 2:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] AGM vs. FLA batteries and their usage

 
Steve in Solomons:
I found them very helpful. They are in Calif and I am in Va and the shipping was much less than I expected. I worked with a fellow named Mark. I bought GBS cells. The CALBs were not available at the time. If I were to get more, I would go for the CALBs if for no other reason than the bolted terminals are easier than the four little screws. 
Again, I have no commercial interest in any of this. Just want to see the applications move forward.
All the best,
Ned

 

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