RETHINKING PROPANE: Energy Savings

I was thinking about my plan to stop using propane on board fed from a central propane tank and just use smaller individual burners using either propane and/or butane canisters as fuel. This plan has worked out well this season. Then I thought in addition to not having to repair the corroded pipe and burners on the stove. I no longer need to use the propane solenoid propane valve that use to feed the propane into the old propane hose for distribution inside the boat. I wonder how many amps that used? So I took out  my Extech MA220 Compact Clamp Meter and measured it:

It was a little over an amp. While not a super heavy draw if left on it does add up especially if you have a weak house bank. So there is some additional energy savings to adopting my new propane plan. That's a good thing.

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART EIGHT: Wiring the Panel

The instrumentation project is pretty simple setup whose purpose is to give me real time access to battery voltages and battery current readings while at the helm. Boats with a diesel usually have an instrument panel to monitor the internal combustion engine in the cockpit. On a boat with electric propulsion it's also good to monitor what is going on down below too though they are different parameters. So the initial setup for the project included a digital voltmeter on each battery, a total pack voltage meter and a current meter to monitor how much current the battery was providing (or how much current was flowing into it if charging).

The above schematic shows the DC Voltmeter wiring. Installing and wiring up the panel was not difficult. The hardest part was deciding what to use to connect the batteries to the panel. I decided to use Anderson Powerpole Connectors.

As this would allow the panel to be disconnected easily for repair or storage as needed. I've started to use them elsewhere on board with good results. They are quality connectors with wiping contacts that hold up very well in my experience.  I already had several  4PDT Heavy Duty Toggle Switches on board that I was originally was going to use for the solar bimini. But, after finding some 48 volt solar panels I no longer needed  to use the switches for charging. So I used it to switch the four digital panel meters for the individual batteries on and off. I installed the switch first since it is rather large and I wanted to make sure it fit correctly:

Then I found a location for the eight Anderson Connectors that connect to the fuses on the batteries:
One nice thing about Anderson Connectors there are various mounting clamps available to install the connectors securely in panels or enclosures like I am using for this project:

With the switch and the Anderson connectors installed it's time to wire the panel up:

I did a bench check of the DC Voltmeters using triple connection jumper. This allowed me to check three meters at a time.:

The second small switch on the side of the box is to turn the whole  pack voltmeter on and off. I did make one mistake with this whole pack voltmeter. I wired it just like the other four meters. The meters I bought can read up to 99 volts but, in order to measure a voltage over 30 volts the meter needs a separate lower voltage power source. If you are just measuring 12 volts you can tie the meter supply and measuring leads together and it will work. I did this for all the meters and tested them using a 9 volt battery. But, when I installed it in the boat the pack meter failed because the 48 volts was too much for the meter. I'll need to replace it and provide a separate voltage to power that meter to measure the whole pack voltage.

Another Anderson connector was installed to provide power for the current meter from the helm power distribution bus. So with the panel wired up and bench tested. It was time to move on the final connections from the battery to the helm. Which I will do in the next instrumentation post.

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART SEVEN CLICK HERE

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART NINE CLICK HERE

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART ONE: Plan A

Back around Earth Day last year I mentioned that I was planning on recycling the now obsolete Kings 8001 LORAN unit. I have come up with a new instrumentation project to monitor BIANKA's propulsion battery bank. The  weather proof case of the Kings LORAN will fit nicely into my plans.  The back of the Kings unit has a few connectors on it which might come in useful:

The coaxial LORAN antenna connection might come in useful for some type of video feed.  The AMP 25 pin connector might also prove useful. But,  first I have to  remove some of the internal electronics. This King 8001 LORAN unit sold for about $600 in 1985. In today's dollars that would be over $1,100. Opening it up I could see why:

Ed King sure put a lot of electronic technology inside the box:

Including some LSI (Large Scale Integration) chips for the display board and some nice conformal coating to help protect the circuity from the marine environment:

It's no wonder this unit was working right up until the Coast Guard shut down the Loran transmitters. Probably would have kept on working for many more years if they had kept the transmitters operating too . Oh well at least some of Kings design will live on at least on BIANKA. Even if it is only the case:

 I knew the case for the Kings Loran would be good to use since it already had a home and mounting hardware in the cockpit and was pretty weather proof.  But, I also hoped to recycle as much of the existing hardware as possible. The first thing I thought I could use is the metal shield that was used  between the some of the circuit boards inside the Loran. I thought it would make a good mounting plate for the meters and switch.

Well, after buying some of the metering components I soon found out that my original plan was just not going to work out.

Using paper cut outs of the meter dimensions I soon realized that the Kings Loran case would be to small to house all the instrumentation I wanted at the helm. It looked I could fit the four battery meters and the switch that controls them. 

But, I could not also fit the more important current meter inside too. Even though it looked at first like it would:

But, in the end I could see it was just not going to work out:

So it's on to Plan B!

 INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART 2 CLICK HERE