Question For You Guys Who Made The LiFePo4 Switch

I’m heading in the direction of a single Battleborn GC3 (81 lbs) LIFePO battery with 270 amp hours and will probably step up for flexible solar panels on the wheelhouse roof. Meanwhile, I’m not a fan of gensets. IF a boat comes into the bay where I’m anchored and fires up a genset, I pull anchor and I’m out of there. Same when I’m in my camper in the parking lot of a ski area and an RV pulls up next to me and busts the same genset move. I know they are handy and serve a purpose. I just don’t want to deal with mine or someone else’s
 
sly_karma said:
LiFePO4 are certainly lighter, like half the weight of comparable Ah flooded. I just replaced the AGMs from our cabin solar system with Lifepo this past spring, and very much appreciated the lower weight on the multi-step moves between the various land and marine travel modes. Just make sure you have the appropriate charge controller for your new batteries, lead acid units have a different charging curve and their controller won't get you past about half capacity if connected to Lifepo.
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Don’t miss understanding this post folks. It’s not just plug and play with Lifepo4… you can easily fry alternators without the proper regulator. I am no electrician but I have installed a 500 amp hour system on my sailboat and have done my homework..
 
Sharphooks said:
Very helpful comments, Gentlemen. Sir Reel: those two G31 AGM dual purpose start batteries were installed due to the power draw of the Optimus electro servo-motors that steer the boat. Last summer it was not uncommon for me to troll for 15 hours off the kicker motor with the main outboards powered off For days on end.

As those servo motors draw power from the G31 start batteries I need to have those back-up Amp hours for when the Suzuki alternators are quiet. In my last boat ( A pair of G24 flooded single purpose starters) I saw how quick those servo motors can draw down voltage
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If it was me I would increase house size and decrease start size and run everything off house. Start for start only.
Put 2 or 4 of these on your roof along with Victron Bluetooth controllers and you will get all your charge and battery info on your phone.

The solar panels are 24 volts. The controller half’s that to 12 volts but at the same time doubles the current.
These are my panels on a sunny day. Putting 18.6 amps combined into the house batteries. Plus they keep my voltage up to 14 volts for the electronics.
All in all very happy with my whole battery and solar panel setup

IMG_6417.jpeg
 
Sharphooks said:
I’m heading in the direction of a single Battleborn GC3 (81 lbs) LIFePO battery with 270 amp hours and will probably step up for flexible solar panels on the wheelhouse roof. Meanwhile, I’m not a fan of gensets. IF a boat comes into the bay where I’m anchored and fires up a genset, I pull anchor and I’m out of there. Same when I’m in my camper in the parking lot of a ski area and an RV pulls up next to me and busts the same genset move. I know they are handy and serve a purpose. I just don’t want to deal with mine or someone else’s
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I bring a little Honda when I'm on extended trips, just in case the sun doesn't keep up with things. I'll usually pick a day where we're headed to a beach and I'll anchor away from other boats and let the thing go while I'm away. This only happens on a very rare occasion, but it's nice to have the backup when needed.
 
I know there are boaters using LIFePO for starter batteries. I’ll stick with my AGM’s (despite the weight). And I’m stuck with G31’s: I looked long and hard to find suitable start batteries in G24 or G27 that had both sufficient 1,000 CCA’s + the required amp hours to handle the draw of my twin Optimus electro-servo motors that steer the Suzukis + the trolling motor. That’s how I ended up with the G31 Dual Purpose.

Yes, they’re heavy at 71 lbs each
 
beemer said:
Don’t miss understanding this post folks. It’s not just plug and play with Lifepo4… you can easily fry alternators without the proper regulator. I am no electrician but I have installed a 500 amp hour system on my sailboat and have done my homework..
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thats correct. it can suck too much current and overload/overheat your alternator or cut off abruptly and fry it that way. sterling APDs are pretty cheap though.
 
If you can get 10-20 amps on solar and have a completely separate charging system, then thats the way to go. We are getting ready to do this ourselves on the big boat. The reason is gennys are a pain in the butt and your only as good as your onboard charger. In most cases people have 10 amp chargers. To get a proper charger that will do up to 20 amps gets real spendy, and gennys are also. Look into what Renogy has to offer. They have 200 watt flexable panels that so far, do exactly what they claim.
 
ship happens said:
If you can get 10-20 amps on solar and have a completely separate charging system, then thats the way to go. We are getting ready to do this ourselves on the big boat. The reason is gennys are a pain in the butt and your only as good as your onboard charger. In most cases people have 10 amp chargers. To get a proper charger that will do up to 20 amps gets real spendy, and gennys are also. Look into what Renogy has to offer. They have 200 watt flexable panels that so far, do exactly what they claim.
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The cool thing about solar is it charges from sun up to sun down. Obviously starting low and peaking mid-day and less on cloudy days.
Most cruising days I am back to 100% by 10am. Plus AGM batteries can charge up to 5 times faster than flooded and also get to 100% quicker than flooded.
 
Yo Ship happens—— your comments are well noted and well informed about the separate charging system

This from the guy who built my boat who I’m hoping will do the LiFePo conversion:

QUOTE

Solar Array

If it was me and I didn’t really plan on having a dingy on the roof most of the time I would put two flexible panels on the roof that would cover a lot of it. These would be two Renogy 200 watt panels and are about $330. Ea. This would give you a total of 400 watts. I have 250 watts on my boat.

The other option is a single panel that is 22” wide and 62” long on the aft overhang. This panel is about $450. This panel is 160 watts so it would help keep the batteries charged but probably wouldn’t completely charge them if you had a lot on 24 hours a day. The two panels on the main roof should be able to keep up with just about anything depending on what battery option you choose. The solar array would also need a solar controller at around $350.

UNQUOTE
 
Sharphooks said:
Yo Ship happens—— your comments are well noted and well informed about the separate charging system

This from the guy who built my boat who I’m hoping will do the LiFePo conversion:

QUOTE

Solar Array

If it was me and I didn’t really plan on having a dingy on the roof most of the time I would put two flexible panels on the roof that would cover a lot of it. These would be two Renogy 200 watt panels and are about $330. Ea. This would give you a total of 400 watts. I have 250 watts on my boat.

The other option is a single panel that is 22” wide and 62” long on the aft overhang. This panel is about $450. This panel is 160 watts so it would help keep the batteries charged but probably wouldn’t completely charge them if you had a lot on 24 hours a day. The two panels on the main roof should be able to keep up with just about anything depending on what battery option you choose. The solar array would also need a solar controller at around $350.

UNQUOTE
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I have two 100 watt panels and it's not quite enough. You end up getting 130-140 max 90% of the time. They fit nicely on my eyebrow roofso I just rolled with it. 400 watts would be way better. Like, twice as good. ;)
 
One of Sea Sports owners has the flexible solar panels sewn into their dingy cover. They seem pretty happy with it. That’s what I’m thinking of doing. When the dingy isn’t on there I may just tie it to my roof rack with rope, still debating.

You can get a much cheaper solar controller if you want but I’d go Victron. Buy it once and be done.
 
if you want the best solar panels wait a bit and get a CIGS panel. most panels on the market like the sun powers are much heavier and silicon based. The CIGS can be walked on easily and less prone to cracking and are true flexible panels. unfortunately there arent any good players making CIGS panels currently. bougeRV sells some poor quality ones which i would avoid.
 
Thanks for that, Zurk

The guy doing the mod I’m thinking will chose the panels. He built my boat and I’m giving him the option to build out the system based on his choice of materials. It also saves me the headache of moving the boat around ....he’s both the LiFePo mod and the 200 hour maintenance on my Suzukis so I’m letting him call the shots. Thanks again for the panel suggestion, though!.
 
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