luckybeanz
Member
As I said, I went full electric, meaning electric motor. The system is comprised of a 12v 550ah house bank charged by 2 110w Sunpower flexible panels and a 48v 550ah bank charged by 3 400w Sunpower panels. All cells are lishen 280ah cells ( so technically I've got 560ah banks), this makes a total of 35kw of battery. The cells cost me $3000 shipped to Italy and I used REC BMS, which were expensive and for most people the Daily BMS would suffice, that said, they have been great at keeping the cells balanced*.
The anchor windlass, hydraulic keel and autopilot run off the 12v bank as well as the house systems such as the refrigerator, lights etc.
The 48v bank runs the motor and has a 5kw inverter connected to it which runs induction cooker, blender any tools I want, it charges my electric outboard and when at anchor it can generate hot water without the need to run the engine, I can also use the 48v bank to charge the 12v bank if needed.
As for how this system has held up, pretty well. There have only been a couple instances where I've had range anxiety. I took the boat from Gaeta Italy, up the coast to Elba with a stop in Rome, this was the shakedown cruise and I plugged in in Rome to top the 48v bank up. From Elba I cruised Corsica and North Sardinia before crossing to Barcelona, during this time I didn't need to plug in once. The 300nm crossing was haunted by super light winds (I didn't have a light wind sail) and thunderstorms. It took me 4 days as I did not want to run the motor battery below 50% in case of emergency. That said is was actually rather comfortable, at night I'd set the motor to cruise slowly just providing directional stability which allowed for decent sleep (no motor noise or vibrations). On the last day I motored into Barcelona with 20% battery left on the motor and I think around the same on the 12v house, which ran the autopilot the whole time.
I've sailed it around the Balearics and up to Sete, then through the canal du midi. This was the true test as I did the entire canal with only plugging in twice to charge. To me this is amazing considering how shaded much of the canal is and the last week was raining and overcast for days. I did get a little anxious the final leg of the Garonne as I didn't make the tide shift and got into Port Medoc with around 5% battery left (ah the beaty of lithium). During the canals I often used the 48v bank to charge the 12v bank as could not find a good position for the 12v panels to keep up.
*Balancing the cells. Due to the heat on the canals, the BMS would often overheat when trying to balance the cells and thus the batteries did get a bit out of balance, though once the temperatures dropped and I was in my winter marina, I plugged in and they eventually balanced.
All in all I am super impressed with the setup, the only change I would have made is with the motor I got, but that is not for this thread. I write all of this to show that lithium technology has progressed enormously and continues to get better. Since I bought my cells, the energy density has increase and the price has further dropped. I would highly recommend replacing any old batteries with lithium as they will serve most purposes much better.
