Battery charger - how much shore power to keep charged

[macd]

I do leave my battery charger on and can safely say it should consume hardly anything.
1.5 units is about 25pence per day or thereabouts . Not huge but perhaps fridge has been left on?
Has a frost protection heater not been put in the engine bay ? if so it might have cut in in recent nights if on a thermostat? Perhaps frost in your area is not a risk?

Starting the engine every few weeks also seems to me unnecessary and possibly detrimental …………but each to his own,.

Even if fitted, I very much doubt any frost protection has kicked in. Still mild on most of the Turkish coast.
The engine start routine suggests the engine hasn't been winterised, in which case some manufacturers recommend running the engine every few weeks.

Further to my post above I called the marina electrician to the boat. He confirmed the units on the meter are a tenth of a Kw so the 15 per day it's using = 1.5Kw. He didn't seem to think the usage was unusual but he wouldn't, would he.

Consumption meters are not calibrated in kW, but in kWh (kilowatt hours), i.e the "volume" of electricity used. Whatever the sparks says, 1.5kWh is unusually high if the battery charger alone is drawing power. For comparison, charging the 2 x 225Ah batteries from half discharged would take roughly 3kWh, less efficiency losses. Clearly that's a whole lot more than the float charge they should need to keep them topped up.

 

[Irish Rover]

Even if fitted, I very much doubt any frost protection has kicked in. Still mild on most of the Turkish coast.
The engine start routine suggests the engine hasn't been winterised, in which case some manufacturers recommend running the engine every few weeks.



Consumption meters are not calibrated in kW, but in kWh (kilowatt hours), i.e the "volume" of electricity used. Whatever the sparks says, 1.5kWh is unusually high if the battery charger alone is drawing power. For comparison, charging the 2 x 225Ah batteries from half discharged would take roughly 3kWh, less efficiency losses. Clearly that's a whole lot more than the float charge they should need to keep them topped up.

Weather still super here 24C today and a low of 19C forecast tonight. Frost is almost unheard of here but we (hopefully) will get a fair amount of rain. Owner says to run the engines every few weeks to prevent any build up of condensation. Personally I wouldn't have thought that was necessary but I'll do as I was asked.
Back to the power consumption it did seem excessive even to a humpty like me so that's why I started the thread.
Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Finbar]

Make sure that you are not heating water in the calorifier, often the immersion heater is connected when on shore power.

 

[Forty_Two]

Maybe fridge left on.

Draw of say 4.5A at 13.5v gives 60.75w times 24hrs is 1.458kw used in 24hrs.

 

[Irish Rover]

Maybe fridge left on.

Draw of say 4.5A at 13.5v gives 60.75w times 24hrs is 1.458kw used in 24hrs.

Fridge is definitely off. All AC breakers off except battery charger and all DC off except bilge pump.
I see you have a GB 42 Classic same as my friend. Beautiful boat.

 

[Forty_Two]

They are indeed, very comfortable. Mine is a woody as well, 50 years young now, owned her for 32 years.

It sounds like it must be the charger then. Depends on the battery capacity & if they are perhaps getting on a bit together with an elderly inefficient charger. Is there an Amp meter on the charger or anywhere else? You need to know what the charge going in to the batteries is to figure this out I reckon.

Standard install would be two 220Ah batteries, one per engine, but could have much more, maybe a separate house bank.

1.5kw per 24hrs is only 62.5w/hr so not indicative of a major issue to me. Just need to know where it's going Check the voltage across the batteries & make sure one is not getting hot. Is the charger hot?

Probably only 3 or 4 amps at 13.5v allowing for inefficiency in the charger & wiring. Does the owner know if this is normal for their boat?

 

[Bav32]

How about just switching the battery charger off and monitoring consumption. Should be nil.
If power is consumed when charger off,looks like a mains power device is on.

 

[Graham376]

1972 Grand Banks Classic with wooden hull.

Have the bilge pumps been running?

 

[Forty_Two]

Sorry I missed your earlier post with charger & battery details!

I don't know the Sterling charger but I'm sure others do. Presumably the LED's on it should give an indication of charge mode & maybe consumption.

Could there be a light somewhere left on that is wired to bypass the master switch that I assume is off?

Bav32's idea is sound & would clarify that it's a DC issue.

 

[Irish Rover]

I disconnected the shore power today and will check the numbers tomorrow to ensure it's not a marina meter issue. If that's ok I'll reconnect but leave the charger off and see what happens.

 

[dunedin]

I disconnected the shore power today and will check the numbers tomorrow to ensure it's not a marina meter issue. If that's ok I'll reconnect but leave the charger off and see what happens.

Good plan.

And perhaps suggest the owner adds a small solar panel to keep the batteries topped up. Even in winter in Scotland a small panel keeps our batteries topped up. I would not leave the charger on permanently when boat left for long periods. In Turkey it would be a no brainer.

 

[Forty_Two]

I disconnected the shore power today and will check the numbers tomorrow to ensure it's not a marina meter issue. If that's ok I'll reconnect but leave the charger off and see what happens.

Sounds good, step by step.

 

[Irish Rover]

I disconnected the shore power today and will check the numbers tomorrow to ensure it's not a marina meter issue. If that's ok I'll reconnect but leave the charger off and see what happens.

Checked this morning and the marina meter reading is the same as when I disconnected. I've reconnected and turned the battery charger off at the breaker. Will report result.

 

[Momac]

I should have looked at the boat location. Tge reference to Ireland fooled me.
Friends had mystery high electrical consumption and it was unexplained. Could a fault in shore power cable cause energy use without tripping a breaker?

 

[RupertW]

Good plan.

And perhaps suggest the owner adds a small solar panel to keep the batteries topped up. Even in winter in Scotland a small panel keeps our batteries topped up. I would not leave the charger on permanently when boat left for long periods. In Turkey it would be a no brainer.

And that will deliver maybe 0.1kWh daily compared to the 1.5 the boat appears to be getting now - it all still suggests the op is misreading the meter or the battery charger is using grossly high amounts of power.

 

[penberth3]

And that will deliver maybe 0.1kWh daily compared to the 1.5 the boat appears to be getting now - it all still suggests the op is misreading the meter or the battery charger is using grossly high amounts of power.

Or, most likely and already suggested, another load somewhere. The OP appears to be checking this right now.

 

[penberth3]

I should have looked at the boat location. Tge reference to Ireland fooled me.
Friends had mystery high electrical consumption and it was unexplained. Could a fault in shore power cable cause energy use without tripping a breaker?

Possible, depending on the fault and the type of breaker. It's about 60W so something would be getting warm.

 

[Irish Rover]

Checked this morning and the marina meter reading is the same as when I disconnected. I've reconnected and turned the battery charger off at the breaker. Will report result.

I'm inclined to give up. As reported above I turned off the breaker switch for the charger this morning but, rookie mistake, I didn't climb down into the engine bay to confirm it was off. Returned this afternoon and found 4 units on the meter used since morning so I thought I'd cracked it - something else using AC power. I climbed down into the engine bay to check the water heater even though I had checked it previously. Imagine my surprise to see the battery charger lit up. So the only way to turn off the charger is to turn off the main AC breaker which makes it difficult to determine if something else is drawing power along with the charger. Afterwards I checked around the boat and found another electric panel in the forward heads which has domestic type breaker switches. These were in the on position but when I closed one of them marked sockets it shut off all power on the boat. At this stage I really don't know what I'm doing so I'm going to do nothing more. The boat was lying alongside all summer and apparently using the same level of power with no apparent ill affects so I'll just wait for the owner to come back in the Spring and talk to him about it then. It's not a major financial cost.

 

[dom]

I'm inclined to give up. As reported above I turned off the breaker switch for the charger this morning but, rookie mistake, I didn't climb down into the engine bay to confirm it was off. Returned this afternoon and found 4 units on the meter used since morning so I thought I'd cracked it - something else using AC power. I climbed down into the engine bay to check the water heater even though I had checked it previously. Imagine my surprise to see the battery charger lit up. So the only way to turn off the charger is to turn off the main AC breaker which makes it difficult to determine if something else is drawing power along with the charger. Afterwards I checked around the boat and found another electric panel in the forward heads which has domestic type breaker switches. These were in the on position but when I closed one of them marked sockets it shut off all power on the boat. At this stage I really don't know what I'm doing so I'm going to do nothing more. The boat was lying alongside all summer and apparently using the same level of power with no apparent ill affects so I'll just wait for the owner to come back in the Spring and talk to him about it then. It's not a major financial cost.

An older vessel, but a battery charger without a circuit breaker is not good practice.

Might be worth taking this and the entire problem up with the owner. If he has no explanation, I would still recommend a 25 quid clamp-on-ammeter to figure if the batts are really taking that charge and if not what is.

Personally I couldn't sleep at night with that kind of power going astray in a wooden vessel !!

 

[Irish Rover]

An older vessel, but a battery charger without a circuit breaker is not good practice.
Might be worth taking this and the entire problem up with the owner. If he has no explanation, I would still recommend a 25 quid clamp-on-ammeter to figure if the batts are really taking that charge and if not what is.
Personally I couldn't sleep at night with that kind of power going astray in a wooden vessel !!

I do intend to talk to him about it but not until he gets back here and can do something about it - like you it might keep him awake at night for the next few months until he gets back so for now ignorance is bliss.