Merged LiFeYPO4 1000Ah Winston prismatic cells and all electric galley...

[CatNewBee]

There is another advantage having two identical engines, you need most spares only once. Having different engines means more spares. You need all the stuff for the diesel plus some spares for the electric setup, like spare fuses, power regulator, switches etc.

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

OK, got your point.

Been sailing for 6 months the Med...

These are all very practical issues and points from everyday living aboard in different conditions.

THANKS!

[CaptainRivet]

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and give feedback.
Med and greece area is where I regularly charter and sail for a several weeks a year. They normally give their boats on with skipper and well equipped boats on owner level. But I get it without one. So I can confirm what you stated. Especially Croatia got horrendously expensive. Have a deal with 2 charter companies when someone cancels short term I get call and when I can make it work I pay whatever boat it is for 500Euro per week. So additional to the normal planned trips a lot short term ones whenever it fits my schedule.

How did you setup your solar panels, in series or parallel? Do you have the big 365W panels on the davits, sticking out as much as possible over the stern. So you get as much surface as possible not in any way covered by the boom. You should be able to stick 3-4 fat 365W there. The ones on the Bimini are mostly useless when on way.Do you have a win Gen? Delivers not much but on long passages it covers the fridge, freezer and plotters.

Some valid points I need to check.
Max. speed with one engine. Good it has the 18hp and not the 10hp engines, so one should make it but I will check today.
Additional spare for emotor, true but not that much additional and electric yachting is supplying automatically a 2nd set of all electric components with the order.

[CatNewBee]

I have 5 residential panels behind the cockpit and about 10cm higher than the roof, the size of a panel is 1.05 x 1.55, so the total area covered is 5.25m x 1.55m, I have the BenQ 96 cell / 60V 330Wp panels, parallel and isolated by string diodes, maximum current is around 6A per panel, nominal 1650Wp in total.

I use a single controller Victron MPPT SmartSolar 150/100, it is sufficient and very rarely gets to the current limiter of 100A.

The solar arc gives great shade and rain protection to the cockpit, the mounting frame is a little larger and provides additional handholds when walking to the deck. It covers maybe 30% of the dinghy davits aft.

No wind generators on board (inefficient, dangerous, noisy and another source of shade for the panels)

[fxykty]

Hey CNB, earlier you mentioned that you’ve got rid of the microwave since weren’t using it. What do you use for an oven? We’d like to get rid of propane and thought the go-to oven is a convection microwave.

BTW, loving this thread. I’m inspired to DIY too!

[jmh2002]

I think CNB stated earlier that it is a Neff convection oven.

And in another couple of threads he gave a link to the model:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2707251

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Neff CCR1522N

https://www.neff-home.com/de/produkt...efen/C15CR22N0

https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_no...kofen+ccr1522n

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2942751

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

https://www.neff-home.com/de/produkt...enscompactovenAttachment 196935

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Hey CNB, earlier you mentioned that you’ve got rid of the microwave since weren’t using it. What do you use for an oven? We’d like to get rid of propane and thought the go-to oven is a convection microwave.

BTW, loving this thread. I’m inspired to DIY too!

if you wann rebuild the kitchen then you can go with the 60cm wide Neff conduction top or any other standard kitchen convection oven.


The gimbal or standard oven on a boat is normally 50cm, so if you wanna stay in that size I can highly recommend the Panasonic NN-CS894 which is a microwave, steamer and convection oven combi. Fits perfect and as you can see in the review below the oven room goes over the whole width as electronic part is on the bottom and rear so you can really fit a good 1,5kg of roastbeef in. just put it 20 degrees higher then it shows or use an external meat thermo (thats what I do) to correct the temp and that works like a charm. An "illness" of all these small ones that temp shown doesn't fit and thats why some test say the performance is poor. But it isn't, just need to adapt the temp a bit...they have less insulation so outside temp effects them more then the standard build in ones which is the reason for the deviation.

Not cheap (still half of the cost of the NEFF) but very good choice which your government will like

https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/home...894-pictures#0


additional advantage of the Panasonic it only needs max 1000W while the Neef (and most other standard kitchen oven) between 2500 and 3200W. So a 1500W inverter will do and this also works with a bit a smaller battery bank then CatNewBee has.


I have this Panasonic running since 5 years like a charm too but its not avaliable any more (if you get that exakt model used a good one too, follow up model sucks as they made all worse)
https://www.panasonic.com/ch/de/cons...nn-cs598s.html
I this breaks I will get the above 894 too, friends have and love it.

[dooleedooroo]

Need advises about adding the lithium bank to the new catamaran. Since it is new boat, I would like to add lithium bank with minimum change to the existing system. Current system has 600amp AGM. Here are some basic idea. Appreciated the comments whether it make sense or any better option available. This is for liveaboard.
1. Adding 700amp Lithium bank (Assuming 1000amp usable capacity is enough for everything including watermaker/washing machine/aircon. Aircon use expecting 1-2 hours a day at night for dry up the boat.
2. 24V bank instead of 12V bank for efficiency and wire size.
3. 300W x4 big panel and 100w walk on ones here and there. Make 1500W total
4. Existing AGM will support all DC use. Lithium will support mainly AC(aircon, watermaker, washing machine)
5. AGM, mainly charged from alternators. Lithium mainly charged from solar. Expect to run engine, one hours a day average even at anchor.
6. Currently 2000W multiplus is connected to AGM. Add another 24V multiplus 3000W at the lithium.
7. Idea is if Lithium bank is low in rainy days, run the engine to charge AGM and also make AC using 2000W multiplus inverter and connect to lithium side of multiplus AC in and charge the Lithium as well. Basically alternator DC output convert to AC and convert back to 24V dc to charge lithium bank. Reverse the process if Lithium is full and still lots of sun. Have not seen anybody doing this. I wonder whether this make sense. It will loose some power but this kind of charging happens not that often.
8. In the future, planning to change one of the engine alternator to high power one which can charge 24V lithium bank.
9. Location of the lithium bank, I wonder where is the best location. Cockpit locker, inside rounge under the sofa, stern side cabin under the bed. Cockpit locker looks easy to reach both from electric panel and engine alternator. It is outdoor but shaded. Wonder this location is good enough.

[john61ct]

Better to start a new thread, keep this more useful as specific to CNB's install

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Hey CNB, earlier you mentioned that you’ve got rid of the microwave since weren’t using it. What do you use for an oven? We’d like to get rid of propane and thought the go-to oven is a convection microwave.

BTW, loving this thread. I’m inspired to DIY too!

As we never use a microwave at home, we opted out an oven with integrated one, the ovens we looked at with microwave option were smaller inside and more complicated to clean (rotation plate etc...)

We also wanted a touch control board, that is easier to clean with no knobs. The Neff came closest to our feature list. It bakes great cakes, bread and anything else, has built in timer, digital temperature settings and various programs. Regarding energy, he has nominal 3500W, but only if you chose upper and lower heat and turbo boost function to heat up. Otherwise it is not too energy consuming.

It is very well insolated, barely gets warm on the outside, great to integrate into furniture.

[dooleedooroo]

Moved to New Thread --->
Brand New Catamaran, Lithium Bank addition

[dooleedooroo]

Sorry, I keep messing up this thread. I moved #368 and start new thread for John61ct's advise.

[dooleedooroo]

CNB, I remember you posted your Aircon usage. This thread became so long since then, I cannot find it any more. How was your last summer in Med. I much aircon(btu and hrs/per day) do you think you need anchoring in med in summer time. Not just for comfort but also for humidity and mold issues. And was your solar/lithium supply met the demand?

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by dooleedooroo

CNB, I remember you posted your Aircon usage. This thread became so long since then, I cannot find it any more. How was your last summer in Med. I much aircon(btu and hrs/per day) do you think you need anchoring in med in summer time. Not just for comfort but also for humidity and mold issues. And was your solar/lithium supply met the demand?

We don't used the A/C at all last summer, it was warm, but we had always a nice breeze at anchor and humidity was never an issue.

The one intake pump for the A/C on port was broken all summer long anyway, I had a spare part on board all the time, but did not need it during the summer. Fixed it recently in the marina for the winter. We use the A/C now for heating and dehumidification from time to time because of some rainy days and storms.

We bought also a dehumidifier, that makes an excellent job.

Regarding our energy demand, we lived on solar except for two days where we run the generator for 2 hours each because of bad weather and passage making, we wanted to make water, wash clothes and charge the battery. It was not really necessary, we had been around 50% SOC, but I wanted a full battery just in case and the genny needed some lubing.

Some statistics:
In total between last winter when we entered the marina and this one we

- Sailed 3377 nm in 4 countries (SLO, CRO, I, GR)
- motored 252h port and 180h sb engine
- run the watermaker on 201h making 20.1 m3 water
- run the generator for 23h (heating, maintenance)
- battery provided from the beginning to now 92716Ah
- 1226kWh discharged
- 40 cycles / 60 synchronizations (full charges)
- Solar energy used this year was 1127kWh

During the last two weeks we motored a lot to get to the marina in time, we had booked some flights upfront and the weather was not in our favor.

[YARGESOL]

Hi,CatNewBee! Do you know, how much Your induction cooktop eats per day?
I'm in the process of rebuilt and,since ev-power has 1000Ah fully booked for 1/2 year, I hesitating - to take 700Ah, or parallel them to 1400Ah.
There are some warnings on the web & here for the large size cells (more than 200Ah not reccomended for marine use) . Your own experiance showes opposite ?