10
Batteries/Inverter
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Cascadia has 6 batteries onboard, one for starting the engine, four to power the
cabin accessories, and one to power the bow thruster. These three battery
systems are separated from each other by a combiner so it should be impossible to
drain the start battery. The house batteries are located under the first salon sole
panel in the main walkway. The starter battery is under the port aft mattress. The
bow thruster battery is in under the front part of the fore cabin mattress.
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Battery Monitor – Cascadia has a Scheiber Navicolor touchscreen (located next to
the main DC panel) which can be used to monitor the batteries. The voltage
normally starts at 13.5 when fully charged. It will then drop to 12.45 and levels off
for quite a while, then starts dropping again. When it starts dropping this second
time, you have very little reserve left and it is time to recharge when the voltage
gets to 12.2 volts – PLEASE DO NOT RUN THE VOLTAGE BELOW 12.0 – DOING SO
DAMAGES THE BATTERIES.
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The house battery banks tend to recharge well with a few hours of motoring each
day.
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The fridge, freezer, and webasto heating system (as well as anything using the
inverter – TV, toaster, coffee maker) all have significant effect on the battery life.
We generally get the fridge (and freezer) down to temp on shore power or while
motoring and turn them off while sailing or at anchor. We typically turn the
heating system off a night.
