DC current leakage problem

[dmr]

10 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Ok I'm curious now.  Which plumbing component is analogous for an electrolytic capacitor?!

A very large accumulator with a bit of a flow restrictor on the input, and built in such away that it fails catastrophically if subjected to a negative pressure ?

...............Dave

[MtB]

On 18/11/2017 at 10:08, dmr said:

A very large accumulator with a bit of a flow restrictor on the input, and built in such away that it fails catastrophically if subjected to a negative pressure ?

...............Dave

 

Oh yeah, like those fitted to the Ideal Istor boiler eh?

Oh no hang on,. those fail catastrophically if you look at them, or turn the heating on...

[Dr Bob]

18 hours ago, dmr said:

Did you follow the link that I posted? Its a bit vague but it does suggest that a glowing LED can be normal with some battery chargers.

..............Dave

 

Yes Dave it was a useful link and I am thinking it is the battery charger as there is no glow in the 30 secs before the victon switches to battery charger mode yet the 240v is live to the boat. The victon is over 10 years old and may have been the orginal unit fitted (in 2002) - was the Victron Phoenix multi 12v/2000W available then? Given there is a load of redundant equipment on the panel, I am thinking it may be worth stripping it all out and putting in a new distribution board, and separate battery charger and inverter (I would like 2.5Kw to power the washing machine) - and then put an IT in rather than GI. I'll see what the engineer says on thursday.

[dmr]

7 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Yes Dave it was a useful link and I am thinking it is the battery charger as there is no glow in the 30 secs before the victon switches to battery charger mode yet the 240v is live to the boat. The victon is over 10 years old and may have been the orginal unit fitted (in 2002) - was the Victron Phoenix multi 12v/2000W available then? Given there is a load of redundant equipment on the panel, I am thinking it may be worth stripping it all out and putting in a new distribution board, and separate battery charger and inverter (I would like 2.5Kw to power the washing machine) - and then put an IT in rather than GI. I'll see what the engineer says on thursday.

If you plan to spend a lot of time on a landline then a transformer is a good idea. If you are going to run a washing machine off your batteries via an inverter then you ideally need good batteries and a hefty alternator (and good cabling) and it can all get quite expensive, and only adds to the trauma of keeping the batteries charged in winter. However a proper washing machine is a very lovely thing to have on a liveaboard boat.

.............Dave

[Dr Bob]

5 minutes ago, dmr said:

If you plan to spend a lot of time on a landline then a transformer is a good idea. If you are going to run a washing machine off your batteries via an inverter then you ideally need good batteries and a hefty alternator (and good cabling) and it can all get quite expensive, and only adds to the trauma of keeping the batteries charged in winter. However a proper washing machine is a very lovely thing to have on a liveaboard boat.

.............Dave

We normally only use 80Ahrs overnight from a 660Ahrs bank and run the washing machine when the engine is running so the batteries are in reasonable shape. With the 2KW inverter, the washing machine trips at anything over a cold wash so we feed the machine with hot water (in the door - and via the soap dish). A 2.5KW inverter would just make this a little easier. With it being winter now, we are spending 2-3 days in the marina on shore power then out for a week. During the winter, once a month we are off the boat for a week and leave it on shore power in the marina.

[dmr]

20 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

We normally only use 80Ahrs overnight from a 660Ahrs bank and run the washing machine when the engine is running so the batteries are in reasonable shape. With the 2KW inverter, the washing machine trips at anything over a cold wash so we feed the machine with hot water (in the door - and via the soap dish). A 2.5KW inverter would just make this a little easier. With it being winter now, we are spending 2-3 days in the marina on shore power then out for a week. During the winter, once a month we are off the boat for a week and leave it on shore power in the marina.

Running the washing machines heater off the boat supply will make things a whole lot more convenient but will up the electrical requirements substantially.

I reckon ours is probably a 2kW heater and estimate it takes about half an hour to heat the water. I know this because the exhaust note is so much heavier when I am driving the boat!!! These are very rough estimates but does suggest that you will be taking 200 amps and 100 amp-hours during the heat cycle. Some of this will come from the alternator but it will almost certainly be a net drain, and so a half hour when you are draining rather than charging the batteries, so extending your daily battery charging engine run by quite a bit.

We are lucky in that we have the mighty TravelPower so the washing machine and battery charging are totally separate, though a hefty load on the engine. I doubt that a retro fit of a TravelPower would be cost effective.

...............Dave

[BruceinSanity]

4 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

We normally only use 80Ahrs overnight from a 660Ahrs bank and run the washing machine when the engine is running so the batteries are in reasonable shape. With the 2KW inverter, the washing machine trips at anything over a cold wash so we feed the machine with hot water (in the door - and via the soap dish). A 2.5KW inverter would just make this a little easier. With it being winter now, we are spending 2-3 days in the marina on shore power then out for a week. During the winter, once a month we are off the boat for a week and leave it on shore power in the marina.

We run a Zanussi compact machine off the standard 175A Iskra on the Beta 43 through a Mastervolt Mass Combi 2.5kVA inverter and just avoid battery drain when it's on heat. Voltage drops to around 13.5 but there's still a few amps going into the battery bank. But we still preload the machine with hot water because I don't want to burn out the alternator running it a full output for between ten and twenty minutes regularly.

[Dr Bob]

57 minutes ago, BruceinSanity said:

We run a Zanussi compact machine off the standard 175A Iskra on the Beta 43 through a Mastervolt Mass Combi 2.5kVA inverter and just avoid battery drain when it's on heat. Voltage drops to around 13.5 but there's still a few amps going into the battery bank. But we still preload the machine with hot water because I don't want to burn out the alternator running it a full output for between ten and twenty minutes regularly.

Dave and Bruce, yes I guess the best way is to use the boat hot water. I will have to plumb it in so I can switch from cold - hot - cold feed. Thanks for the input