Getting Amped Up

A friend recently asked if we were slacking on the boat, given the lack of updates... I'm happy to say that we may be slacking on the blog, but not on the work! We've realized that writing comprehensive blogs every time we work on the boat is not a sustainable practice, especially as we ramp up our visits. Also, we've started on larger projects which don’t provide quick satisfaction and easily documented progress. So, we're going to be more selective with our entries here, focusing on specific topics. 

Today's topic? Upgrading the batteries and associated systems to better serve our needs. Our goals is to be out on the water for 2-3 days at a time, and this boat is not really set up for that. There are only 3 batteries on board: one cranking battery for each engine, and one for the generator. There is no house battery bank, with house loads connected to the port engine battery. We would need to constantly run the generator (or the engines) in order to support the inadequate house battery setup. To top things off, the generator is old and tired, parts are no longer made for it, and it wasn’t running well during our sea trial. So, we decided to re-think the whole thing. 

The first step was to go “in there” (as in, the engine room - see above - and other harder to access areas of the bilge) and figure out what’s there. This is a process that seemed intimidating on its own… A quick glance at these areas revealed a complicated mess of cables, leaving me wondering where to even start. I had put this off for a while in favor of more immediately-satisfying jobs, but finally decided it was time. Becca volunteered to help with the note taking and, more importantly, with keeping my gumption level high, and I got ready to dive into the engine room to start the surveying process. 

As we started figuring out what was what, we took the opportunity to hunt down and remove outdated equipment and cables along the way. Too often all this stuff is left behind, resulting in an unnecessary mess that only makes any future work harder. After a few hours of “cleanup,” we had amassed a very satisfying haul of obsolete junk. The cathartic satisfaction associated with this purge is hard to overstate!

 

 

With all that gone, it was time to carefully document the existing electrical setup, so that upgrade plans could be made. This necessitated a significant amount of contorting about doing engine room yoga, tracing wires, taking dimensions and lots of detailed pictures. All of which resulted in yet more great satisfaction as things that seemed complicated and intellectually inaccessible started to make sense.

 

 

Becca diligently took notes as I carefully tracked every wire connected to the batteries, calling out where they were going, approximate size, and key dimensions. It was a bit slow going, and I can’t say that I was understanding everything on the spot… But the detailed survey allowed me to go back home and process the information, converting Becca’s notes into a couple of simple (and quite understandable!) diagrams. 

And boom! Just like that, the web of wires was no longer a mystery! Which brings us to an exciting part of the project: designing a setup that will fit our needs. The focus, for the moment, is on adding a dedicated house bank that can keep us in the water for a few days. We’ll want maintenance free AGM batteries and to improve the charging systems so that we are not dependent on running a gas generator. In fact, we plan on removing the generator altogether and adding an inverter to run light AC loads when necessary. To further extend our possible time on the water, we plan on adding a solar array (probably next winter) to optimize battery charging. Running a generator is a very inefficient way to make power, not to mention the safety concerns (such as CO poisoning) so we are happy to get that heavy, outdated, and burdensome beast out of the engine room to make room for a more efficient and sustainable system. We will give up the ability to run heavy AC loads while underway - the two air conditioning units on the boat being the big compromise - but we are confident that we wouldn’t want to run a generator for long periods of time just to run air out on the water anyway. It’s never too hot on Lake Superior… It may be the reverse cycle heat that we end up missing but, if that becomes an issue, there are stove solutions out there that we could look at in the future.

Of course, I am no electrical engineer. So, we’ve engaged a marine electrical consultant to help us with the design of our new house battery system and associated elements. This upgrade will not only provide the capacity we need in a safer and more reliable setup, but also add capabilities for enhanced monitoring and paralleling of batteries (for redundancy) that were not there before. We are excited to see what Surge Marine cooks up for us after a very positive first meeting where we discussed our needs and outlined a rough plan for our system. From their recent Instagram story, it looks like they’re already working on our design... Stay tuned for updates!