Post by yachtsmanwilly on Feb 2, 2022 11:34:54 GMT -5
I hope this shows up. Its a FB thing.
First off. Thank you everybody for lending advice and suggestions and thoughts that helped me wrap my brain around exactly what was going on and therefore figuring it out this morning.
Long story short, all is working correctly and I only had to flick one switch, well two technically. Here it is.
To start with, my batteries although wired somewhat peculiarly, operate in a correct fashion in a way that I'm told is also correct although possibly not to the latest aycb standards. I essentially have six, six volt batteries wired in series parallel. Four are grouped together and connect to the pictured shut off switch on the terminal (batt 1)that also feeds the cable (black with red tip) that is my supply wire to and from the charger/inverter (heart 2800). The other two are connected in series to create a 12 volt battery which comes into the shut-off switch on the opposite terminal (batt 2). The red wire feeding out of the bottom terminal of the switch is not fed directly over to the engine batteries as I had thought (I'll explain why in a few), but is essentially my house voltage supply from the selector switch. I was confused as to the layout of cabling on the house batteries as only two positive terminals appeared hooked in parallel but then I realized that the missing link would be that when the selector switch is left on 'both', the selector switch now becomes the connector and three of the six batteries now are connected in parallel across their b+ posts. Therefore all six batteries are correctly wired in series parallel when the selector switch is left on 'both'. When in this position, the charger inverter is now also maintaining all six batteries simultaneously. In photos I have a picture of the battery bank (Trojan 6volt) and of the back of the selector switch. The small black and white wires you see coming to both terminals on the back of the switch, I traced and they are simply for monitoring voltage at each terminal and run up to a 3-way selectable voltmeter in the salon electrical panel. If you have the battery switch in the off position, you are therefor be able to monitor the voltage separately of the four battery bank and the two battery bank. (Not sure the benefit of not simply keeping this switch in 'both' all the time but feel free to chime in if you have a reason otherwise.) The third position of this selectable voltmeter is for the two 12-volt engine batteries.
Now at this point you might be realizing that this has nothing to do with my low voltage problem and you are correct. My batteries were not being maintained correctly, because I did not have the inverter/charger operating correctly. This Heart unit has an on-off switch on the unit itself, and a remote controller in the salon where you can operate on and off, as well as a 'low charge' position. When I first got the boat, I would turn the switch to the on position as I thought correct, the amperage LED indicators would shoot up to over 30 and then the system would shut down almost immediately as if over amperage, overcharging. The only way I could get the charger to stay on was to leave the switch in the low charge position which I have done ever since. The manual even states that this is the correct position to leave the charger in when you are constantly using high amperage power users on the boat and as we are liveaboard, I figured we were simply overloading the system and therefore needed to leave it in low charge. This was maintaining the batteries, but not at the correct voltage level. The big missing link here was in my discovering/remembering a third disconnect switch that this boat has buried in the lower left corner of the electrical cabinet (other shut off switch would be my main power from the shore power/generator selector/shut off.) This forgotten cutoff switch allows you to tie the engine batteries in with the rest of the DC electrical system on the boat. This switch was turned on. With all the batteries on the boat therefore being connected and of different types/amperages, turning the charger on was simply overloading it which is why it continued to shut off. As soon as I disconnected the engine batteries from the house system and turned the inverter 'on', battery voltage shut up to almost 14, the amperage started pumping at over 30 amps until the voltage raised to where it should be, and then she dropped down to a correct charging level. Sometimes it just takes a lot of thinking and analyzing and thinking and analyzing and talking to people and thinking and analyzing etc.
Still have to go through the batteries and load test them to see if any were damaged during these 6 months of low voltage, but so far so good.
Sidebar in the battery Bank picture, the smaller red wire coming out of the middle left battery and the correlating black wire out of the top right battery have since been disconnected. They are new wires running to the front windlass, but I will be wiring them in correctly on a distribution panel.
Again thank you so much for everybody's help. If anybody has any questions or certainly comments, please feel free to keep the communication going. Cheers,
No photo description available.
Reply
18h
Bob Real
My brothers 1968 58’ Connie has a 32 volt system and the batteries are expensive as Hell. 4 per engine for a total of 8 and they are hard to find in the Dallas area
Reply
12h
Mark Sidmore
Bob Real interstate
Reply
38m
Bob Real
Mark Sidmore they sell those massive 6 volt batteries?
Reply
29m
Mark Sidmore
Bob Real they did 5 years ago, yes
Reply
28m
Those are EIGHT volt batteries!
Cancel
First off. Thank you everybody for lending advice and suggestions and thoughts that helped me wrap my brain around exactly what was going on and therefore figuring it out this morning.
Long story short, all is working correctly and I only had to flick one switch, well two technically. Here it is.
To start with, my batteries although wired somewhat peculiarly, operate in a correct fashion in a way that I'm told is also correct although possibly not to the latest aycb standards. I essentially have six, six volt batteries wired in series parallel. Four are grouped together and connect to the pictured shut off switch on the terminal (batt 1)that also feeds the cable (black with red tip) that is my supply wire to and from the charger/inverter (heart 2800). The other two are connected in series to create a 12 volt battery which comes into the shut-off switch on the opposite terminal (batt 2). The red wire feeding out of the bottom terminal of the switch is not fed directly over to the engine batteries as I had thought (I'll explain why in a few), but is essentially my house voltage supply from the selector switch. I was confused as to the layout of cabling on the house batteries as only two positive terminals appeared hooked in parallel but then I realized that the missing link would be that when the selector switch is left on 'both', the selector switch now becomes the connector and three of the six batteries now are connected in parallel across their b+ posts. Therefore all six batteries are correctly wired in series parallel when the selector switch is left on 'both'. When in this position, the charger inverter is now also maintaining all six batteries simultaneously. In photos I have a picture of the battery bank (Trojan 6volt) and of the back of the selector switch. The small black and white wires you see coming to both terminals on the back of the switch, I traced and they are simply for monitoring voltage at each terminal and run up to a 3-way selectable voltmeter in the salon electrical panel. If you have the battery switch in the off position, you are therefor be able to monitor the voltage separately of the four battery bank and the two battery bank. (Not sure the benefit of not simply keeping this switch in 'both' all the time but feel free to chime in if you have a reason otherwise.) The third position of this selectable voltmeter is for the two 12-volt engine batteries.
Now at this point you might be realizing that this has nothing to do with my low voltage problem and you are correct. My batteries were not being maintained correctly, because I did not have the inverter/charger operating correctly. This Heart unit has an on-off switch on the unit itself, and a remote controller in the salon where you can operate on and off, as well as a 'low charge' position. When I first got the boat, I would turn the switch to the on position as I thought correct, the amperage LED indicators would shoot up to over 30 and then the system would shut down almost immediately as if over amperage, overcharging. The only way I could get the charger to stay on was to leave the switch in the low charge position which I have done ever since. The manual even states that this is the correct position to leave the charger in when you are constantly using high amperage power users on the boat and as we are liveaboard, I figured we were simply overloading the system and therefore needed to leave it in low charge. This was maintaining the batteries, but not at the correct voltage level. The big missing link here was in my discovering/remembering a third disconnect switch that this boat has buried in the lower left corner of the electrical cabinet (other shut off switch would be my main power from the shore power/generator selector/shut off.) This forgotten cutoff switch allows you to tie the engine batteries in with the rest of the DC electrical system on the boat. This switch was turned on. With all the batteries on the boat therefore being connected and of different types/amperages, turning the charger on was simply overloading it which is why it continued to shut off. As soon as I disconnected the engine batteries from the house system and turned the inverter 'on', battery voltage shut up to almost 14, the amperage started pumping at over 30 amps until the voltage raised to where it should be, and then she dropped down to a correct charging level. Sometimes it just takes a lot of thinking and analyzing and thinking and analyzing and talking to people and thinking and analyzing etc.
Still have to go through the batteries and load test them to see if any were damaged during these 6 months of low voltage, but so far so good.
Sidebar in the battery Bank picture, the smaller red wire coming out of the middle left battery and the correlating black wire out of the top right battery have since been disconnected. They are new wires running to the front windlass, but I will be wiring them in correctly on a distribution panel.
Again thank you so much for everybody's help. If anybody has any questions or certainly comments, please feel free to keep the communication going. Cheers,
No photo description available.
Reply
18h
Bob Real
My brothers 1968 58’ Connie has a 32 volt system and the batteries are expensive as Hell. 4 per engine for a total of 8 and they are hard to find in the Dallas area
Reply
12h
Mark Sidmore
Bob Real interstate
Reply
38m
Bob Real
Mark Sidmore they sell those massive 6 volt batteries?
Reply
29m
Mark Sidmore
Bob Real they did 5 years ago, yes
Reply
28m
Those are EIGHT volt batteries!
Cancel
