Electrical charging conundrum

[GrahamM376]

Sorry for a slight overstatement - but I did say BEST battery monitor set up.

Nasa £105 - other brands twice the price.
Smartguage and a separate shunt from another manufacturer less than £200.

But the Nasa can only measure up to 100 amps and 650 Ah battery capacity.

You do get what you pay for.

And how many people do you think need to measure loads over 100 amps and have a battery capacity on one bank of over 650AH? Be sensible.

 

[VicS]

Sorry for a slight overstatement - but I did say BEST battery monitor set up.

Nasa £105 - other brands twice the price.
Smartguage and a separate shunt from another manufacturer less than £200.

But the Nasa can only measure up to 100 amps and 650 Ah battery capacity.

You do get what you pay for.

And how many people do you think need to measure loads over 100 amps and have a battery capacity on one bank of over 650AH? Be sensible.

The BM2 has a range up to 199 A and a battery capacity up to 999 Ah. But it does £20 more than the BM1

 

[john_morris_uk]

I don't want to get involved in any willy waving over which battery monitor is best but we use one of these:

http://www.outdoorgb.com/p/12v_batt...undle=122903&gclid=COfz4sCu0rkCFYWz3godKgoA2w

And we are very happy with it. Volts, Ah and amps measured for up to four battery banks. (Ah in and out only for one of the banks)

The OP already has some good advice. Solar power is getting cheaper. We have a smart alternator controller and wind power and despite running the fridge etc 24/7 we never run at more than 25% of our 400+Ah domestic bank used. Perhaps that's why our domestic batteries last so long?

 

[sailinglegend420]

And how many people do you think need to measure loads over 100 amps and have a battery capacity on one bank of over 650AH? Be sensible.

In my world as a full time cruiser liveaboard this is very common - sorry I should be on the liveaboard forum not PBO!!!!

My windlass - which of course is connected to the service bank - will often take over 100 amps for short periods. Anyone with a 1.5Kw inverter or greater will very often take more than 100 amps for microwaves or other high loads. For this 650Ah battery capacity is also a minimum.

 

[GrahamM376]

In my world as a full time cruiser liveaboard this is very common - sorry I should be on the liveaboard forum not PBO!!!!

My windlass - which of course is connected to the service bank - will often takes over 100 amps for short periods. Anyone with a 1.5Kw inverter or greater will very often take more than 100 amps for microwaves or other high loads. For this 650Ah battery capacity is also a minimum.

We are also liveaboards for most of the year but the OP isn't, he says "Our domestic demands are approx 50-60ah per day"

 

[lw395]

We are also liveaboards for most of the year but the OP isn't, he says "Our domestic demands are approx 50-60ah per day"

That was my feeling.
I suspect the fridge is the culprit.

I think it is worth bearing in mind the cost of eating ashore, the savings on a few good meals cooked afloat (and a few cold beers not at £4 a pint) will pay for a lot of batteries and so forth.
But my next boat will have a very seriously insulated fridge.
It is worth looking at the demand as well as the supply.