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11. Batteries
Keeping your house batteries charged is essential to ensuring your 12volt systems will
work. Fridges, lights, fans, stereos, and Navigation instruments are some of the most
important ones and of course using them draws power from your house batteries. If
you conserve energy, you will not need to charge as often. If something is not being
used, then turn it off. We often explain that 12-volt power is like water; you need to
replace what you use. You can recharge your batteries with the auxiliary engine(s) or
your 110-volt battery charger when running the generator or on shore power.
Engines: Motoring to a destination will automatically charge your batteries. When
anchored or moored you can run your engine(s) in neutral at 1400 RPMs to charge
your batteries.
Using the 110volt charger via generator or shore power will charge your batteries; Just
check that the battery charger is turned on as this is not completely automatic. And
check that you see your house battery has an elevated charge level, 13 volt or more
whilst charging.
Note: Do Not try to run the 110-volt charger via the inverter. This will only waste
energy. You are essentially using the batteries to charge themselves which will not
work.
The best thing to do is check your batteries often. If they get to 12.2 volts, then it is
time to recharge your batteries. At 12.2 volts it should take about 1.5 hours of
charging to get them back to a good charge. It is important that you recharge the
batteries completely every day. This may take 2 or 3 charges per day. But you can
break this up into more charges for shorter periods of time. Once you think you have
charged enough or you just want to go for a sail, turn off the charging system. Wait
about 15 minutes and then check the voltage of your house battery. A fully charged
battery should come to rest around 12.8 volts. If the batteries do not get to this level,
then they need more charging. Please note that you will see elevated voltage readings
when charging and just after charging. The latter is why you should wait 15 minutes
before checking your voltage after charging.
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Batteries have a limit to how much they can store. Once your batteries have
reached their full charge, they will not hold any more. This is a common
misperception. Motoring 3 hours in the morning will put a good charge on the
batteries, but you will still need to charge your batteries that afternoon or
evening.
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Fridges and freezers will stop working if the batteries get low. Keep drinks in
a deck cooler on ice. The less you open the fridge the less energy it will use
and the colder your food will stay. Make sure your fridge door is 100% shut.
•
Turn off the inverter when you are not using it.
Nauti Dog's house battery bank is isolated from the engine start battery and the house
batteries have a capacity of 430Ahrs
The batteries are in the starboard engine compartment. They do not require any
checks whilst on charter.
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