Best Battery Location

Ahoy all owners,

I have 6 deep cycle batteries in my engine room. Nigel Calder says every 10 degrees above 68 F shortens the battery life by almost HALF ! So where is everyone locating their batteries?
I have some room under the galley, but not enough for all six.
Roy B.
S/V Serenade, W42#45

We have three 8Ds under the galley and a fourth under the port settee (950Ah total for the house). The only battery in our engine room is the start battery. Consider how moving all that weight will affect your trim. When we moved ours we purposely moved them all toward the port side to correct a starboard list. Worked great!

Scott
Joie de Vivre
#88

Hi Roy
Ocean Dove had 8-6volt lead acid Golf cart batteries split between two location, 4 batteries under the Nav station seat (original location) and 4 in the aft cabin storage locker just ahead of the steering quadrant. All battery were connected with 00 wire into one large bank with a switch in the engine room. If they were AGM or GEL batteries I would leave them there. Lead acid batteries give of hydrogen and other gases went they are chargering and should not be placed within the accommodations area. If you have AGM or GEL batteries this is not an issue and they can be mounted anywhere.
I moved 6 golf batteries into 3 Blue Seas 4021 Dual Golf Cart battery boxes in the engine room port side. This opened up the Nav seat for storage of tools and spares and storage area in the aft cabin.
I like Lead Acid Batteries (old School) They are cheap, easy to find, give more Amp-hours for there size, last long time, and take a lot of abuse i.e. (under and over charging). Lead acid batteries do require more upkeep like watering but this forces you to be more aware of your batteries to check and clean the electrical connection, water level and testing the electrolyte density with a hydrometer to determine the charge and health of the batteries. (A marine engineer loves to play with his toy)
I had not heard about the temperature affecting the batteries. My battery chargering system monitors the battery temperature and may reduce some of this problem when charging.
I like my batteries in the engine room. Ocean Dove does not have a generator so there is lots of room and they are easy to access for maintenance.
Just my opinion.

Remember an opinion is just an opinion; it’s healthy to have one.

Regards
Derek and Darlene
Ocean Dove #328

Hi All

Shamal has two banks of 4 x 12v AGM. Four are in a stainless steel frame under the galley. This forces out the water heater (now in the engine room). Watch out that your heavy batteries are not suspended above your depth sounder.

The second bank is divided into two port and two starboard under the aft cabin bed.

When it comes time to replace them, we probably will down size and remove the aft bank. That will still leave 1000 Ah. We really like the AGM's, rapid charge and rapid discharge. You need good charging systems though.

Regards

David and Hallie

Shamal W42#321

IMHO Batteries on a boat need to be low down and strapped down. These things are heavy and if they decide to move about it seldom ends well.

Usually boxes were constructed out of plywood / fiberglass or Roto-molded plastic and these were used to contain the battery. The logic was that any spilled battery acid would be contained by the box.

While I haven't discounted using wet cell technology (e.g. Golf Cart 6V) I am more likely to install AGM batteries. I happen to believe that sealed, maintenance free batteries will be the standard in the future. For that reason I am installing a battery "tray" whose sole purpose is to secure the battery bank in place.



The yellow piece of cardboard is a generic battery outline whose dimensions are the max length of a Group 31 and the max width of a Trojan 6V. The tray can a accommodate 8 group 31 AGM batteries for a total of 840AH.

The spaces in between will be chocked with starboard pieces and the batteries held down by wooden battens bolted down to the edge of the tray with threaded bar.



This is the bracing on the bottom of the tray. It will be supported on wooden beams and bolted into the lead keel. It will also be braced fore and aft and side to side to prevent movement.

Originally posted on my blog;
theincrediblehull.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the good advice. I'm still evaluating all the options, and all the stuff I have to re-locate when (and If) I move some of the batteries out of the engine room. Appreciate the good pictures.

Roy B
Serenade