Big wind today so we hunkered down. I was going to go over the port hull but, having fallen off the boat yesterday and bruised my back, opted for a lazier activity; fitting the battery monitor.
The battery monitor is a big step up from a voltmeter / ammeter. A shunt is connected to the common negative of the house battery bank. This, essentially, counts electrons in and out. That data, along with knowledge of the bank's capacity and characteristics, lets the smarts in the monitor estimate state of charge and time to discharge. Installation was quite easy, the lengthiest bit being running a cable from the wind / solar charger off the battery itself to the common measuring point (otherwise this input would not have been measured).
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| Empty battery - that's a worry. |
Now we are better able to tell where all the power is going, and what is good at replacing it. This should help us to better manage our power and prioritise upgrades - like replacing with LEDs.
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| Under charge and, with a current like that, the engine must be running. |
No fishing today 😀
Location
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| Cid Harbour |
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