We've spent most of our time since the last blog doing boat projects, chores and maintenance including a major upgrade to our house battery bank and battery charging systems.
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| Lithionics 24V, 300Ah Lithium Battery |
Our first project was to replace the hull zinc anodes. We got permission from GVHA (Greater Victoria Harbour Authority) for Dave to dive in the marina using our hookah system. He spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning prepping the zincs. After lunch on Saturday, April 7th, we put up the dive flag and Dave went into the water.
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| Dave under water with the hookah hose and zinc buckets in place. |
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| Buckets set-up for the zinc change out - the bucket at the top of the photo had the washers and nuts, the middle was for the old zincs as they were removed from the hull and the bottom one had the new zincs in it. |
The first few zincs didn't fit very well, so while Dave removed the old zincs, I filed the strap holes to fit a narrower bolt spacing. It took us about 2 hours to complete the job. The water was cold and Dave was happy to warm up with a hot shower when he was finished.
Our next project was to replace our GPS unit. It failed last fall while we were cruising the west coast of Vancouver Island. We had a technician look at it, but, of course, it worked while he was on board. It didn't work while we were on our cruise in March/April so we ordered a new unit. In order to replace it, we had to take down the ceiling in the pilot house. We found a lot of condensation around the mast opening so we replaced some of the insulation and cleaned up the moisture.
Our next project was to replace our GPS unit. It failed last fall while we were cruising the west coast of Vancouver Island. We had a technician look at it, but, of course, it worked while he was on board. It didn't work while we were on our cruise in March/April so we ordered a new unit. In order to replace it, we had to take down the ceiling in the pilot house. We found a lot of condensation around the mast opening so we replaced some of the insulation and cleaned up the moisture.
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| The Pilot House ceiling. Top - ceiling panels down, wet insulation replaced with new (pink), cables from the mast ready to be bundled and secured. Bottom - B holding up the starboard panel while Dave secures it in place. |
We waited until the weather forecast showed two days with no rain in the forecast and then opened up the back of the mast. We found a splice in the GPS cable and surmised that it was the cause of the failure. We removed the old cable and used it to run a messenger for the new cable. Now the tricky part, running the new cable down the mast. The GPS receiver is on a t-arm on the starboard side of the mast. There is a very small hole, just slightly bigger than the GPS cable plug, that leads from the main mast out to the t-arm and the cable makes a 90 degree bend where the two meet. We tried lots of different options to get the cable through the hole and down the mast but had a lot of problems including breaking our messenger. Finally, we removed the satellite dish from the top of the mast. With both of us up on the mast, we used a long length of PVC to get the messenger up the center of the mast and used a pair of needle nose pliers to ease the cable plug from the t-arm and into the center of the mast where we connected it to the messenger.
After that, things went smoothly. We tested the system, re-secured the cables and re-installed the ceiling panels. We cleaned up the old GPS cable, then re-spliced it. It works so we are saving it for a spare.
While we were working on our GPS project, we had a daily visitor join us on the dock.
Just north of the Wharf Street marina, the City of Victoria has been installing a new Johnson Street Bridge and removing the old one. We have been watching the barges coming and going during the construction process and watched as they removed the old blue bridge out of the harbour.
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| Dave up on the mast reinstalling the satellite dish after running the GPS cable. |
Just north of the Wharf Street marina, the City of Victoria has been installing a new Johnson Street Bridge and removing the old one. We have been watching the barges coming and going during the construction process and watched as they removed the old blue bridge out of the harbour.
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| The old Johnson Street Blue Bridge being barged out of the Victoria Inner Harbour. |
The weekend of April 21st, the BC Maritime Museum held their annual Massive Marine Garage Sale at Ogden Point, near the cruise ship terminal. We had spent some time going through our stuff in the lazarette, steering compartment and other storage areas and donated a bunch of stuff for them to sell. We figured we got rid of at least 100 pounds of "stuff" including charts, cruising guides, stainless steel fittings, seawater strainers, etc. It was nice to be rid of some things we have been carrying around and not using. We went to the sale, but after cleaning out our stuff, neither of us was in the mood to add more. We bought a few hand tools and came back to the boat.
On Monday, April 23rd, we left Victoria and cruised to Roche Harbor for two nights. The weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny. We spent Monday afternoon re-arranging the steering compartment then went to MacMillan's for supper. Tuesday morning we sat on the stern deck and organized and inventoried our stainless steel, ABS and PVC pipe fittings. Tuesday afternoon we walked through the Sculpture Park. We put up our hummingbird feeder and watched as a few birds stopped to check it out.
On Monday, April 23rd, we left Victoria and cruised to Roche Harbor for two nights. The weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny. We spent Monday afternoon re-arranging the steering compartment then went to MacMillan's for supper. Tuesday morning we sat on the stern deck and organized and inventoried our stainless steel, ABS and PVC pipe fittings. Tuesday afternoon we walked through the Sculpture Park. We put up our hummingbird feeder and watched as a few birds stopped to check it out.
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| San Juan Islands Sculpture Park, Roche Harbor, WA |
On Wednesday, April 25th, we cruised to Philbrooks Boat Yard in Sidney, BC to begin work on our battery system upgrade. The last time we replaced our batteries was when we were in Panama in 2013. As we have done upgrades on the boat, we've added additional electrical consumers, the biggest being the hydronic heating system we added last year. With these additions, we were reaching the upper limits of our 300 Ah house battery bank and our old batteries were getting tired. After performing the necessary calculations to determine our "at anchor" design case for AC and DC loads, we had a choice to increase our house battery bank size to 800 Ah lead-acid batteries (AGMs) or 450 Ah lithium batteries.
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| Top - Old battery box with eight 12V, 75Ah AGM batteries, wired for a 24V, 300Ah system Bottom - New battery box with one 24V, 150Ah lithium battery and one 24V, 300Ah lithium battery (24V, 450Ah total) plus two BMS (Battery Management Systems) and an externally mounted battery-to-battery charger. |
After doing lots of research and studying, we decided to upgrade our house battery bank to lithium (LiFePO4) batteries. This meant not only new batteries, but a larger battery box, new engine and aftermarket alternators and regulators, a battery management system (BMS), a battery-to-battery charger, a new battery monitoring system, a new inverter/charger and a new solar controller, so lots of new gadgets that needed to talk to each other and work together.The table below shows a comparison of 8 x L-16 AGM batteries versus 2 x 8D lithium batteries.
The initial cost of the Lithium batteries was 2 - 3 times higher than the cost of AGM batteries, plus for us, we had to upgrade the other components of our charging system. We reviewed the numbers for the overall project and the life cycle cost of the batteries and determined that, over the life of the batteries, the lithiums are more cost effective and they have several other advantages such as no voltage sag, faster charging times and less weight. With an expected lifetime of 20 years, we hope to never have to replace our batteries again.
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Brand
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Discover L-16
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Lithionics
Lithium (LiFePO4)
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Part Number
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EVL-16
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24V220A-8D
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Raw Capacity
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780 Ah
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440 Ah
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Depth of
discharge
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50%
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90%
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Useable
Capacity
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390 Ah
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396 Ah
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Batteries
required for an 800 aH Useable Bank
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8
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2
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Discharge Rate
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40 A
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40 A
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Discharge Time
at Rate
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9.75 hours
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9.9 hours
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Charge Rate
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60 A
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110 A
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Approx Recharge
Time
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20 hours
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3.6 hours
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Lifetime Cycles
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1000
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3000
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Weight/Battery
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121 pounds
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144 pounds
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Total Weight
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968 pounds
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288 pounds
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Expected
Cycles/Year
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150
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150
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Expected
Lifetime
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6.67
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20.00
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The initial cost of the Lithium batteries was 2 - 3 times higher than the cost of AGM batteries, plus for us, we had to upgrade the other components of our charging system. We reviewed the numbers for the overall project and the life cycle cost of the batteries and determined that, over the life of the batteries, the lithiums are more cost effective and they have several other advantages such as no voltage sag, faster charging times and less weight. With an expected lifetime of 20 years, we hope to never have to replace our batteries again.
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| Mike, the electrician, working on installing a temperature sensor on the new engine alternator. He did the bulk of the work on our battery upgrade project. |
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| Left - Old Inverter / Charger; Right - New Inverter / Charger |
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| In order to mount the new battery monitoring system display in the PH console, we had to move things around and cut new holes in the starboard faceplate. We also cut a new panel for the port side so that the finish would match. Top Left - Port side of the console, Top Right - Starboard side of the console. Both with the faceplate removed, Bottom - new console faceplates drying in the engine room after being sealed and varnished. |
While the battery project was underway, we continued to do boat chores and maintenance. We put up the bimini on monkey island so we could enjoy happy hour up there in the afternoons and washed all of the winter grime off of the boat. We sold our old battery box at the nearby marine consignment store and used the proceeds to buy a new prawn trap.
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| B adding "secure for sea" footman's loops to the pilot house cabinet. |
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| Geese and goslings at low tide. |
On May 15th we took the boat out for a sea trial to test the batteries and the new systems. We found a few issues that needed to be addressed, most related to programming parameters on the new inverter/charger and the new alternators. The morning of May 16th, Mike and Tom came down to the boat, changed some settings and installed a new temperature sensor. We did some testing at the docks and determined that all was well. We left Philbrooks that afternoon and headed to Roche Harbor for some rest and relaxation.
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| Roche Harbor colors ceremony just before sunset. |
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| B kayaking at Roche Harbor |
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| Deer at Roche Harbor. |
Friday morning, May 18th, we cruised back to Victoria. It was Victoria Day weekend and there were lots of activities taking place near downtown - battle of the bands on the lawn of the BC Legislature building, performers and kiosks along the waterfront and at Bastion Square, a Farmer's Market in James Bay, a large yacht rally at the Causeway Docks, and a Victoria's Day parade.
We are preparing to leave Victoria for the summer cruising season on Thursday, May 24th. Our first stop will be Anacortes to help our friend Bob launch his new boat.
Until next time...
