Battery position

[Julian Porter]

My battery is mounted in a really inconvenient spot aft of the cockpit entrance just behind a small bulkhead.
Is this a ‘standard’ position. Have other people got their’s mounted in a better position?

[erbster]

Hi Julian,

That’s where mine is too. It’s heavy, so it needs to be strapped in tight. Space is at a premium and I don’t find I need to access the battery very often. When I connect to shore power, it charges the battery so I don’t find it a problem. Where are you thinking of putting yours?


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[Julian Porter]

The real problem is that I can’t get to the terminals to attached an inverter, or a charger come to that. If I took leads from the battery to a socket where it is easily accessible, this would be a solution. Is this what you have done for your charger?

[Malcolm Sadler]

Hello Julian

Forgive me jumping into this conversation, but my battery is also mounted there so I thought I’d share my experience.

I bought Rondo (then named Skoj) 14 months old and the first owner had put a small (<20ah) battery in that position with a nicely crafted sheet-aluminium retaining cradle screwed into the fibreglass bulkhead.

I wanted a big battery as I was not expecting to access shore power often, so I bought a 95ah unit. VERY heavy and a pig for an old bloke like me to lift in and out of the boat let alone manoeuvre it into its place. I spread the weight with a stout piece of 15mm ply under it. I bought a battery box from a caravan supplies shop which is a safety precaution against spillage, even though it is a ‘sealed’ battery. I fixed a long length of plastic flexi tube to the vent plug which I lead outside the cabin when I leave it on charge for long periods (eg over winter when it is on tick over charge) to avoid build up of acid gas.

To hold the battery box in place I have screwed webbing luggage straps to the bulkhead with dingy toeing strap fixings - one at the top of the battery box and one at the bottom. They hold it nice and tight. It’s not a quick arrangement to undo, so I have the + and - battery terminals connected to a domestic square pin socket mounted alongside the battery box on the back of the same bulkhead. The fuse / switch board takes its power from there using a standard domestic plug. To isolate the battery I simply take out the plug. Less elegant than an isolating switch but it was what I inherited and it works.

All connections for the charger and instruments (and an inverter if I had one) come via the fuse/switch board and a bus bar behind it so I never need to disturb the battery in its box (which is just as well!)

One other thing to share. I know exactly how hard it is to remove this large battery and take it home because I had to do that when my battery meter was showing minimal remaining charge and it seemed the battery was dead. This was after several lockdown months in the barn with the charger plugged in. I thought I must have switched the charger (an intelligent Victron) to the wrong setting and cooked the battery. After much heaving and a sprained back I took the battery home and had it tested professionally and it was perfect. So - back to the boat and more contortions. Only then did I read the small print of the battery meter instruction manual which says that something like rounding errors accumulate when there are repeated charging cycles (eg long term maintenance charging over winter) and the meter needs to be reset every month. Otherwise it shows wildly erroneous readings.

Good luck with your installation. I found the electrics on my CC very bewildering!

All the best

Malcolm
Rondo - Sail no 123

[erbster]

I fixed a piece of ply to the vertical face of the space. The battery is secured with a webbing strap and a cam buckle (v secure, but easy to undo). The charger is a 3A job screwed to the ply. There seems enough room for the terminal connections (battery is a 95ah unit. V heavy and the twin of the battery in my camper van. I don’t have an isolator; all of the circuits run through a bus bar. As long as all these are turned off, the battery holds a good charge (not left on charge during winter storage). I’ll take a pic when I (eventually) get to the boat.


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[Julian Porter]

It would be nice to install a lithium battery then it would be so much easier to move.

However the thought of a lithium battery fire on a boat is scary.

My battery sits in a plastic box with a large plastic lid which makes it doubly difficult to remove the battery.

I can’t see it’s necessary to use the box as it’s a sealed battery so there can’t be any spillage can there? Can I do away with the box? What do you think?

[erbster]

If the battery is upright and well fixed, I don’t see the need for a box. I don’t think the cost of a lithium battery is justified for our boats - perhaps on a larger boat. My 95Ah battery is enough to run instruments (inc radio, gps, compass, depth, log), lights and device charging for about 3 days use before charging. It’s rare for me to want to be off grid for any longer than that. Having said that, I have solar panels, so I’m self sufficient in reasonable weather.


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[erbster]

I went to check on Aurora today and took a couple of pictures of my battery position. It’s not especially tidy but it works for me!






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