Portable, Modular Energy Systems

[Michigan_Eric]

The Tartan 31 I just purchased is almost totally stock despite being over 30 years old. She's unmolested, as they say in the boat trade. Original engine with only 840 hours, original shore-power battery charger, incandescent lights, etc. Newer instruments installed in 2012, including a Raymarine HybridTouch and an AutoHelm 4000 automatic pilot, but those appear to be the newest equipment she has.

No refrigeration, no solar, no wind turbine, nothing that new cruising boats have in terms of green energy, so I have a clean slate when it comes to installing an energy system to power the electrics in a way that can work without having to run the engine or use shore power.

I have a portable solar setup that I use when camping in my van to power my laptop and other stuff: Jackery Explorer 1500 and Explorer 500 portable batteries (total of 2000 Watt-hours of battery that provide USB, 12V DC, and 120V AC plugs), 2 Jackery SolarSaga 100 Watt foldable solar panels, plus some miscellaneous other solar gear. I'd like to use these on my boat as well. Even though none of it is marine grade, I sail on the Great Lakes so I don't think corrosion will be an issue.

Most cruising boats with solar seem to have it integrated into the power system, for example a fixed solar bimini with panels hard-wired into a controller and thereby the rest of the boat's wiring. There are good reasons for this: permanent connections resist vibration and corrosion. But if something goes wrong, you might have to diagnose and repair it while on passage or in some other inconvenient circumstance.

I also don't want a hard solar bimini, especially considering the small size of the boat; when sailing to windward it would create too much drag. I don't want a dodger for the same reason, as well as others, but that's for another thread.

I'd like to have a modular power system that allows me to plug-and-play with portable batteries and portable solar panels that can plug into it. As on virtually all boats, my 12V panel is connected directly to the boat batteries (my boat has one house battery and one engine battery). But what if the boat batteries discharge or fail? This could happen if sailing all day with the autopilot and the stereo for example. While I should always keep track of the state of the batteries throughout the day, they can fail for other reasons. I hate running the engine to just charge the batteries, and not just because it's bad for the engine.

One feature I'd like to add is a switchable plug for my 12V panel, so that I can plug it into the 12V accessory socket (the old automotive "cigarette lighter" socket) on a portable battery to save the boat batteries, or bypass them should they fail; this should allow me to run navigation lights, autopilot, and everything else powered by that panel with the boat battery switch turned completely off (I'll have to verify that a 12V accessory socket can handle the load with everything switched on). I'd also like to charge the boat batteries with the portable battery, switching or combining power sources to suit my circumstances.

When I was attending the survey, the surveyor pointed out that the original shore-power battery charger is a dinosaur and should be replaced, even though it appears to work just fine. The new shore-power battery chargers that are available will charge batteries from shore power, but it appears that that's all they do. I want a unit that I can also plug my portable solar panels into to charge the boat batteries, but also to charge my portable batteries (or any other devices) when I'm running the engine and the boat batteries are fully charged.

I don't want to install an inverter to power 120V electrical devices, or to charge portable batteries through 120V AC adapters. Inverting/deinverting is unnecessarily complicated and wastes energy. There is no reason why anything I want to use on board can't be run directly from DC.

I see this as an opportunity to create the kind of modular power management system that I've described here, with a modular power management panel that enables the kind of features I've described here.

I also plan to replace most if not all the incandescent lights on the boat with LEDs, although the steaming light can probably stay as is because that's not used unless the engine is running anyway.

This has turned out to be a much longer post than I intended it to be. To those of you who have endured to the end here, I thank you. I would be grateful for any comments you can provide.

[krid2000]

Beware of Lithion-Ion batteries on a boat. I think that's what the Jackeries use.

Otherwise, welcome!
Dirk

[deltaten]

Doesn't sound like a bad system. It's gear your familiar with. There's a couple of YT sailors that use portable panels, laying them about at need, positioning wherever light is best at the time. A good, modern smart charger to suit your modest needs isn't horrible expensive.


Go f'rit! You may find it works or you might. decide, after a while, that a fixed system might be more satisfactory.?