KEWA Manual © Copyright 2016
Page: 55
55
Charging
Capacity Summary
For KEWA’s Lifeline house 24v bank, assuming the batteries are in good shape,
following the Efficient Recharging Regime outlined in this section results in 221 amp-
hours of routinely usable 24V capacity:
•
Batteries can be discharged until the amp-house meter reads:
–315
•
Then should be charged until the amp hour reading is:
–95
Assume, on average that there may be a draw of 8a while inhabiting the boat. This
means 18 hours of operation between charging, but this obviously is highly variable.
Charging Summary
With all the electronics on board, and people generally fully availing themselves of them,
monitoring and maintaining the state-of-charge (SOC) is a routine event throughout a day
on board.
There are two monitoring systems installed on KEWA. The primary system, the
LinkPros, monitor all four battery banks on board (24v house, 12v house, 12v engine
start, 12v genset start). The heads are located in the passageway aft and provide full
profiling of the house banks and voltage-only for the starting batteries.
The second system is an installed optional accessory to the Magnum inverter/charger. It
is accessed via the 230v Magnum remote head also located in the passageway aft.
Pressing Meter and selecting menu option 5 – BMK Meters takes you into this system
which somewhat similar to the LinkPros provides Battery SOC, DC Volts, DC Amps and
some other measurements.
Charging itself is achieved via two principal systems, with solar as a baseline. The first is
the battery chargers (230v Magnum Inverter/Charger and MasterVolt 12v charger) and
the second is the alternators (24v Balmar and 12v Balmar) on the aux engine. The genset
has its own dedicated battery, located in the engine room, that is charged by the genset’s
alternator. Solar is supplied via two xxx panels, which on a clear, sunny day provide up
to about 17a max.
The solar system has a control panel mounted in the master bunk electronics cabinet, but
also convenient PC software to monitor the current as well as configure the controller.
The solar charges the 24v house bank and xxx. It is nice as it is quiet and just does its job
when the sun is up. During a sunny day, it provides enough power to put up to about 8a
of positive charge into the house bank while also powering whatever else is typically on.
In general, the solar system probably keeps up with the refrigeration system daily but
isn’t powerful enough to obviate the need for genset or engine-based charging when
away from the dock.
Commented [WK4]:
Insert brand
Commented [WK5]:
brand
Commented [WK6]:
12v house and 12v engine start??
