A SOLAR UPGRADE

One of the nice things of having converted from Diesel to Electric Propulsion is the ability to easily upgrade. That includes the auxiliary systems.  Like BIANKA's 48 volt solar controller. I originally installed a Morningstar 48 volt solar controller back over ten years ago.

It has been a real workhorse that has never failed to keep the propulsion bank topped up summer and winter. Since that it was installed new solar charge controllers have come on the market. ones with MPPT tracking that claim to squeeze more watts out of the sun along with on board data collection with Bluetooth connectivity. So in late winter I decided to replace the Morningstar unit with a Victron SmartSolar 100/20 48 volt Solar Charge Controller.

Time will tell if the Victron unit will hold up as well as the Morningstar. But, I'm not going to get rid of the old Morningstar 48  volt controller. It has already proved it's self over the years. Instead it will become part of the boat's spares complement. As the prudent mariner always has a backup.

 

DEATH OF A WIND GENERATOR

My Primus  (formally Southwest Wind Power) 48 volt wind generator stop working last
year. It had been in operation 365 days a year for the past 8 years so it was probably
due for some refurbishing.  The wind generator has a sophisticated regulator circuit.
Which I imagine had failed. So sending the unit for refurbishing back to factory seemed
like a good investment.
  Unfortunately, I got some bad news along with some photos of the damage: 

“The technician was able to begin working on your unit, unfortunately we found some bad news.  Please see attached pictures. The stator in your turbine overheated which leaks the varnish from the stator throughout the entire turbine.  In these instances, the turbine is not repairable (or not worth repairing due to how much it would cost).”

After discussions with the technicians at the factory I asked how this failure occurred.
He explained that too much wind can cause this type of damage.  Though the
wind generator was advertised as having circuitry that protected it from excessive
winds obviously it failed.
Since the generator was out of warranty I was only offered at discount at purchasing
a new on which was still in the thousand-dollar range.  Even with a new 5-year warranty
the reality was there's no guarantee but the unit would not fail again once the warranty
was up. While I liked having the wind generator as part of a multi energy approach to
charging my electric propulsion battery bank. In the end I thought the cost of a new
generator was not worth it  and the money might better be spent on additional solar
panels. 

BATTERY ANOMALY PART TWO: Readings and observations

 I looked to the cause of why Battery 4 of my 48 volt Electric Propulsion bank was not charging properly. Since the terminals for this battery can best be accessed by the starboard  locker hatch I first had to empty out the locker and then squeeze my large frame down into it.

Taking off the protective caps on the negative terminal I had quite a bit of corrosion on it.

 This was because I had become somewhat  complacent in checking and cleaning the terminals. Mostly because up to now the battery charging had been operating normally.  The failure of battery four just happened a few days ago. After cleaning the terminals I used an battery tester to check it:

The readings above show a voltage of 10.87 volts and an internal battery resistance reading of 196.2 milli ohms. Which is a much higher resistance reading than when I last checked it on February 12, 2012.Which was 2.43 milli ohms. So obviously something had changed in this battery.  I will try a few more attempts at charging but, I don't think things will approve much. TO BE CONTINUED.

UH OH!: A BATTERY ANOMALY

Just when I thought I was ready to splash BIANKA for the season I made a disturbing discovery concerning one of the batteries in the 48 volt propulsion bank. The Dual Pro PS4 battery charger showed battery number four with a blinking green light where as all the others were steady after having been charged.  This was a new development as for the past several weeks all the batteries had been charging normally on my visits. For some reason the charger thinks battery four is not yet fully charged. I disconnected the power from the charger to let the batteries sit overnight and make sure it would not fire up when I plugged the extension cord  back on my return in the morning.

The next morning I went into the cockpit and threw the switch on the helm instrumentation panel that powers the individual battery meters. My suspicions were confirmed. Battery four is not being charged properly:

As you can see the bottom meter which is reading battery four is only 11.1 volts where the other three batteries are much closer to each other in voltage. So it looks like I will have to forget about launching the boat until I can investigate what it is going on with this battery. TO BE CONTINUED.

ANOTHER LOOK AT REGEN

I installed electric propulsion in BIANKA for several reasons. One was because my diesel engine died. Two because I spent a good amount trying to get it running again. I began looking at alternatives to having a diesel. Diesel works well where it is worked hard. On a sailboat where most people use the engine to primarily get into or out of the harbor is not the best way to use it. Installed on a trawler is a much better match. So diesels tend to rust out before they wear out or fail at some point when you least expect it. Hopefully in some location  where you can get help and parts.  Another thing about electric propulsion is the ability of it to regen i.e. recharge the battery bank when the boat reaches a certain speed under sail. I thought for the first few years  that my system was not capable of regen but, then one day I discovered that it did. Hybrid Marine has a nice video of how regen works.  The boat in question is a hybrid design and still has a diesel engine. Which would mean the engine might be used even less than in a normal engine setup. But, you still have all the maintenance issues involved with having a diesel installed. But, for those not quite ready to make the leap to a pure electric propulsion system it is an option. Anyway this video is a good primer on the regen aspects of electric propulsion. Hat tip Elektra Yachts:

ASSUMPTIONS

So I started my first cruise of the season. It's late and I'm chomping at the bit to get out of the harbor. My first leg was a twenty five mile trip to Mattituck. Since I was in the hurry and plenty of water even with one tank dry I did not bother to stop at the dock for to refill it. My plan was to splurge and tie up at a marina dock at my destination where I could refill the water tanks, charge my electric propulsion and house bank etc...

The trip was mostly without wind. So I fired up the Honda 2000 generator and pretty much motored the whole way at around four knots  under electric propulsion along  with a favoring current. I was thinking maybe I should also charge the house bank when underway since I was using the generator as part of my poor man's hybrid propulsion. I can normally electro sail and charge my 12 volt house bank at the same time as long as the house bank is not really low. In which case it tends to trip the Honda's breaker. Nah, I thought I'll be at the dock soon enough and can charge to me hearts content. I arrived at Mattituck inlet at sunset and by the time I meandered up to the harbor it was dark. I tide up to an outside dock and went to plug in the power. But, my 30 Amp 3 prong marine plug would not fit. There was a cryptic warning not to try and connect a 30 amp plug into the 120/240 outlet. No doubt for some much bigger motor yacht to dock here. Turns out there was going to be no charging overnight as I had planned because I assumed the electrical outlets would be the same as my home marina. I was able to get things charged in the morning with the help of a dock hand and the fact that I had a 50 amp to 30 amp pigtail adapter on board which fit an outlet on the other side of the power post. Since the time need to charge cut into getting a favorable current to get around Plum Gut I decided to stay another night at the dock. It was another reminder never to assume too much until you actually reach your destination and to charge things up whenever you can.

THOUGHTS OF AN ELECTRIC SAILOR: The Battery investigation one year later

I was thinking of the disturbing battery issue I had on board last year. When all of a sudden one of my batteries refused to complete a full charge using my   Dual Pro Quad 4 battery charger. It took a few times  of repeated charging but, finally the battery came back to being comparable to the other batteries in the 48 volt propulsion string and has stayed there ever since.

Some thoughts on what happened:

1) The main cause seemed to be that I was hanging a 25 milli amp load on this particular battery to run the Paktrakr Battery Monitor. I had done this years before with no problem but,

2) I had also removed the 48 volt Marine Air X Wind Turbine over the winter to replace it's blades and have it repainted. So the only charging that was happening was from the 48 volt solar panels and an occasional charge from  the Dual Pro when I check up on the boat. During the winter solar availability was limited to short daytime charging. So that 25 ma drain started to add up. Possibly sulfating the battery enough to prevent it from ever really getting a full charge over the winter months because of the constant 25 ma load.

Over this past winter I no longer had the Paktrakr hooked up to that battery and I had the 48 volt Marine Air  X wind turbine also helping with the charging. The battery that was causing the trouble last year now charges with the rest of the batteries. The lesson learned is that to avoid taking any load off a single battery in a series string. Also when a battery suddenly refuses to charge all is not lost and one may not need to run out and get a replacement battery.

WHAT WORKS: MARINE AIR X WIND TURBINE

I installed a Southwest Wind Power Marine Air X 48 volt wind turbine when I installed my Thoosa 9000 electric propulsion system back in 2008. It worked reliably 24/7 for over three years. Once I installed it I did not have to think about it. The Marine Air X has some control electronics that I really like. Once the battery bank has reached full charge it shuts down.  Since my 48 volt solar panels manage to keep my 48 volt propulsion bank charged up the Air-X is often shutdown all day. It also will shutdown if wind speeds get to great also. One day I noticed that some of the paint had started to chip off the housing:

 This was not hard to believe as the unit had been exposed to hot summers and freezing winters in a marine environment for almost three years. It was certainly due for a little touch up besides I had to replace two of the blades because they got chipped when my heavy metal boom had accidently hit them. Since the Air X had a three year warranty I called up to see if they covered the paint chipping. To my surprise they did. I had to pay for the shipping to them but, they sent out a replacement Air X right away and I had it within the week. Now that's customer service like it should be. I finally got around to re installing the wind turbine  earlier this season along with a set of new blades.

The Marine Air X is once again back on board keeping my 48 volt electric propulsion bank topped up. I am pleased with the reliability of the unit has given over the years that's why I give it the Capt. Mike What Works approval!

BATTERY INVESTIGATION PART 7: Much better balance

Well, it's been another two weeks since I was on board looking at the issue with the last battery in the string. When I last was on the boat I had charged up the bank fully and removed the Paktraker battery monitor which had been taking it's power from the suspect low battery. So for two weeks only the solar panels had been keeping the bank topped up and there were no parasitic loads off of any individual battery. When I powered up the Dual Pro PS4 battery charger this is what happened:



As you can see within a few seconds all four batteries immediately jumped up into the 90 to 100% range. This seems to indicate that all the batteries are pretty close in balance to one another.  It certainly is much improved situation  from the last time I fired up the charger which you can see here:



This time after an hour of charging all the batteries were fully charged within seconds of each other. The bank has come along way since I first discovered that the low battery in the bank was not able to accept a full charge.   I'm glad I took the time to investigate the reason for that battery's failure to charge fully. It seems to be related to the Paktraker's parasitic load off the suspect battery. Since I removed it from the battery there has been much improvement. The suspect battery has gradually over several weeks has come to be comparable charge wise to the other batteries in the bank. Now it is on par with the other three batteries in terms of charging.  The only thing left to do is to do one final charge and let the bank rest and then load test each battery.  I'll be doing that very shortly.

PREVIOUS BATTERY INVESTIGATION POST

BATTERY INVESTIGATION PART SIX:

So after my trip to the beach I was back on board taking advantage of the mild weather to continue to look at the battery charging issue with the fourth battery. For two weeks the 48 volt battery string has been charging via the solar panels and the Paktrakr load has been disconnected off of the fourth battery. There was a little surprise when I plugged in the Dual Pro charger. It showed the second battery to be a little down chargewise compared to batteries one and three:



I've seen this before you never know which battery may be slightly down when you plug in the charger as they all do not come up the same way everytime. But, my concern is with the fourth battery in the string which earlier in this investigation was not even able to achieve a full charge. It is now behaving more like the other three.  Twenty minutes later and this what I saw on the Dual Pro display:



One hour later and the first and third batteries were now fully charged and the second and fourth batteries were still somewhere in the 90 to 99% range:



Finally after about one hour and twenty minutes all four batteries were fully charged:



I once again took some voltage readings of each battery after they were fully charged:


                   VOLTS
1                  13.7
2                  13.8
3                  13.4
4 (suspect)   13.3

These latest reading shows all four batteries even more in balance than when previously tested. Which leads me to believe that keeping the load from the Paktrakr off of battery four is beneficial in keeping it in balance with the other three batteries. I think I'll will do one more charge test in the near future and then conduct a load test on each battery before I fully can say that all batteries are ready for BIANKA's fifth season under electric propulsion. However things are looking more promising that they are.

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PREVIOUS BATTERY INVESTIGATION POST CLICK HERE

               

BATTERY INVESTIGATION PART FIVE: Some Good News!

It's been about two weeks since I last looked at the battery issue concerning the most negative battery in the 48 volt propulsion string on BIANKA. The battery passed the Centech Battery Analyzer and load tests but, would not fully charge using the on board and an external battery charger. I suspected that the parasitic loads on the battery by the Paktrakr battery monitor (which draws it's operating power from that battery) might be the cause of the problem. So two weeks ago before I left the boat I disconnected the Paktrakr from the battery and just left the solar panels and ProStar PS-15M-48V Morningstar Charge Controller
 to keep charging the battery in the mean time. I went back on board recently and fired up the Dual Pro Professional Series PS4 4 Bank 15 Amp Battery Charger and got some good news:



So after about two weeks without the parasitic drain from the Paktrakr the suspect battery's charging has improved. Three minutes later after plugging in the Dual Pro charger I got even better news:



The flashing green lights mean that the Dual Pro considers the battery to be somewhere between 90 and 99% charged. This was a big improvement since the last time I tried to charge the suspect battery. So it seems that over time the Paktrakr's parasitic load was affecting the charging ability of the fourth battery in the 48 volt string. I continued to let the bank charge with the Dual Pro charger and an hour later I got even better news as shown below:



The suspect battery now accepts a full charge according to the Dual Pro charger. Which was a big improvement over the previous times I tried to charge it. So I kept the Paktrakr disconnected from the battery and let the solar panels and Morningstar controller keep things charged up in the meantime. Voltage readings on the suspect battery are still lower than the other three batteries in the bank as shown in the following table  :
                                        VOLTS
BATTERY 1                      15.1
BATTERY 2                      14.7
BATTERY 3                      14.9
BATTERY 4 (SUSPECT)  13.2
(Note: Readings were taken shortly after batteries got to a full charge on the Dual Pro charger)

I'm hoping that will change as I continue the investigation further. The fact that the battery has improved in it's ability to get to a fully charged condition gives me hope that things will continue to move in a positive direction.

 FOR THE NEXT BATTERY INVESTIGATION POST CLICK HERE

FOR THE PREVIOUS BATTERY INVESTIGATION POST CLICK HERE

GOOD TO KNOW: KINDLE AND GOPRO CAMERA CHARGING TIP

I was out on a charter in the Leeward Islands recently and bought along my new GoPro Hero camera. I also bought along a 12 volt USB adapter and the GoPro charger cable to charge it. But, when I got on board I found that the boat did not have any 12 volt cigarette sockets on board that were wired.  But I did have a 120 volt outlet in my cabin hooked up to the  boats inverter. So I did what any good sailor would do and looked around for something that I could adapt to charge the GoPro camera. I found just what I needed with my Kindle e-reader charging cable:

The Kindle comes with a small 120 volt to USB adapter plug with a removable cable. So I was able to plug the GoPro Hero camera cable into the Kindle adapter and charge via the boats 120 volt inverter. It's a good thing to know if you need to charge the GoPro camera and just have a 120 volt Kindle charger. It will serve a dual purpose charging both your Kindle and GoPro camera.
Speaking of the GoPro cameras nothing gets me looking forward to summer and the up coming sailing season than a video like this:

BATTERY INVESTIGATION PART 2: MORE BATTERY TROUBLE SHOOTING OF A 48 VOLT STRING

I used a warm weather window to go back on board and see if I could figure out why the most negative battery in the 48 volt EP string was not charging like the other three. When I left it's voltage had not risen past 12.9 volts. So when I got back on board I plugged in the Dual Pro charger and lo and behold the indicator light went almost immediately up to 90% and the voltage was reading 13.5 volts.

This was a good sign because when I left it a few days ago only two of the red Leds were lit showing it 30% charged. As you can see in the photo above the other three batteries in the string are near 100% charged. Don't know what changed in the two days since I was last on board (Though I did unpower the Paktrakr Battery monitor which does take it's power from the lowest battery before I left last time.) but, things were moving in a positive direction. I thought now that the battery bank was up near  90% charged as shown on the Dual Pro display. It would be just a little while before it was charged up near the other three. So I took a nap.
When I got up about an hour later things were still showing 90% but, then a while later the LED display showed the charge only at 70%. Now things were going in a negative direction and the puzzle continues. It was getting late and colder so I hooked up the Paktrakr battery monitor again and left the boat while I pondered what was going on:

1) I still may have a connection issue with the battery bank though I did clean the battery connections on the last visit. I'll clean them again on my next visit.

2) I'm wondering if the load of the Paktrakr is the cause of the problem. The load from the basic Paktrkr is 10 ma. Though I just recently added the ESR-1 data cable which has some data storage capabilities in it. Though I find it hard to believe the current draw could be that great to cause the battery to start to fail. But, it is the only new item added into the mix.

Soon as the temperatures warm up again I'll head back to do some more investigation. Something about hanging around a couple of hundred pounds of lead on a chilly day makes it not the most warming experience.

LINKS

BATTERY INVESTIGATION PART 1
BATTERY INVESTIGATION PART 3

ANOTHER ADVANTAGE OF ELECTRIC PROPULSION: REGEN

It seems every year I discover something new that my electric propulsion system can do. Last year there was the joy of sailing along  double reefed at 7 knots SOG while my solar and wind generator were at the same time pumping energy back into the battery banks. Earlier this season I had another epiphany while electro sailing on a pretty windless day.  I thought I should probably always electro sail when I sail the boat. Since the prop is going to be turning no matter what unless I install some type of shaft lock but, that would also increase drag and slow the boat down.  So I might as well electro sail by turning the prop just enough to negate the prop drag. My boat would move faster through the water and I could also point up more since the motor was helping to push the boat slightly when the wind dies. Adopting this routine has led to another surprise. Something that I have not been able to see until now and that is to see my electric propulsion system actually regen. Regen is the concept of spinning and electric motor by it's shaft so that it becomes and generator and "regenerates" power back into the motor's  power source. In the case of BIANKA the 48 volt electric propulsion battery bank. For example on a sailboat with electric propulsion in regen mode you are recharging the batteries while you are enjoying a nice sail. I had just about given up on this on board BIANKA since a lot of factors can influence the ability of a sailboat to actually regen. Things like the keel shape that might cast a "shadow" around the prop so that it never sees enough water flowing past the blades to turn the prop enough for regen to occur. Then there is the prop its self. It might not be big enough or have the right pitch to rotate enough for regen. Changing the prop and/or some of it's specs might help but, that will cost $$$. Since I was already very happy with my electric propulsion system as is I did not feel an urgent need to try and experiment with a new prop. I had the same three bladed prop that had propelled BIANKA when she had a Westerbeke diesel installed. But, a few weeks ago I was electro sailing BIANKA and took a look at the amp meter and was pleased to see that there was a positive indication on the amp meter. Which meant that the boat was moving fast enough so that it was spinning the motor backward enough and had actually achieved regen!  It was only about about a quarter  to a little over one amp but, that was enough to make me very happy. When the motor is in regen mode unlike a sophisticated battery charger there is no regulation. So you  have the potential of over charging the battery bank if too much current flows back into the battery bank.  You don't want too many amps flowing into an already charged battery bank. But, an amp or two over a few hours of sailing may be enough to bring the battery bank back to the same level as when you left the dock. In essence you would have the same amount of fuel when you come back as when you left. That's the beauty of regen. Here is some video of my electric propulsion system operating in the regen mode:

On another sail I also got some indication that regen may be occurring earlier than the speed of 6 knots. But, until I can get some type of current meter installed that I can view in the cockpit without opening a hatch and bending down to get the readings I'll have to wait to do more precise observations. But, at least I can now say that regen works and it is just another added benefit of having electric propulsion on board.

END OF THE SEASON THOUGHTS OF AN ELECTRIC SAILOR: 2010

The third season since I pulled out the old diesel engine and replaced it with an electric motor has ended. I've been reflecting on this. I think this was the season I became completely comfortable with the decision to go electric.

My first season with electric propulsion back in 2008 was full of fussing and watching every aspect of the propulsion system to make sure there it was always charged and ready and operating properly.  I would run the Honda 2000i generator more than necessary just to make sure the power would be available even when I was not really using any electric propulsion at all. For example when I was making my first 12 mile transit down the East River via Hell Gate  since converting to electric propulsion. I kept the Honda generator running on deck because I did not know how much I would be using the electric propulsion. In previous trips with my diesel I ALWAYS had to have it running for the entire trip. Just to make sure power was available and their were no starting problems.  I found out that with electric propulsion there really is no need to have the generator fired up at all. I let natures currents carry the boat along and just need a little thrust from time to time to straighten out the boat. It has become a quiet and pleasurable journey.

My second season was marred by the failure of the Xantrex XBM battery monitor display.

 Which meant I was flying blind in terms of being able to see how much current and amp hours I was drawing from the battery bank when under electric propulsion. It is akin to running a diesel engine with  with a broken fuel gauge. You just never know when you would run out for sure. So again I was very cautious when using electric propulsion.

This third season was very different. The XBM battery monitor display was repaired and working plus I installed a backup meter inside the cabin. This season I rarely fired up the generator while underway. Instead waiting until I anchored to charge up the bank after the days travel. I also did not hesitate to add a little electric propulsion and motor/sail quietly along when the current conspired to do it's best to make sure I would not be able to round a point of land or buoy.  I only used about seven gallons of gasoline the whole season. Since I traveled about 350 miles I made about 50 miles to the gallon. Though the actual amount is probably greater because at least a gallon of that consumption was for the noisy Honda BP-2 four stroke outboard I used on occasion to power the dingy.  I was amazed at how much gas the little 2 horsepower outboard consumed when compared the Honda 2000 generator. Another revelation I had this season is when this outboard finally dies I'll probably replace it with an electric outboard too!  Of course BIANKA is first and foremost a sailboat and there was help from the wind turbine and solar panels on board when charging the battery bank too.  All of which also helped to decrease the amount of time I need to run the generator. I even found uses for the excess energy from the 48 volt solar and wind turbine after the 48 volt battery bank was fully charged. I am looking forward to next season even more now that I am completely comfortable with how reliable, quiet and useful my electric propulsion system is. In short I am so glad I made the decision to go electric with every year that goes by. 

A QUESTION OF BALANCE

I'm not talking about the Moody Blues album of the same name. Arguably one of the better Moody Blues albums after Days of Future Passed which is in BIANKA'S on board CD collection. 

No, I'm talking about battery balance.

 I noticed over the winter that one of the four batteries in the 48 volt battery bank was lagging a little behind in voltage compared to the other batteries when charging. Not by a lot but, enough that my Paktrakr battery monitor was issuing warnings about overcharging of the other batteries and undercharging of the lagging battery. This is a problem when you have multiple batteries in series  in a say  a 48 volt bank like I do for the electric propulsion system. The one undercharged battery can drag down the others. Because my ZIVAN NG-1 charges the bank as a whole it does not know that one of the batteries is lagging behind it just keeps charging until it's voltage and current parameters are met. How to correct this situation?  I've ordered a DUAL PRO PS-4 battery charger.

This charger unlike the ZIVAN NG-1 has four individual battery chargers built in to it. Each  is connected to the individual batteries in the string. So if one of the battery reaches full charge it stops charging that particular battery. Likewise if one battery takes longer to charge it keeps charging that battery and stops charging the others.  This should help to balance the battery bank or at least prevent overcharging of the batteries that are not lagging. Also having the DUAL PRO on board will provide a backup battery charger and backups are a good thing when cruising.