Our aim with the electrical setup on Olivone is to be as self sufficient as possible when it comes to power.
Batteries
You need something to store the enegy in, that is usually batteries, we have choosen AGM lead batteries (only reason for that is that the elctrolyte is bound in a glassfiber mat and can not leak, battery acid and GRP is not a good combination). We are planning to replace the AGN batteries with Lithium when they have gone down in price, hopefully that will happen soon. We have two battery banks, one fwd and one aft. The reason for having two is that we have a lot of stuff fwd that need power, windlass, pumps for the black water system and the water maker. The aft bank is used for everything else, refridgerator, water pump and instruments.
The fwd bank consists of 2x90AH AGM batteris (some strange brand that was cheap at the local hardware store), we are planning to put in one more battery in the fwd bank (there are spece for one more). The aft banks is a mix of different brands, in total we have 5 AGM batteries that gives us 465AH.
Solar panels and regulators
To fill the batteries with power we have gone all in on solar panels and have as many as we have room for.
We have choosen marine type of flexible panels where the backside is either aluminum or plastic. Fwd we have 2x35W + 70W and aft we have 100W. We also have a 100W foldable panel that we can set up if needed.
We have two solar panel regulators, one for the fwd bank an one for the aft bank. The reason for having two is that we have a main switch where we can choose which bank that will be charged.
We have two Victron smart solar chargers 100/30 that can take a load of 30A. 30A is equal to approx 450w of solar panels (if the panels generating max power, which rarely happens). The word “smart” in the Victron world means that they have a bluetooth interface which you can connect to by an app. You also updates the firmware for the devices through the app.
Verdict: 10 out of 10
Battery monitoring
We have two battery monitors one for the fwd bank and one for the aft bank. The thing with a battery monitor is that you can see the current flowning in and out of the battery bank and to see historical data.
We have two Victron BMV-712 smart battery monitors. They have bluetooth connectivity through the same app as the solar chargers.
Verdict: 9 out of 10
Battery chargers
We have three battery chargers on Olivone, two fixt mounted and one as a spare that can be used anywhere.
Aft bank charger is a Dometic perfect charge MCA 1250 that puts out 50A.
Fwd bank charger is a Victron Blue Smart charger 25A and yes it has a bluetooth interface using the same app as the other Victron devices.
Spare/portable charger is a Ctec M300 that delivers 25A.
Genset
Why do you need a genset on a boat? well if everything else fails and you need power a petrol genset can be the rescuer.
We have a Kipor IG1000 that delivers 1000w max. It is reasonably quiet, not as quit as a Honda or Yamaha but the cost is also 1/4 of the cost for the nice brands.
Lights
We have swapped out all the tradition light bulbs to LED instead including lanterns.