This was the original instrument setup.

New setup, both chart and windinstrument 
Raymarine Axiom 9"

I changed the original 12" Simrad to a Raymarine 9"

Since it was smaller I made a carbon box (first time playing with carbinfibre). 

Both chartplotters are connected with network and nmea2K so all information i visible on both. 

We have no need for 4 hanginglockers in the boat. so in the two aft cabins I made this to fit smaller items. 

VERY strange that the picture flipped when I uploaded it.. 

The box was baught on Bauhaus, I made a distance under it and made a shelf ontop with a teak front to stop things to fall out. And most important I secured a strap around so the drawers dont fall out when heeld over.

Today I will go look for a carpet to put on the floors - the floors are really cold to walk on..  

I changed the old AGM bank to Lithium bank. 360Ah. 
Works much better than AGM. 
One week is no problem without chargin. 
Old cables - did not want to throw everything out, thats why it looks abit crappy.. 
Two solarpanels, one is mounted 45W and a new 85W will be mounted in the near future. 

We have the traveler infront of the steering wheels - that means no table - we had a loose table last year, did not work out well. So now we made a detatchabe table. 

When not in use. 

Time to dine

When moored but not dining time.. Just for drinks.. 

Next project is to mount our watermaker, we want to mount it under the dinett, infront of the kitchen.

I have started to find a way to pull the electics and watertubes in the existing stringers - tight as h**l.. I have a inspection camera, in the middle of the boat there is a wall where I seem to get stuck, almost a meter from the kitchen kabinet - that is where I will come into the stringers. 

I lifted the floor boards - there are no way to come down to the tubes. Under the floor boards there are about 150 mm of free space if someone needs more storage.. :) 

I needed to drag pipes and cables from the kitchen to the toilet. 

I tried for hours with pipes, different tools to come trough, then I borrowed an inspection camera. 

These type of obsticales is under the stringers on 3 places so it seemed like an impossible mission.. 

After alot of time i found this shortcut. it took me 3 hours to get the first tool to the space under the shower and another 2 hours to fetch it so I could get it out. 

Out of curiosity, where do you stow the table and pedestals when not in use?

Harold

SV Ventus

Hanse 415/314

Boston

You installed a cable from the cabinet under the sink to the space under the shower?

What is the purpose?

Regards,

Peter

Hi, as for now we stow it in the 3:rd cabin. It is a sturdy table - so it is big and heavy. Im thinking of building a rack behind the closet in the 3:rd cabin to have it "standing" against the closet. 

The two white cables run from the kitchen to the electric cabinet - the way to go was trough the shower. 

One are for 220V power to the watermaker. and one is for 12V to the primepump to the watermaker. 

 

I bought second hand winston cells. 8 pcs 180 Ah cells that I combined to two batteries that are in paralell. 1S4 x2 configuration. Some say that you should build them in a 2S4 configuration so you end up with one battery. This seems to work. 

One thing that I have noticed is that when I dont reach full charge the start battery does not get full charge aswell. So last sunday when we were going home the start battery (also for the aft windlass) was completely out of power. I could start the engine but not roll up the windlass. I know that I need to change my start battery, it is 8 years and the former owner neglected most of the boat. But I will probably change so the windlass uses the domestic battery instead of starting battery. 

Overall Im very happy with litium solution. 

If we would have had a 2 cabin layout this would have been a non problem. 

In the space infront of the kitchensink there is a trough hull for seawater in - to the kitchen. This will be used for seawater in to the watermaker. The water shall pass two filters before going into the watermaker. Then the product will go trouh two filter, one mineral and one carbonfilter then to the watertank. 

The filterhousing are quite big. I topmounted them to make minimal impact on the interior. I might figure saw out abit more. I just had a handsaw when sawing them in the archipelago last weekend. 

Here is the prefilters.

What Brand and type of watermaker are you going to use ?

And is that going to fit in the space under the sink ?

 Gerard

Today I was down by the boat to continue the work. 

My inverter is just on the edge of coaping the work. And my stock charger (Sterling) doe not like my new batteries. So what to do? I change them both to a Victron charger/inverter. I have alot of Victron parts - they are reliable and very easy to work with. 

So I started to take the old inverter out and cleaned up by the batterybank - that felt good. 

After I installed the solarpanel and controller I will make the last adjustments, but for now it is better.

 

The waterpipe goes troug to the fron port closter where the inlet of fresh water is. I have an idea to puch the small 8 mm pipe into the big inlet hose. So I dont need to make a new hole in the tank. 

Here it comes out from the closet :) 

I have aprox 2 meters between the seawater in and seawater out. 

I take seawater in under the sink in the kitchen. 

Brine out will go trough hull in the toilet. 

I had an idea to have the brine in the aft of the boat, but the installation of pipes became very complicated. 

When they buld these types of boats they put down all electrics and pipes befoe mounting the innerliner - effective mounting solution, but that makes after mounting equipment very complicated and time cinsuming. :)

What type of BMS are you using? I saw that you have the BP230 but that will only take undervoltage on the whole pack. I also think you should consider turning your batteries to have the terminals pointing up. I just installed 400 Ah Winston in my h400. I made a slot in the bottom of the original battery compartment and built a new box for my 4 cells.

Thanks, good idea! I will check that - after I finished my WM installation :) bad idea to tear the whole boat apart weeks before the vacation :) 

Today I got some hours to work on the watermaker. My thaught is to have it down here. 

Im thinking it might be better to have it behind the backrest - but I dont think the space is enough. 

3-4 cm of free space. Perhaps I will open a hole so I can see the display (if needed). 

Some more fittings then I think I have all I need. 

I want to have all controls on one place. 

Since I will have 220V and water in the same compartment - I put a cover over the back of the switches.

When the cover is on and the cusions is where they shall be it looks quite ok. 

A new trough hull for the brine. 

Watermaker on its place, the pipes goues trugh the wall so they stay at the same place. 

Filter tool set on its new place. 

Im missing 2 screw connectors and one connector then I can start the watermaker and see if it runs.. :) 

Im using SMART BMS 123. 

I have heard both good and bad about it, mostly good. Rumors say that Victron is using it in their batteries. 

https://avdhoeff.home.xs4all.nl/zeilen_bestanden/LiFePO4-accus-in-zeiljachten.pdf" rel="nofollow - https://avdhoeff.home.xs4all.nl/zeilen_bestanden/LiFePO4-accu%27s-in-zeiljachten.pdf

LiFe04 cells are not that simple as you would think. but if you take care of the installation thery are the top !!

The bigest concern is the alternator - that it will break die to the lack of inner resistance in the lifepo cells compared to a lead battery. 

As long as the alternator works it will not deliver higher current than 13,9 V I think it is - that is below what hurts the cells. And as I have a low voltage protect that is not a concern either. 

 

If or when the original alternator breaks a change to a Balmar alternator with their 614 regulator is a very interresting option. At that time is can be interresting to start using a one bank system. 

When I have looked at the companies in Sweden that market and sell complete lifepo system I find my system having more security features than they have so Im pretty confident that this will work.

I have used this setup for 3 years without any problems - from the start i used standard batterycharger when I needed to charge (I checked the battery cykle so it did not overcharge). Later this week the new Victron charger/inverter will arrive - it has a program for Litium batteries.  

Here is what I looked at.

http://www.balmar.net/product/regulators/regulator-mc-614-h/" rel="nofollow - http://www.balmar.net/product/regulators/regulator-mc-614-h/  

This watermaker needs freshwater in so it cal flush itself before and after making water. 

I wanted to control if that connection is on or off. So I threw out the old faucet. 

Replaced it with one that has dishwasher tap. 

Under the sink. 

Fittings for rawwater inlet, share the same inlet as seawater to the sink. 

I did not want to make a new hole in the tank so I made a small hole in the inlet for freshwater. The hose is 8 mm, the hole is 7 mm so pretty tight. I will make som extra to secure it. 

All that is left is the electricity to power it all up. Im waiting for my new inverter. 

First of it started to leak everywhere. After a short period of time it was solved. Then the watermaker did not want to start the pump. After some measuring I found one cable that had slipped (everything is too tight with short cables.). 

I put tape around it som it would not scratch. 

Tup view with the parts assembled. It takes about 15 sek to screw it on. 

These are the parts - and the padlock ofcourse.. Simple quick and easy. 

We mostly only lock it when we are not at the boat, when we are at the boat we place it in a drawer. For now it feels easy. I will get back after the summer. 

You’ve obviously done a great deal of hard work and many thanks for sharing it.  I seriously considered Lithium batteries myself for a while but reluctantly considered that they weren’t worth the cost, especially as it seems they can be completely wrecked by a single mis-charge.  

https://marinehowto.com/lifepo4-batteries-on-boats/" rel="nofollow -  https://marinehowto.com/lifepo4-batteries-on-boats/

I certainly don’t want to sound disrespectful of your efforts or your abilities; I’m no electrical engineer and of course much of the above is opinion and theory.  Given its obvious that there’s at least a couple of others who’re considering Lithiums as well, it would be very useful if you’d let us know how you get on with them in actual service over a season or two. 

Good luck with everything and thanks again for sharing.

No problem, asking questions is not being disrespecful :)

This is my 4:th summer with my batteries. Now I have all the right equipment, prior to this summer I did not have any special equipment. 

I charge them with my standard alternator. And with a modern Victron charger - with Litium settings.

For me it works like a charm. I have friends that have exactly the samt thaughts as you have. I also have a friend who made a simple installation with 360 A winston cells. He made a one bank system. the only thing he has is a Low volt cut of. He is in his 5:th season with this installation - works like a charm. 

If my bank dies for some reason I will write about it here - I have no thaughts of hiding my bad ideas from you - as I dont hide any idea that might be good :) 

People kill lead batteries aswell as lifepo4 batteries - missuse kills even the best products. :) 

Thank you for posting your experiences.  Very helpful.  I am about to send my 3 x 120Ah AGMs to the recycling yard and replace them with 600Ah of LiPos.  The notion of only being able to use 180AH out of 360 AH did not sit well with me...especially when the marina power was cut and my fridge drained and killed the agm bank.  Im ditching the Sterling for a new Victron 3000W charger inverter. Adding some DCDC. and battery smarts.  Its not something I can do alone.  Im getting professional advice with design and install. 

As for where to sit the inverter.  Im planning on mounting it in the place where the Sterling charger currently sits. Im advised I will no longer need the galvanic isolator, so once they are both gone, the 275mm x 525mm victron will find a nice home.  

Ill post some pics as I do the job.