Lumishore underwater lights

[jfm]

... and that all assumes you've got the x120's which are monster powerful, and that you're running them in bright white, which you probably wouldn't be. An alternative would be the surface mount lights, which when you run them in cyan (which I do) at 24v would draw about 1.7A per unit - or 5A total.

Cheers
Jimmy

Hurricane I'm with Jimmy on the maths. And, referring back to the points above, I'm confident mine don't draw 5A per light and I new see that's due to fact I dont run them on high power white. I think i said my 6 lights draw 10 or 12A and EME has said it's gotta be 15A, fair enough, but anyway it's that order of mag. That's peanuts on a boat your size

I share your preference of not running gneset in evenings at anchor, once the cooking is finished (MYAG - our bit of the planet is cooler than your manor so airco isn't needed). So all lighting, fridges, icemakers, music and uw lights run off batteries and with care I can get the total draw down to 50 amps or so depending on the cutting in-and-out of the fridges/freezer/icemaker. I find that's fine for say 5 hours, then stuff shuts down at night leaving only the fridges and I start a genset in the morning to recharge batteries. Surely you'd follow a similar profile?

The right lighting install on your boat, to suit its size, is 4 x thru hull 120watts, ie the current version of the lights in my pics above, which were a bit OTT on a 58er but just right for your 70er imho

 

[RobWales]

Lynx? Aw now come on Deleted User you must have used this gear at some time in the past....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWn9EmbFTRo

Sorry for the thread drift but couldn't resist, very much like the advert....lol

 

[Hurricane]

Hurricane I'm with Jimmy on the maths. And, referring back to the points above, I'm confident mine don't draw 5A per light and I new see that's due to fact I dont run them on high power white. I think i said my 6 lights draw 10 or 12A and EME has said it's gotta be 15A, fair enough, but anyway it's that order of mag. That's peanuts on a boat your size

I share your preference of not running gneset in evenings at anchor, once the cooking is finished (MYAG - our bit of the planet is cooler than your manor so airco isn't needed). So all lighting, fridges, icemakers, music and uw lights run off batteries and with care I can get the total draw down to 50 amps or so depending on the cutting in-and-out of the fridges/freezer/icemaker. I find that's fine for say 5 hours, then stuff shuts down at night leaving only the fridges and I start a genset in the morning to recharge batteries. Surely you'd follow a similar profile?

The right lighting install on your boat, to suit its size, is 4 x thru hull 120watts, ie the current version of the lights in my pics above, which were a bit OTT on a 58er but just right for your 70er imho

Shame - I'm not getting anything like that out of our batteries.
I think I will be phoning Barden when we get home.
In the meantime, I will do some more tests to report some actual figures to them.

Thanks for your views anyway - seems I should be blaming my bateries.

 

[Nick_H]

Shame - I'm not getting anything like that out of our batteries.
I think I will be phoning Barden when we get home.
In the meantime, I will do some more tests to report some actual figures to them.

Thanks for your views anyway - seems I should be blaming my bateries.

Mike

I assume you top up your batteries regularly? I wrecked a whole set of batteries by not doing so. The electrician suggested at least every 3 months, maybe every month in summer when its hot if the boat is getting lots of use.

 

[Hurricane]

rst

Mike

I assume you top up your batteries regularly? I wrecked a whole set of batteries by not doing so. The electrician suggested at least every 3 months, maybe every month in summer when its hot if the boat is getting lots of use.

Yes, Nick, that's one of the reasons the old set got replaced. As I said above we knackered the old set in Malta but then I didnt top them up for a few months and REALLY killed them.

On the other hand, this new set have been really well looked after - never heavily discharged and always plenty of electrolyte over the plates. I feel a moan coming - dont know if I will get anywhere though.

Mike

 

[MapisM]

Well, it seems that my comment on current requirements started an interesting thread drift...

Shame - I'm not getting anything like that out of our batteries.

Hurric, may I ask you which batteries are you talking about?
I developed my own viewpoint on batteries over the years, and it's a pretty simple one:
just check the maximum limit which fits, both in terms of size and weight, and buy the bulkier and cheaper lead acid stuff you can get.
Spending more for gel, etc. is just pointless - as it is using starting batteries for engines, imho.

My boat was originally fitted with 6x12v batteries, all deep cycle, though 2 of them used for engines start and 4 for services. 80kg each.
I suppose that's because, being used to workboats, the builder didn't really care a lot about easy handling.
Anyway, I bought the boat when she was 5 yo, still with the original batteries, and used them for another 5 years.
I've never seen any better batteries on any boat so far.
The less bulky stuff which I fitted afterwards didn't last half as much.

 

[Hurricane]

Thanks guys

Guess what
I've checked the battery bank out
Disconnected all the batteries (just after switching the battery charger off so they all should have been fully charged)
They are low cost lead acid standard batteries (6 off 12v in 3 banks of 24v)
Two of the12v batteries (in different 24v banks were at 10v
Looks like they might have a faulty cell in each.
So I've removed them and reconnected the bank as 4 x 12v in 2 banks
On test now but looks promising.

I feel silly for not thinking of this earlier - thanks everyone.

 

[Elessar]

with care I can get the total draw down to 50 amps or so

down to 50A!

that's 1.6hp. When you start measuring lights and background services in HP that's a lot from my perspective.
Searush would be having apoplexy if his ammeter got to the 100A it would be at 12V and you think that's low!

Still I had a job once where my ammeter was in kiloamps, and that was at mains voltage. Reminds me that everything is relative.

 

[jfm]

down to 50A!

that's 1.6hp. When you start measuring lights and background services in HP that's a lot from my perspective.
Searush would be having apoplexy if his ammeter got to the 100A it would be at 12V and you think that's low!

Still I had a job once where my ammeter was in kiloamps, and that was at mains voltage. Reminds me that everything is relative.

Yes I realise Searush might be gasping. Thing is, it's mostly fridges freezers and icemakers, of which there are 5 compressor motors all in, probably running 70% of time in hot weahter? And I deleted 2 further fridges tye offer on the optons list. 20 Amps = .6hp. Then it's the halogen lights. Deck lighting is LED, but saloon and galley plus 50% of the cabins is suddenly 15A of halogen plus say 15A of Lumishore and that's 30Amps = 1hp.

A standard domestic house has 100A single phase supply = 30hp, though it might often run at 50% of that even in busy household, so let's not get too carried away by 1.6hp in a quiet anchorage!