How many Amp Hours do you have in your house bank?

[Tim Good]

How many Amp hours do you have in your house banks bank and what type of batteries do you have?

 

[duncan99210]

500, cheap sealed lead acid batteries. In their third year now, working fine. Cost about €100-110 per 100 amp hour battery. When we set sail nine years ago we had 220 amp hours worth of agm batteries which cost more than the current lot put together. Too small and the gave up after three years.

 

[multihullsailor6]

420 Amps in four AGM batteries which are now 2 years old. The previous lead acid batteries lasted 6 years.

 

[Yngmar]

4x130 Ah (520 Ah) if you believe the stickers. Used to be 5x130 Ah (650 Ah), but one died. Since the other four were still fine and the capacity sufficient for our needs, I just removed the failed one instead of replacing the whole bank. They're about 10 year old AGMs, but spent a few years plugged into shorepower being float charged, so didn't spend a lot of their cycles. I gave them a few weeks on a desulphator last year too, but didn't dare leave it wired in.

 

[TQA]

6 X Trojan T 105 golf cart batteries.

Gives me 675 ah. Enough to run the fridge and lappievfor two days plus with no sun.

 

[sailaboutvic]

420 ah of lead seal we was running on three up to a few weeks ago but just wasn't enough in early spring and winter , hopefully it be better this year .

 

[Ashman]

550 AH AGMs, so no maintenance. We originally had Lifeline batteries but they came to the end of their life almost to the day that the 5 year warranty ran out. Replaced them with WestMarine’s 20 months ago, we had no other choice in Guatemala, but so far they are holding up well.
We run a fridge and a freezer constantly and use solar, and wind to keep them (nearly) topped up with an additional daily 30minutes of 60AH from our 4.3 kw generator.......we sail mainly in the tropics.

 

[Richard10002]

4 x Trojan T105s, so 450Ah when new almost 3 years ago.... but calculations suggest they are seriously sulphated and have an actual capacity now of about 200Ah.

Budgeting for new batteries in march or April...probably 4 x normal 110Ah lead Acid, perhaps Exide, or Varta this time.

 

[Tranona]

While it is always useful to know what others have, just that knowledge in isolation is not a lot of help as there are so many other variables to consider such as typical daily consumption, charging capability, space available etc when deciding for your boat.

Think it is reasonable to say that a cruising boat in the 38-45' range aiming to be self sufficient for fairly long periods is likely to need somewhere in the region of 4-600AH capacity and as much solar as can reasonably be fitted on the boat (plus possibly wind or towed) and for boats at the upper end possibly a generator.

Likewise the choice of battery type varies according to preference and depth of pocket

So perhaps more important to understand the reasoning behind the choices of others so you can assess how they relate to your situation. Making choices is difficult particularly when there are so many options and you don't have that depth of personal experience to draw on.

 

[alexsailor]

560

 

[RobbieW]

Nominally 720ah of 6v AGM, as the batteries are now 8 years old the actual will be rather less. The capacity you can have is related to space available, usage and the depth of discharge you're prepared to tolerate. To get a decent life I very rarely discharge over 30%, usually 20%, before fully recharging. Solar delays that by keeping the charge going but doesnt keep up with usage, I try to get a full recharge about once a week living on the hook.

Edit: I should clarify thats its my solar installation that doesnt keep up with usage, not a general statement

 

[capnsensible]

Two 120 ah batteries and a Rutland wind generator serves all our needs at sea with a Hydrovane. Over 20 years would estimate that five years is a fair life expectancy of the batteries.

 

[Bobc]

6 X Trojan T 105 golf cart batteries.

Gives me 675 ah. Enough to run the fridge and lappievfor two days plus with no sun.

Same

 

[Tim Good]

While it is always useful to know what others have, just that knowledge in isolation is not a lot of help as there are so many other variables to consider such as typical daily consumption, charging capability, space available etc when deciding for your boat.

Think it is reasonable to say that a cruising boat in the 38-45' range aiming to be self sufficient for fairly long periods is likely to need somewhere in the region of 4-600AH capacity and as much solar as can reasonably be fitted on the boat (plus possibly wind or towed) and for boats at the upper end possibly a generator.

Likewise the choice of battery type varies according to preference and depth of pocket

So perhaps more important to understand the reasoning behind the choices of others so you can assess how they relate to your situation. Making choices is difficult particularly when there are so many options and you don't have that depth of personal experience to draw on.

Good and fair advice.

For a decent solar controller like our Victron, when it says it is at float how likely is it that the battery are actually full? Or does it need to be at float for a good while to guarantee they are tipped up?

 

[GrahamM376]

480 ah, 4 x Trojan T125

 

[GHA]

Good and fair advice.

For a decent solar controller like our Victron, when it says it is at float how likely is it that the battery are actually full? Or does it need to be at float for a good while to guarantee they are tipped up?

I'd actually forget about float altogether if living on the hook with solar, takes long enough to get back to really fully charged even at absorption. And likely much less harmful to spend an hour or 2 at absorption charged than risk not actually getting to full.

 

[GHA]

2 x T105's so 225aH @ 12v when new, still solid in 3rd year. 300W solar, fridge & laptop. Going down to about 80% overnight and back to full most days.

 

[TonyMS]

100AH, but we don't really need so much.

We get by in Greece from April to end September by only having the fridge as a serious consumer. Otherwise, instruments, tablets, phones, lights consume less than 1 or 2 amps in total. The fridge is programmed to only come on when the voltage is 13.something, and switches off when it drops below 12.8. Typically it works from 9:30 till 18:00. Stuff is still cold in the morning.

We have a nominal 300W of solar panels, but they are fixed, so the efficiency is low.

TonyMS

 

[Tim Good]

The fridge is programmed to only come on when the voltage is 13.something, and switches off when it drops below 12.8. Typically it works from 9:30 till 18:00. Stuff is still cold in the morning.

That's an interesting thought actually. I'd never really thought about running the fridge colder than normal during daylight hours whilst solar is working (we have 360w) and then turning off at night.

I imagine that works very efficiently. What do you use to switch the fridge off at a specific voltage?

 

[TonyMS]

My (MPPT) controller has a program-controlled output. Everything except the fridge is simply connected to the battery. The fridge is connected to the controlled output, and I can set the switch-on and switch-off voltages independently.